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Rossby Waves TOPEX/Poseidon
This image shows three scene
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4/12/96
| Date |
4/12/96 |
| Description |
This image shows three scenes taken from an animation created by TOPEX/Poseidon data of the ocean. The scenes show large-scale ocean waves with wavelengths of hundreds of kilometers, called Rossby waves. These waves carry a "memory" of weather changes that have happened at distant locations over the ocean. Scientists at Oregon State University are using the satellite data to track these waves as they move through the open ocean and have determined that at mid-latitudes the Rossby waves are moving two to three times faster than the existing theory predicts. Because Rossby waves can alter currents and their corresponding sea surface temperatures, the waves influence the way the oceans release heat to the atmosphere and, thus, are able to affect weather patterns. Precise information about how fast the waves travel may help forecasters improve their ability to predict the effects of El Nino events on weather patterns years in advance. The colors show variations in sea level in the Pacific Ocean. White and red indicate higher than average levels, while purple and magenta show lower than average levels. These scenes were taken by TOPEX/Poseidon in April, July and December 1993. The two small black circles in the April image show an area of warm water, called a Kelvin wave, moving along the equator toward the coast of the Americas. When this area of high sea level meets the coast, it creates two coastal waves, one traveling northward and the other traveling southward along the American coast. As these waves move poleward, Rossby waves "peel off" the coast and travel west. The solid lines show the crests of the waves (high sea level), while the dashed lines show wave troughs. TOPEX/Poseidon, a joint program of NASA and the Centre Nationale d'Etudes Spatiales, the French space agency, uses a radar altimeter to precisely measure sea-surface height. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the U.S. portion of the TOPEX/Poseidon mission for NASA's Office of Mission to Planet Earth. ##### |
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Voyager 2
This picture of Neptune was
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4/2/90
| Date |
4/2/90 |
| Description |
This picture of Neptune was produced from the last whole planet images taken through the green and orange filters on the Voyager 2 narrow angle camera. The images were taken at a range of 4.4 million miles from the planet, 4 days and 20 hours before closest approach. The picture shows the Great Dark Spot and its companion bright smudge, on the west limb the fast moving bright feature called Scooter and the little dark spot are visible. These clouds were seen to persist for as long as Voyager's cameras could resolve them. North of these, a bright cloud band similar to the south polar streak may be seen. The Voyager Mission is conducted by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications. |
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This computer graphics frame
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6/16/05
| Date |
6/16/05 |
| Description |
This computer graphics frame simulates the Pluto Fast Flyby spacecraft's encounter of the solar system's most distant planet. Pluto is the lower body, whereas its moon, Charon, is the closer body at top. Attached to the spacecraft's hexagonal composite structure are spherical propulsion tanks and, at bottom, a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) to provide power at the great distance from the sun. At the very end of the RTG assembly is a set of attitude-control thrusters. The dish at upper right is the spacecraft's high-gain antenna used for contact with Earth. Science instruments are located inside the spacecraft bus, on the lefthand side of the bus are louvers used to vent heat and maintain the bus's internal temperature. This rendering shows the spacecraft's 1993 configuration. Under development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for a launch in 2000 or 2001, the spacecraft would pass within about 15,000 kilometers (9,300 miles) of Pluto and Charon between the years 2007 and 2010. |
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Multi-angle Images of Hudson
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At left is a true-color imag
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| Description |
At left is a true-color image from the downward-looking (nadir) camera on the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite. The false-color image at right is a composite of red band data taken by the MISR forward 45.6-degree, nadir, and aftward 45.6-degree cameras, displayed in blue, green, and red colors, respectively. Color variations in the left image highlight spectral (true-color) differences, whereas those in the right image highlight differences in angular reflectance properties. The purple areas in the right image are low cloud, and light blue at the edge of the bay is due to increased forward scattering by the fast (smooth) ice. The orange areas are rougher ice, which scatters more light in the backward direction. This example illustrates how multi-angle viewing can distinguish physical structures and textures. Data for all channels are presented in a Space Oblique Mercator map projection to facilitate their co- registration. The images are about 400 km (250 miles) wide with a spatial resolution of about 275 meters (300 yards). North is toward the top. MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology. ##### |
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Nine Frames as Jupiter Turns
This sequence of nine true-c
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11/6/00
| Date |
11/6/00 |
| Description |
This sequence of nine true-color, narrow-angle images shows the varying appearance of Jupiter as it rotated through more than a complete 360-degree turn. The smallest features seen in this sequence are no bigger than about 380 kilometers (about 236 miles). Rotating more than twice as fast as Earth, Jupiter completes one rotation in about 10 hours. These images were taken on Oct. 22 and 23, 2000. From image to image (proceeding left to right across each row and then down to the next row), cloud features on Jupiter move from left to right before disappearing over the edge onto the nightside of the planet. The most obvious Jovian feature is the Great Red Spot, which can be seen moving onto the dayside in the third frame (below and to the left of the center of the planet). In the fourth frame, taken about 1 hour and 40 minutes later, the Great Red Spot has been carried by the planet's rotation to the east and does not appear again until the final frame, which was taken one complete rotation after the third frame. Unlike weather systems on Earth, which change markedly from day to day, large cloud systems in Jupiter's colder, thicker atmosphere are long-lived, so the two frames taken one rotation apart have a very similar appearance. However, when this sequence of images is eventually animated, strong winds blowing eastward at some latitudes and westward at other latitudes will be readily apparent. The results of such differential motions can be seen even in the still frames shown here. For example, the clouds of the Great Red Spot rotate counterclockwise. The strong westward winds northeast of the Great Red Spot are deflected around the spot and form a wake of turbulent clouds downstream (visible in the fourth image), just as a rock in a rapidly flowing river deflects the fluid around it. The equatorial zone on Jupiter is currently bright white, indicating the presence of clouds much like cirrus clouds on Earth, but made of ammonia instead of water ice. This is very different from Jupiter's appearance 20 years ago, when the equatorial zone was more of a brownish cast similar to the region just to its north. At the northern edge of the equatorial zone, local regions colored a dark grayish-blue are places where the ammonia clouds have cleared allowing a view to deeper levels in Jupiter's atmosphere. Interrupting these relatively clear regions is a series of bright arrow-shaped equatorial plumes. The most obvious one is visible just above and to the right of center in the third and ninth frames. These plumes resemble the `anvil' clouds that accompany common summer thunderstorms on Earth, although the Jovian plumes are much bigger, and their somewhat regular spacing around the planet suggests an association with a planetary-scale wave motion. The southwest-northeast tilt of these plumes suggests that the winds in this region act to help maintain the eastward winds at this latitude. In the dark belt north of the equatorial zone, a turbulent region with a white filamentary cloud is visible in the sixth frame, indicating rapidly changing wind direction. Several white ovals are visible at higher southern latitudes (toward the bottom of the fourth, fifth, and sixth frames, for example). These ovals, like the Great Red Spot, rotate counterclockwise and are similar in some respects to high-pressure systems on Earth. When these images were taken, Cassini was about 3.3 degrees above Jupiter's equatorial plane, and the Sun-Jupiter-spacecraft angle was about 20 degrees. JPL manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPl is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona. ##### |
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Gamma-Ray Burst 050525a
| Title |
Gamma-Ray Burst 050525a |
| Description |
Heat generated from a gamma-ray burst has been detected for the first time by a team of astronomers led by University of Notre Dame physicist Peter Garnavich. Spitzer looked at "GRB 050525a" (named by the date it was discovered, May 25, 2005) with all three of its detectors May 27, just two days after the burst was identified by Swift, another NASA satellite designed to study GRB from gamma-ray wavelengths to visible light. The light from gamma-ray burst afterglows fades quickly, so Spitzer had to move fast to catch the burst before it disappeared from view. Gamma-ray bursts are huge blasts of energy visible across large distances in the universe. Research by the same team in 2003 showed that some gamma-ray bursts come from the death of massive stars in a supernova explosion. The explosion is signaled by a short burst of gamma-rays that are then often accompanied by an afterglow of light, X-rays and radio waves which last for just a few hours to a few days. The spasms of light burn with the brilliance of 10 billion suns as a narrow jet of particles, traveling nearly at the speed of light, runs into slow gas surrounding the star. |
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Galactic Hearts of Glass
| Title |
Galactic Hearts of Glass |
| Description |
This artist's concept shows the violent core of a pair of colliding galaxies and the delicate greenish crystals that are sprinkled throughout the core. The white spots represent a thriving population of stars of all sizes and ages. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope detected more than 20 bright and dusty galactic mergers like the one depicted here, all teeming with the tiny gem-like crystals. When galaxies collide, they trigger the birth of large numbers of massive stars. Astronomers believe these blazing hot stars act like furnaces to produce silicate crystals in the same way that glass is made from sand. The stars probably shed the crystals as they age, and as they blow apart in supernovae explosions. At the same time the crystals are being churned out, they are also being destroyed. Fast-moving particles from supernova blasts easily convert silicates crystals back to their amorphous, or shapeless, form. How is Spitzer seeing the crystals if they are rapidly disappearing? Astronomers say that, for a short period of time at the beginning of galactic mergers, massive stars might be producing silicate crystals faster than they are eliminating them. When our own galaxy merges with the Andromeda galaxy in a few billion years, a similar burst of massive stars and silicate crystals might occur. |
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Exotic World Blisters Under
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| Title |
Exotic World Blisters Under the Sun |
| Description |
This artist's concept shows a Jupiter-like planet soaking up the scorching rays of its nearby "sun." NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope used its heat-seeking infrared eyes to figure out that a gas-giant planet like the one depicted here is two-faced, with one side perpetually in the cold dark, and the other forever blistering under the heat of its star. The illustration portrays how the planet would appear to infrared eyes, showing temperature variations across its surface. The planet, called Upsilon Andromedae b, was first discovered in 1996 around the star Upsilon Andromedae, located 40 light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. This star also has two other planets orbiting farther out. Upsilon Andromedae b is what's known as a "hot-Jupiter" planet, because it is made of gas like our Jovian giant, and it is hot, due to its tight, 4.6-day-long jaunt around its star. The toasty planet orbits at one-sixth the distance of Mercury from our own sun. It travels in a plane that is seen neither edge- nor face-on from our solar system, but somewhere in between. Scientists do not know how fast Upsilon Andromedae b is spinning on its axis, but they believe that it is tidally locked to its star, just as our locked moon forever hides its "dark side" from Earth's view. Spitzer observed Upsilon Andromedae b at five points during the planet's trip around its star. The planet's light levels went up or down, as detected by Spitzer, depending on whether the planet's sunlit or dark side was pointed toward Earth. These data indicate that the temperature difference between the two hemispheres of the planet is about 1,400 degrees Celsius (2,550 degrees Fahrenheit). According to astronomers, this means that the side of the planet that faces the star is always as hot as lava, while the other side could potentially be as cold as ice. Specifically, the hot side of the planet ranges from about 1,400 to 1,650 degrees Celsius (2,550 to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit), and the cold side from about minus 20 to 230 degrees Celsius (minus 4 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit). How can one side always be hot? The atmosphere of the planet must be absorbing and reradiating light fast enough that any heated gas circulating around the planet is cooled off before it reaches the dark side. |
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Stars Can't Spin Out of Cont
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| Title |
Stars Can't Spin Out of Control |
| Description |
This artist's concept shows a dusty planet-forming disk in orbit around a whirling young star. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope found evidence that disks like this one can slow their stars down, which prevents the stars from spinning themselves to death. A developing star is essentially a giant ball of gas that is collapsing onto itself. As it shrinks, it spins faster and faster, like a skater folding in his or her arms. As gravity continues to pull matter inward, the star spins so fast, it starts to flatten out. The same principle applies to the planet Saturn, whose spin has caused it to be slightly squashed or oblate. A forming star can theoretically whip around fast enough to overcome gravity and flatten itself into a state where it can no longer become a full-fledged star. But stars don't spin out of control, possibly because swirling disks of dust slow them down. Such disks can be found orbiting young stars, and are filled with dust that might ultimately stick together to form planets. How does a disk put the brakes on its star? It is thought to yank on the star's magnetic fields (green lines). When a star's magnetic fields pass through a disk, they are thought to get bogged down like a spoon in molasses. This locks a star's rotation to the slower-turning disk, so the star, while continuing to shrink, does not spin faster. Spitzer found evidence for star-slowing disks in a survey of nearly 500 forming stars in the Orion nebula. It observed that slowly spinning stars are five times more likely to host disks than rapidly spinning stars. |
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The Tarantula Nebula
| Title |
The Tarantula Nebula |
| Description |
NASA's new Spitzer Space Telescope, formerly known as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, has captured in stunning detail the spidery filaments and newborn stars of the Tarantula Nebula, a rich star-forming region also known as 30 Doradus. This cloud of glowing dust and gas is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the nearest galaxy to our own Milky Way, and is visible primarily from the Southern Hemisphere. This image of an interstellar cauldron provides a snapshot of the complex physical processes and chemistry that govern the birth -- and death -- of stars. At the heart of the nebula is a compact cluster of stars, known as R136, which contains very massive and young stars. The brightest of these blue supergiant stars are up to 100 times more massive than the Sun, and are at least 100,000 times more luminous. These stars will live fast and die young, at least by astronomical standards, exhausting their nuclear fuel in a few million years. The Spitzer Space Telescope image was obtained with an infrared array camera that is sensitive to invisible infrared light at wavelengths that are about ten times longer than visible light. In this four-color composite, emission at 3.6 microns is depicted in blue, 4.5 microns in green, 5.8 microns in orange, and 8.0 microns in red. The image covers a region that is three-quarters the size of the full moon. The Spitzer observations penetrate the dust clouds throughout the Tarantula to reveal previously hidden sites of star formation. Within the luminescent nebula, many holes are also apparent. These voids are produced by highly energetic winds originating from the massive stars in the central star cluster. The structures at the edges of these voids are particularly interesting. Dense pillars of gas and dust, sculpted by the stellar radiation, denote the birthplace of future generations of stars. The Spitzer image provides information about the composition of the material at the edges of the voids. The surface layers closest to the massive stars are subject to the most intense stellar radiation. Here, the atoms are stripped of their electrons, and the green color of these regions is indicative of the radiation from this highly excited, or 'ionized,' material. The ubiquitous red filaments seen throughout the image reveal the presence of molecular material thought to be rich in hydrocarbons. The Tarantula Nebula is the nearest example of a 'starburst' phenomenon, in which intense episodes of star formation occur on massive scales. Most starbursts, however, are associated with dusty and distant galaxies. Spitzer infrared observations of the Tarantula provide astronomers with an unprecedented view of the lifecycle of massive stars and their vital role in regulating the birth of future stellar and planetary systems. |
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Saturn's Magnetosphere
| Description |
Saturn's Magnetosphere |
| Full Description |
The magnetosphere is an area of space, around a planet, that is controlled by that planet's magnetic field. Saturn is surrounded by a giant magnetic field, lined up with the rotation axis of the planet. This cannot be explained by current theories. Cassini may explain how the puzzling magnetic field of Saturn is generated. This magnetic field may also cause strange features in the rings called 'spokes'. These markings fall across the rings like spokes in a wheel and may be caused by electrically charged particles caught up in the magnetic field, but there are as yet no detailed theories about them. The brief reconnaissance encounters of the Pioneer 11 and the two Voyager spacecraft have provided most of our current information about the structure and dynamics of Saturn's magnetosphere. Here are some things that we do know: * Saturn's 'bow shock', the region point where the solar wind and the planet's magnetic field meet, much like the bow wave of a ship, is between 20 and 35 times Saturn's radius out into space. * The thickness of the bow shock is about 2000 kilometres. * Saturn's internal magnetic field is closely aligned with the planet's axis of rotation (within 1 degree). Saturn's magnetosphere appears to be intermediate in nature to those of Earth and Jupiter. As with Jupiter's magnetosphere, the dayside inner magnetosphere is mostly driven by the fast planetary rotation. However at night, it is expected that the nightside and outer magnetosphere is primarily driven by the solar wind, as is the case on Earth. * There is an electrical current (the 'equatorial ring current') flowing with about 10 000 000 Amps around 600 000 kilometres above Saturn. * Saturn Kilometric Radiation (SKR) is the principal radio emission from Saturn. SKR is believed to be linked to the way electrons in the solar wind interact with the magnetic field at Saturn's poles. Click here for a high resolution version. *Credit:* ESA |
| Date |
June 2, 2004 |
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Saturn's Magnetosphere
| Description |
Saturn's Magnetosphere |
| Full Description |
The magnetosphere is an area of space, around a planet, that is controlled by that planet's magnetic field. Saturn is surrounded by a giant magnetic field, lined up with the rotation axis of the planet. This cannot be explained by current theories. Cassini may explain how the puzzling magnetic field of Saturn is generated. This magnetic field may also cause strange features in the rings called 'spokes'. These markings fall across the rings like spokes in a wheel and may be caused by electrically charged particles caught up in the magnetic field, but there are as yet no detailed theories about them. The brief reconnaissance encounters of the Pioneer 11 and the two Voyager spacecraft have provided most of our current information about the structure and dynamics of Saturn's magnetosphere. Here are some things that we do know: * Saturn's 'bow shock', the region point where the solar wind and the planet's magnetic field meet, much like the bow wave of a ship, is between 20 and 35 times Saturn's radius out into space. * The thickness of the bow shock is about 2000 kilometres. * Saturn's internal magnetic field is closely aligned with the planet's axis of rotation (within 1 degree). Saturn's magnetosphere appears to be intermediate in nature to those of Earth and Jupiter. As with Jupiter's magnetosphere, the dayside inner magnetosphere is mostly driven by the fast planetary rotation. However at night, it is expected that the nightside and outer magnetosphere is primarily driven by the solar wind, as is the case on Earth. * There is an electrical current (the 'equatorial ring current') flowing with about 10 000 000 Amps around 600 000 kilometres above Saturn. * Saturn Kilometric Radiation (SKR) is the principal radio emission from Saturn. SKR is believed to be linked to the way electrons in the solar wind interact with the magnetic field at Saturn's poles. Click here for a high resolution version. *Credit:* ESA |
| Date |
June 2, 2004 |
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Flattened Crescent
| Description |
Flattened Crescent |
| Full Description |
Saturn's low density and fast rotation combine to give it its characteristic oblate shape. The dramatic crescent seen here demonstrates how the ringed planet is much wider at the equator than at the poles. The rings disappear near center into the darkness of the planet's shadow. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 11, 2006 at a distance of approximately 2.9 million kilometers (1.8 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 163 degrees. Image scale is 169 kilometers (105 miles) per pixel. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
August 14, 2006 |
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Northern Bands
| Description |
Northern Bands |
| Full Description |
Titan's fast-rotating atmosphere creates circumpolar bands in the north. The Cassini spacecraft acquired this view of the smoggy moon following a flyby of Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) on March 26, 2007. The image was taken in visible violet light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of approximately 275,000 kilometers (171,000 miles) from Titan. Image scale is 33 kilometers (20 miles) per pixel. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
April 27, 2007 |
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High Altitude Hints
| Description |
High Altitude Hints |
| Full Description |
The Cassini spacecraft catches a glimpse of features that reveal important clues about processes occurring in Titan's atmosphere. The north polar stratosphere exhibits a banded appearance, as fast-moving clouds whirl around the giant moon. The moon's halo -- its detached, high-altitude global haze layer -- is faintly visible here as well. Planet-sized Titan is 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles) across. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of polarized ultraviolet light. The image was obtained on May 15, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 25 degrees. Image scale is 15 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit HYPERLINK "http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov" http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at HYPERLINK "http://ciclops.org" http://ciclops.org . *Credit:* NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
June 1, 2007 |
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New Radiation Belt
| Description |
Here on the Gallery page you can find the very latest images, videos and products from the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, including the spectacular launch, spacecraft assembly and the exciting trip to Saturn. |
| Full Description |
The magnetospheric imaging instrument onboard Cassini recently discovered a new radiation belt just above Saturn's cloud tops, up to the inner edge of the D-ring. Before this discovery, it was not anticipated that such a trapped ion population could be sustained inside the rings. This new radiation belt extends around the planet. It was detected by the emission of fast neutral atoms created as its energetic ions interact with gas clouds in the same region. Saturn's radiation belts have numerous "holes" in them, created as the trapped ions collide with moons, dust ring, and gas. With this discovery, the radiation belts are shown to extend far closer to the planet than their previously known inner boundary, which lies just at the outer edge of the main ring system. The new belts are much smaller and much less energetic than the main radiation belts. The main belts extend from about 139,000 kilometers (86,000 miles) from Saturn's center out to about 362,000 (225,000 miles) and contain particles with energies up to tens of mega-electron volts. The new belt extends less than 6,000 kilometers (about 4,000 miles) in thickness, and is not known to contain particles above about 150 kilo-electron Volts total energy. Shown here is an image taken by the magnetospheric imaging instrument on July 1, 2004, from a distance of 24,000 kilometers (14,900 miles) from Saturn's cloud tops. From blue to red the colors represent increasing intensity of the radiation. The location of the moon Titan in the image is shown, but emissions associated with Titan itself are too weak to stand out in the intense emission from the main radiation belt. The magenta lines represent the magnetic field lines that cross the equator just at the inner edge of the D-Ring, where the new-found radiation belt resides. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument was designed, built and is operated by an international team lead by the Applied Physics Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, Md. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the instrument team's home page, http://sd-www.jhuapl.edu/CASSINI/index.html . Image Credit: NASA/JPL/APL |
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| Description |
Here on the Gallery page you can find the very latest images, videos and products from the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, including the spectacular launch, spacecraft assembly and the exciting trip to Saturn. |
| Full Description |
This sequence of nine true-color, narrow-angle images shows the varying appearance of Jupiter as it rotated through more than a complete 360-degree turn. The smallest features seen in this sequence are no bigger than about 380 kilometers (about 236 miles). Rotating more than twice as fast as Earth, Jupiter completes one rotation in about 10 hours. These images were taken on Oct. 22 and 23, 2000. From image to image (proceeding left to right across each row and then down to the next row), cloud features on Jupiter move from left to right before disappearing over the edge onto the nightside of the planet. The most obvious Jovian feature is the Great Red Spot, which can be seen moving onto the dayside in the third frame (below and to the left of the center of the planet). In the fourth frame, taken about 1 hour and 40 minutes later, the Great Red Spot has been carried by the planet's rotation to the east and does not appear again until the final frame, which was taken one complete rotation after the third frame. Unlike weather systems on Earth, which change markedly from day to day, large cloud systems in Jupiter's colder, thicker atmosphere are long-lived, so the two frames taken one rotation apart have a very similar appearance. However, when this sequence of images is eventually animated, strong winds blowing eastward at some latitudes and westward at other latitudes will be readily apparent. The results of such differential motions can be seen even in the still frames shown here. For example, the clouds of the Great Red Spot rotate counterclockwise. The strong westward winds northeast of the Great Red Spot are deflected around the spot and form a wake of turbulent clouds downstream (visible in the fourth image), just as a rock in a rapidly flowing river deflects the fluid around it. The equatorial zone on Jupiter is currently bright white, indicating the presence of clouds much like cirrus clouds on Earth, but made of ammonia instead of water ice. This is very different from Jupiter's appearance 20 years ago, when the equatorial zone was more of a brownish cast similar to the region just to its north. At the northern edge of the equatorial zone, local regions colored a dark grayish-blue are places where the ammonia clouds have cleared allowing a view to deeper levels in Jupiter's atmosphere. Interrupting these relatively clear regions is a series of bright arrow-shaped equatorial plumes. The most obvious one is visible just above and to the right of center in the third and ninth frames. These plumes resemble the `anvil' clouds that accompany common summer thunderstorms on Earth, although the Jovian plumes are much bigger, and their somewhat regular spacing around the planet suggests an association with a planetary-scale wave motion. The southwest-northeast tilt of these plumes suggests that the winds in this region act to help maintain the eastward winds at this latitude. In the dark belt north of the equatorial zone, a turbulent, region with a white filamentary cloud is visible in the sixth frame, indicating rapidly changing wind direction. Several white ovals are visible at higher southern latitudes (toward the bottom of the fourth, fifth, and sixth frames, for example). These ovals, like the Great Red Spot, rotate counterclockwise and are similar in some respects to high-pressure systems on Earth. When these images were taken, Cassini was about 3.3 degrees above Jupiter's equatorial plane, and the Sun-Jupiter-spacecraft angle was about 20 degrees. JPL manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPl is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona. (PIA02825A) For higher resolution, click here. |
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New Radiation Belt
| Description |
Here on the Gallery page you can find the very latest images, videos and products from the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, including the spectacular launch, spacecraft assembly and the exciting trip to Saturn. |
| Full Description |
The magnetospheric imaging instrument onboard Cassini recently discovered a new radiation belt just above Saturn's cloud tops, up to the inner edge of the D-ring. Before this discovery, it was not anticipated that such a trapped ion population could be sustained inside the rings. This new radiation belt extends around the planet. It was detected by the emission of fast neutral atoms created as its energetic ions interact with gas clouds in the same region. Saturn's radiation belts have numerous "holes" in them, created as the trapped ions collide with moons, dust ring, and gas. With this discovery, the radiation belts are shown to extend far closer to the planet than their previously known inner boundary, which lies just at the outer edge of the main ring system. The new belts are much smaller and much less energetic than the main radiation belts. The main belts extend from about 139,000 kilometers (86,000 miles) from Saturn's center out to about 362,000 (225,000 miles) and contain particles with energies up to tens of mega-electron volts. The new belt extends less than 6,000 kilometers (about 4,000 miles) in thickness, and is not known to contain particles above about 150 kilo-electron Volts total energy. Shown here is an image taken by the magnetospheric imaging instrument on July 1, 2004, from a distance of 24,000 kilometers (14,900 miles) from Saturn's cloud tops. From blue to red the colors represent increasing intensity of the radiation. The location of the moon Titan in the image is shown, but emissions associated with Titan itself are too weak to stand out in the intense emission from the main radiation belt. The magenta lines represent the magnetic field lines that cross the equator just at the inner edge of the D-Ring, where the new-found radiation belt resides. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument was designed, built and is operated by an international team lead by the Applied Physics Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, Md. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the instrument team's home page, http://sd-www.jhuapl.edu/CASSINI/index.html . Image Credit: NASA/JPL/APL |
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Cassini Tour Petal Plot
| Description |
Here on the Gallery page you can find the very latest images, videos and products from the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, including the spectacular launch, spacecraft assembly and the exciting trip to Saturn. |
| Full Description |
This animation illustrates the path the Cassini spacecraft will take during its four year mission at Saturn. The viewpoint is far from Saturn looking down on Saturn's ring plane. The Cassini spacecraft is depicted by a white sphere and the path Cassini takes about Saturn (depicted by the yellow sphere in the middle of the frame) is shown by the white line. The white line traces the path of the spacecraft about Saturn much like tracing a path in wet sand with a stick. The animation moves rather fast so you may wish to manually move through time using the slider button at the bottom of the frame. The date corresponding to the image is shown in the left hand corner in year/month/day format. Saturn's largest moon Titan is depicted by the orange sphere and its circular path about Saturn is depicted by the orange line. Titan is shown since it acts as the cosmic fuel tank for Cassini. Each close flyby of Titan alters the path of the spacecraft due to the gravitational pull by the Moon. By clever use of these "gravity assists", the path of Cassini can be changed to cover the wide range of viewpoints needed to fully study the Saturnian system with Cassini's large suite of instruments. Using gravity instead of rocket fuel enables such a wide diversity of orbits. Why does Cassini follow this particular path? An apt analogy would be a family car trip to an exciting new country. The passengers in the car all want to go to a different destinations during their tour. The driver plans the path the car will follow by attempting to meet everyone's desires but is limited by how much time they have, how much gas is in the car, how fast they can drive, etc.. The Cassini tour about Saturn was designed in much the same way. Like the passengers in the car, the various instruments on Cassini often want to go to very different destinations within the Saturnian system. The tour was designed to please each instrument team just as the driver attempts to please his passengers. Compromise is involved since no one instrument,or passenger, rules the road! |
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A Privileged View
| Description |
A Privileged View |
| Full Description |
From Saturn orbit, the Cassini spacecraft provides a perspective on the ringed planet that is never seen from Earth. In our skies, Saturn's disk is always nearly fully illuminated by the sun. From this vantage point -- nearly in the ringplane, with the sun over to the right -- the Cassini spacecraft can see both lit and dark hemispheres, with the shadow of the rings on the northern hemisphere. Saturn's low density and fast rotation cause its shape to deviate from spherical to a pronounced oblateness, very apparent here. The image was taken using the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera and a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 728 nanometers. The image was acquired on Sept. 30, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 79 degrees. The mage scale is 139 kilometers (86 miles) per pixel. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org . *Credit: *NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
November 11, 2005 |
|
Catch That Crater
| Description |
Catch that Crater |
| Full Description |
In the nick of time, the Cassini spacecraft snapped this image of the eastern rim of Saturn's moon Rhea's bright, ray crater. The impact event appears to have made a prominent bright splotch on the leading hemisphere of Rhea (see Great White Splat). Because Cassini was traveling so fast relative to Rhea as the flyby occurred, the crater would have been out of the camera's field of view in any earlier or later exposure. The crater's total diameter is about 50 kilometers (30 miles), but this rim view shows details of terrains both interior to the crater and outside its rim. The prominent bright scarp, left of the center, is the crater wall, and the crater interior is to the left of the scarp. The exterior of the crater (right of the scarp) is characterized by softly undulating topography and gentle swirl-like patterns that formed during the emplacement of the large crater's continuous blanket of ejecta material. Numerous small craters conspicuously pepper the larger crater's floor and much of the area immediately outside of it. However, in some places, such as terrain in the top portion of the image and the bright crater wall, the terrain appears remarkably free of the small impacts. The localized "shot pattern" and non-uniform distribution of these small craters indicate that they are most likely secondary impacts -- craters formed from fallback material excavated from a nearby primary impact site. Because they exist both inside and outside the large crater in this image, the source impact of the secondary impacts must have happened more recently than the impact event that formed the large crater in this scene. This is one of the highest-resolution images of Rhea's surface obtained during Cassini's very close flyby on Nov. 26, 2005, during which the spacecraft swooped to within 500 kilometers (310 miles) of the large moon. Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across and is Saturn's second largest moon, after planet-sized Titan. The clear filter image was acquired with the wide-angle camera at an altitude of 511 kilometers (317 miles) above Rhea. Image scale is about 34 meters (112 feet) per pixel. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org . *Credit:* NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
December 6, 2005 |
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Tempest Tossed
| Description |
Tempest Tossed |
| Full Description |
Bright clouds twist and twirl in the fast-moving and turbulent winds in the Saturnian north. Hints of organized jets can also be seen. This view is centered on a region 24 degrees north of Saturn's equator. Shadows cast by the rings cover the bottom of this scene. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 13, 2007 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 750 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 4.1 million kilometers (2.5 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 24 kilometers (15 miles) per pixel. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
October 3, 2007 |
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Squashed As It Spins
| Description |
Squashed As It Spins |
| Full Description |
Saturn's density is so low, and its rotation is so fast, that the planet bulges around its waistline as is spins. Saturn is nearly 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) wider at its equator than at its poles, and its oblateness is clearly visible in this view. The view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 2 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 2, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 109 kilometers (68 miles) per pixel. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
October 17, 2007 |
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Neptune
| title |
Neptune |
| date |
08.21.1989 |
| description |
This picture of Neptune was produced from the last whole planet images taken through the green and orange filters on the Voyager 2 narrow angle camera. The images were taken at a range of 4.4 million miles from the planet, 4 days and 20 hours before closest approach. The picture shows the Great Dark Spot and its companion bright smudge, on the west limb the fast moving bright feature called Scooter and the little dark spot are visible. These clouds were seen to persist for as long as Voyager's cameras could resolve them. North of these, a bright cloud band similar to the south polar streak may be seen. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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Full-Disk Neptune
| title |
Full-Disk Neptune |
| date |
08.20.1989 |
| description |
This picture of Neptune was produced from the last whole planet images taken through the green and orange filters on the Voyager 2 narrow angle camera. The images were taken at a range of 4.4 million miles from the planet, 4 days and 20 hours before closest approach. The picture shows the Great Dark Spot and its companion bright smudge, on the west limb the fast moving bright feature called Scooter and the little dark spot are visible. These clouds were seen to persist for as long as Voyager's cameras could resolve them. North of these, a bright cloud band similar to the south polar streak may be seen. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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Aurora Australis
| title |
Aurora Australis |
| description |
Red and green colors predominate in this view of the Aurora Australis photographed from the Space Shuttle in May 1991 at the peak of the last geomagnetic maximum. The payload bay and tail of the Shuttle can be seen on the left hand side of the picture. Auroras are caused when high-energy electrons pour down from the Earth's magnetosphere and collide with atoms. Red aurora occurs from 200 km to as high as 500 km altitude and is caused by the emission of 6300 Angstrom wavelength light from oxygen atoms. Green aurora occurs from about 100 km to 250 km altitude and is caused by the emission of 5577 Angstrom wavelength light from oxygen atoms. The light is emitted when the atoms return to their original unexcited state. At times of peaks in solar activity, there are more geomagnetic storms and this increases the auroral activity viewed on Earth and by astronauts from orbit. Photographing them requires careful technique with long exposures and fast film (in this case ASA 1600). Such film can only be used on short-duration Shuttle flights and not from the Space Station because it is sensitive to radiation damage in orbit over time. The most recent astronaut photograph of aurora was taken before the April 2001 flurry of solar activity, and showed only a relatively low-energy green glow. This image was taken by the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery in May 1991. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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Neptune Full Disk View
| Title |
Neptune Full Disk View |
| Full Description |
This picture of Neptune was produced from the last whole planet images taken through the green and orange filters on the Voyager 2 narrow angle camera. The images were taken at a range of 4.4 million miles from the planet, 4 days and 20 hours before closest approach. The picture shows the Great Dark Spot and its companion bright smudge, on the west limb the fast moving bright feature called Scooter and the little dark spot are visible. These clouds were seen to persist for as long as Voyager's cameras could resolve them. North of these, a bright cloud band similar to the south polar streak may be seen. Years later, when the Hubble telescope was focused on the planet, these atmospheric features had changed, indicating that Neptune's atmosphere is dynamic. The Voyager Mission is conducted by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications, Washington, DC. |
| Date |
04/02/1990 |
| NASA Center |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
|
Deep Space 1 in Cleanroom
| Title |
Deep Space 1 in Cleanroom |
| Full Description |
Deep Space 1 was launched in October 1998 as part of NASA's New Millennium Program, which is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA. Deep Space 1 used a unique ion drive propulsion system. Unlike the fireworks of most chemical rockets using solid or liquid fuels, the ion drive emits only an eerie blue glow as ionized (electrically charged) atoms of xenon are pushed out of the engine. Xenon is the same gas found in photo flash tubes and many lighthouse bulbs. The almost imperceptible thrust from the system is equivalent to the pressure exerted by a sheet of paper held in the palm of your hand. The ion engine is very slow to pick up speed, but over the long haul it can deliver 10 times as much thrust per pound of fuel as more traditional rockets. Previous ion propulsion systems, like those found on some communications satellites, were not used as the main engines, but only to keep the satellites on track. Deep Space 1 is the first spacecraft to use this important technology as its primary means of propulsion. The importance of ion propulsion is its great efficiency," says Dr. Marc Rayman, project manager for Deep Space 1. "It uses very little propellant, and that means it weighs less so it can use a less expensive launch vehicle and ultimately go much faster than other spacecraft. This opens the solar system to many future exciting missions which otherwise would have been unaffordable or even impossible," added Dr. Rayman. The ion particles travel out at about 68,000 miles per hour. However, Deep Space 1 doesn't move that fast in the other direction, because it is much heavier than the ion particles. By the end of the mission, the ion engine will have changed the spacecraft's speed by about 6,800 mph (over 11,000 kph). The technology is so efficient that it only consumes about 3.5 ounces (100 g) of xenon per day, taking about four days to expend just one pound (0.4 kg). The Deep Space 1 ion engine could have a total operating time of more than 583 days (14,000 hours) by the end of its mission in the fall of 2001. |
| Date |
11/21/1997 |
| NASA Center |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
|
Life Cycle of Stars
| Title |
Life Cycle of Stars |
| Full Description |
In this stunning picture of the giant galactic nebula NGC 3603, the crisp resolution of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captures various stages of the life cycle of stars in one single view. To the upper left of center is the evolved blue supergiant called Sher 25. The star has a unique circumstellar ring of glowing gas that is a galactic twin to the famous ring around the supernova 1987A. The grayish-bluish color of the ring and the bipolar outflows (blobs to the upper right and lower left of the star) indicates the presence of processed (chemically enriched) material. Near the center of the view is a so-called starburst cluster dominated by young, hot Wolf-Rayet stars and early O-type stars. A torrent of ionizing radiation and fast stellar winds from these massive stars has blown a large cavity around the cluster. The most spectacular evidence for the interaction of ionizing radiation with cold molecular-hydrogen cloud material are the giant gaseous pillars to the right of the cluster. These pillars are sculptured by the same physical processes as the famous pillars Hubble photographed in the M16 Eagle Nebula. Dark clouds at the upper right are so-called Bok globules, which are probably in an earlier stage of star formation. To the lower left of the cluster are two compact, tadpole-shaped emission nebulae. Similar structures were found by Hubble in Orion, and have been interpreted as gas and dust evaporation from possibly protoplanetary disks (proplyds). This true-color picture was taken on March 5, 1999 with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. |
| Date |
03/05/1999 |
| NASA Center |
Hubble Space Telescope Center |
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Hubble Follows Rapid Changes
…
| Title |
Hubble Follows Rapid Changes in Jupiter's Aurora |
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Hubble Finds an Hourglass Ne
…
| Title |
Hubble Finds an Hourglass Nebula around a Dying Star |
| General Information |
What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. This Hubble telescope snapshot of MyCn18, a young planetary nebula, reveals that the object has an hourglass shape with an intricate pattern of "etchings" in its walls. A planetary nebula is the glowing relic of a dying, Sun-like star. The results are of great interest because they shed new light on the poorly understood ejection of stellar matter that accompanies the slow death of Sun-like stars. According to one theory on the formation of planetary nebulae, the hourglass shape is produced by the expansion of a fast stellar wind within a slowly expanding cloud, which is denser near its equator than near its poles. |
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Hubble Snapshot Captures Lif
…
| Title |
Hubble Snapshot Captures Life Cycle of Stars |
| General Information |
What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. In this stunning picture of the giant galactic nebula NGC 3603, the Hubble telescope's crisp resolution captures various stages of the life cycle of stars in one single view. This picture nicely illustrates the entire stellar life cycle of stars, starting with the Bok globules and giant gaseous pillars (evidence of embryonic stars), followed by circumstellar disks around young stars, and progressing to aging, massive stars in a young starburst cluster. The blue super-giant with its ring and bipolar outflow [upper left of center] marks the end of the life cycle. |
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Pine Island Iceberg Formatio
…
| Title |
Pine Island Iceberg Formation |
| Abstract |
This animation is a sequence showing the formation of the Pine Island iceberg and the glacial seaward flow upstream from the crack. It is a series of MISR images from the Terra satellite on top of the continental Radarsat view of Antarctica. The Pine Island Glacier is the largest discharger of ice in Antarctica and the continent's fastest moving glacier. Even so, when a large crack formed across the glacier in mid 2000, it was surprising how fast the crack expanded, 15 meters per day, and how soon the resulting iceberg broke off, mid-November, 2001. This iceberg, called B-21, is 42 kilometers by 17 kilometers and contains seven years of glacier outflow released to the sea in a single event. |
| Completed |
2002-01-15 |
|
Pine Island Iceberg Formatio
…
| Title |
Pine Island Iceberg Formation |
| Abstract |
This animation is a sequence showing the formation of the Pine Island iceberg and the glacial seaward flow upstream from the crack. It is a series of MISR images from the Terra satellite on top of the continental Radarsat view of Antarctica. The Pine Island Glacier is the largest discharger of ice in Antarctica and the continent's fastest moving glacier. Even so, when a large crack formed across the glacier in mid 2000, it was surprising how fast the crack expanded, 15 meters per day, and how soon the resulting iceberg broke off, mid-November, 2001. This iceberg, called B-21, is 42 kilometers by 17 kilometers and contains seven years of glacier outflow released to the sea in a single event. |
| Completed |
2002-01-15 |
|
Pine Island Iceberg Formatio
…
| Title |
Pine Island Iceberg Formation |
| Abstract |
This animation is a sequence showing the formation of the Pine Island iceberg and the glacial seaward flow upstream from the crack. It is a series of MISR images from the Terra satellite on top of the continental Radarsat view of Antarctica. The Pine Island Glacier is the largest discharger of ice in Antarctica and the continent's fastest moving glacier. Even so, when a large crack formed across the glacier in mid 2000, it was surprising how fast the crack expanded, 15 meters per day, and how soon the resulting iceberg broke off, mid-November, 2001. This iceberg, called B-21, is 42 kilometers by 17 kilometers and contains seven years of glacier outflow released to the sea in a single event. |
| Completed |
2002-01-15 |
|
Pine Island Iceberg Formatio
…
| Title |
Pine Island Iceberg Formation |
| Abstract |
This animation is a sequence showing the formation of the Pine Island iceberg and the glacial seaward flow upstream from the crack. It is a series of MISR images from the Terra satellite on top of the continental Radarsat view of Antarctica. The Pine Island Glacier is the largest discharger of ice in Antarctica and the continent's fastest moving glacier. Even so, when a large crack formed across the glacier in mid 2000, it was surprising how fast the crack expanded, 15 meters per day, and how soon the resulting iceberg broke off, mid-November, 2001. This iceberg, called B-21, is 42 kilometers by 17 kilometers and contains seven years of glacier outflow released to the sea in a single event. |
| Completed |
2002-01-15 |
|
Pine Island Iceberg Formatio
…
| Title |
Pine Island Iceberg Formation |
| Abstract |
This animation is a sequence showing the formation of the Pine Island iceberg and the glacial seaward flow upstream from the crack. It is a series of MISR images from the Terra satellite on top of the continental Radarsat view of Antarctica. The Pine Island Glacier is the largest discharger of ice in Antarctica and the continent's fastest moving glacier. Even so, when a large crack formed across the glacier in mid 2000, it was surprising how fast the crack expanded, 15 meters per day, and how soon the resulting iceberg broke off, mid-November, 2001. This iceberg, called B-21, is 42 kilometers by 17 kilometers and contains seven years of glacier outflow released to the sea in a single event. |
| Completed |
2002-01-15 |
|
Pine Island Iceberg Formatio
…
| Title |
Pine Island Iceberg Formation |
| Abstract |
This animation is a sequence showing the formation of the Pine Island iceberg and the glacial seaward flow upstream from the crack. It is a series of MISR images from the Terra satellite on top of the continental Radarsat view of Antarctica. The Pine Island Glacier is the largest discharger of ice in Antarctica and the continent's fastest moving glacier. Even so, when a large crack formed across the glacier in mid 2000, it was surprising how fast the crack expanded, 15 meters per day, and how soon the resulting iceberg broke off, mid-November, 2001. This iceberg, called B-21, is 42 kilometers by 17 kilometers and contains seven years of glacier outflow released to the sea in a single event. |
| Completed |
2002-01-15 |
|
Pine Island Iceberg Formatio
…
| Title |
Pine Island Iceberg Formation |
| Abstract |
This animation is a sequence showing the formation of the Pine Island iceberg and the glacial seaward flow upstream from the crack. It is a series of MISR images from the Terra satellite on top of the continental Radarsat view of Antarctica. The Pine Island Glacier is the largest discharger of ice in Antarctica and the continent's fastest moving glacier. Even so, when a large crack formed across the glacier in mid 2000, it was surprising how fast the crack expanded, 15 meters per day, and how soon the resulting iceberg broke off, mid-November, 2001. This iceberg, called B-21, is 42 kilometers by 17 kilometers and contains seven years of glacier outflow released to the sea in a single event. |
| Completed |
2002-01-15 |
|
Pine Island Iceberg Formatio
…
| Title |
Pine Island Iceberg Formation |
| Abstract |
This animation is a sequence showing the formation of the Pine Island iceberg and the glacial seaward flow upstream from the crack. It is a series of MISR images from the Terra satellite on top of the continental Radarsat view of Antarctica. The Pine Island Glacier is the largest discharger of ice in Antarctica and the continent's fastest moving glacier. Even so, when a large crack formed across the glacier in mid 2000, it was surprising how fast the crack expanded, 15 meters per day, and how soon the resulting iceberg broke off, mid-November, 2001. This iceberg, called B-21, is 42 kilometers by 17 kilometers and contains seven years of glacier outflow released to the sea in a single event. |
| Completed |
2002-01-15 |
|
Pine Island Iceberg Formatio
…
| Title |
Pine Island Iceberg Formation |
| Abstract |
This animation is a sequence showing the formation of the Pine Island iceberg and the glacial seaward flow upstream from the crack. It is a series of MISR images from the Terra satellite on top of the continental Radarsat view of Antarctica. The Pine Island Glacier is the largest discharger of ice in Antarctica and the continent's fastest moving glacier. Even so, when a large crack formed across the glacier in mid 2000, it was surprising how fast the crack expanded, 15 meters per day, and how soon the resulting iceberg broke off, mid-November, 2001. This iceberg, called B-21, is 42 kilometers by 17 kilometers and contains seven years of glacier outflow released to the sea in a single event. |
| Completed |
2002-01-15 |
|
Pine Island Glacier Calving
…
| Title |
Pine Island Glacier Calving (WMS) |
| Abstract |
The Pine Island Glacier is the largest discharger of ice in Antarctica and the continent's fastest moving glacier. Even so, when a large crack formed across the glacier in mid 2000, it was surprising how fast the crack expanded, 15 meters per day, and how soon the resulting iceberg broke off, mid-November, 2001. This iceberg, called B-21, is 42 kilometers by 17 kilometers and contains seven years of glacier outflow released to the sea in a single event. This series of images from the MISR instrument on the Terra satellite not only shows the crack expanding and the iceberg breakoff, but the seaward moving glacial flow in the parts of the Pine Island Glacier upstream of the crack. |
| Completed |
2005-03-09 |
|
| Photo Description |
NASA JPL scientists Yunling Lou and Dr. Eric Rignot work on line selection while flying AirSAR missions over the Antarctic Peninsula. AirSAR 2004 is a three-week expedition in Central and South America by an international team of scientists that is using an all-weather imaging tool, called the Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AirSAR), located onboard NASA's DC-8 airborne laboratory. Scientists from many parts of the world are combining ground research with NASA's AirSAR technology to improve and expand on the quality of research they are able to conduct. These photos are from the DC-8 aircraft while flying an AirSAR mission over Antarctica. The Antarctic Peninsula is more similar to Alaska and Patagonia than to the rest of the Antarctic continent. It is drained by fast glaciers, receives abundant precipitation, and melts significantly in the summer months. In recent decades, the Peninsula has experienced significant atmospheric warming (about 2 degrees C since 1950), which has triggered a vast and spectacular retreat of its floating ice shelves, glacier reduction, a decrease in permanent snow cover and a lengthening of the melt season. As a result, the contribution to sea level from this region could be rapid and substantial. With an area of 120,000 km, or ten times the Patagonia ice fields, the Peninsula could contribute as much as 0.4mm/yr sea level rise, which would be the largest single contribution to sea level from anywhere in the world. This region is being studied by NASA using a DC-8 equipped with the Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar developed by scientists from NASA?s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. AirSAR will provide a baseline model and unprecedented mapping of the region. This data will make it possible to determine whether the warming trend is slowing, continuing or accelerating. AirSAR will also provide reliable information on ice shelf thickness to measure the contribution of the glaciers to sea level. |
| Project Description |
AirSAR collects multi-frequency and multi-polarization radar data for a variety of science applications. It also acquires data in interferometric modes, providing topographic information (cross-track mode) or ocean current information (along-track interferometry). This March 2004 deployment was planned to: * Study the extent and distribution of archeological Mayan civilization (using foliage-penetrating radar) * Study the glaciers of Patagonia and the Antarctic peninsula * Investigate new techniques for the measurement of the forest structure of dense tropical forests * Fill in the largest "void" in the SRTM-derived map of South American topography * Collect additional data for various research initiatives During the deployment data is collected over Central and South America and Antarctica. During the approximately 100 flight hours, AirSAR is acquiring polarimetric and/or interferometric data along a 20,000 km track, or about 200,000 sq. km of data over 40 sites for 30 scientists. AirSAR will collect data related to the following NASA Code YS science programs: * Cryospheric Science * Land Cover/Land Use Change * Natural Hazards * Physical Oceanography * Terrestrial Ecology * Hydrology NASA used a DC-8 aircraft as a flying science laboratory. The platform aircraft, was based at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., collected data for many experiments in support of scientific projects serving the world scientific community. Included in this community were NASA, federal, state, academic and foreign investigators. Data gathered by the DC-8 at flight altitude and by remote sensing has been used for scientific studies in archeology, ecology, geography, hydrology, meteorology, oceanography, volcanology, atmospheric chemistry, soil science and biology. |
| Photo Date |
March 16, 2004 |
|
Lake Okeechobee Complex Fire
| Title |
Lake Okeechobee Complex Fire |
| Description |
Florida's multi-year drought reached extreme levels in late spring 2007, and the impacts ranged from water restrictions to dangerous wildfires. The water levels in Lake Okeechobee hit record low levels in May and June, and swampy vegetation around the retreating shoreline began to dry out. At the end of May, more than 10,000 acres of desiccated vegetation in Buckhead Marsh burned in a fast-moving, wind-driven wildfire. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14283 ] This image shows the burn scar left on the landscape by the fire. Captured on June 23, 2007, by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite, the image reveals that a huge swath of the marsh between the lake and the surrounding Herbert Hoover Dyke was scorched. The burned area appears charcoal, while vegetation appears green. A few isolated clouds cast black shadows to their west. Roadways and canals appear as white lines. Small developed areas appear grayish-white. Lake Okeechobee appears silvery blue because of bright sunlight reflecting off the surface. Between mid-May and mid-June 2007, drought intensity across southern Florida, including the area around Lake Okeechobee, teetered back and forth between Category D3 (extreme drought) and D2 (severe drought) on the U.S. Drought Monitor's scale. According to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report from June 24, 2007, Lake Okeechobee water levels were nearly 4.5 feet below their long-term average (1965-2006) for this time of year. Much of the area between the burn scar and the lake itself was previously underwater, it was exposed as the water level fell. NASA image by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. |
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Nyiragongo Volcano Erupts in
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| Title |
Nyiragongo Volcano Erupts in the Congo |
| Description |
A river of molten rock poured from the Nyiragongo volcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on January 18, 2002, a day after it erupted, killing dozens, swallowing buildings and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee the town of Goma. The lava flow continued into Lake Kivu. One of Africa's most notable volcanoes, Nyiragongo contained an active lava lake in its deep summit crater that drained catastrophically through its outer flanks in 1977. Extremely fluid, fast-moving lava flows draining from the summit lava lake in 1977 killed 50 to 100 people, and several villages were destroyed. This scene was acquired on January 28, 2002, by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, flying aboard NASA?s Terra [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/redirect?http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite. In this scene, the Nyiragongo volcano itself is covered by clouds, but Goma is visible to the south, situated on the northern shore of Lake Kivu. The bright red ribbons radiating away from the volcano are the hot lava flows. This false-color image covers an area of 21 by 24 km, and combines a thermal band in red, and two infrared bands in green and blue. Image by Mike Abrams, NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/redirect?http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] |
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Plume from Ol Doinyo Lengai
| Title |
Plume from Ol Doinyo Lengai |
| Description |
In early September 2007, Tanzania's Ol Doinyo Lengai Volcano erupted, sending a cloud of ash into the atmosphere. On September 4, 2007, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite captured this image of the volcano sending a plume of ash and steam southward. The volcanic plume appears pale blue-gray, distinct near the summit, and growing more diffuse to the south. On the land surface, green indicates vegetation, and beige and gray indicate bare or thinly vegetated ground. The charcoal-colored stains on the volcano's flanks appear to be lava, but they are actually burn scars left behind by fires that were spawned by fast-flowing, narrow rivers of lava ejected by the volcano. An explosive eruption of ash and steam is rare for Ol Doinyo Lengai. Typically, volcanic activity at the volcano consists of lava flows that are restricted to the summit crater. This eruption, however, sent ash downwind at least 18 kilometers (11 miles).Ol Doinyo Lengai [ http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0202-12= ] is an unusual volcano. Like many other volcanoes on Earth, it is a stratovolcano composed of alternating layers of hardened lava, solidified ash, and rocks from previous eruptions. Unlike other volcanoes, however, Ol Doinyo Lengai is the only active volcano on Earth known to produce natrocarbonatite lava. Natrocarbonatite has a relatively low temperature, about 500 to 600 degrees Celsius (930 to 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit), compared to typical lavas, which are about 700 to 1,200 degrees Celsius (1,300 to 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit). Although still hot enough to burn much of what it directly touches, this lava is cool enough to allow close-up inspection without the routine layers of protective gear that volcanologists use elsewhere. But while it is cooler than other lavas, natrocarbonatite lava is also less viscous. Its more fluid consistency means this lava is also faster than other lavas, in fact, it can flow faster than a person can run. Natrocarbonatite lava is composed of minerals that react easily with atmospheric moisture, and exposed lava begins to lighten shortly after eruption. You can download a 15-meter-resolution KMZ file of Ol Doinyo Lengai [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/Images/oldoinyo_ast_2007247.kmz ] suitable for use with Google Earth. [ http://earth.google.com/ ] NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] Thanks to Greg Vaughan, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, for image interpretation. |
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Fires in Southern United Sta
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| Title |
Fires in Southern United States |
| Description |
On January 2, 2006, winds whipped a fast-moving fire across the grasslands just south of the Red River, which marks the border between Oklahoma and Texas. According to reports from the Associated Press, the fire nearly razed the small ranch town of Ringgold, Texas, destroying as many as 50 homes and most of the buildings along the small town's Main Street. The fire scorched tens of thousands of acres between Ringgold and the town of Nocona, to the southeast. The charcoal-colored burn scar slices through the center of this image, captured on January 8, 2006, by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite. To make the burn scar stand out more prominently, the image was enhanced with the sensor's observations of near- and shortwave-infrared energy as well as visible light. Winter-bare ground is tan and brown, while patches of red indicate growing vegetation, probably irrigated crops. The small town of Nocona appears as a cement-gray splash at lower right of the scene, while the location of Ringgold is obscured by a cloud at image left. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor [ http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/archive/2006/drmon0103.htm ] map for January 3, drought stretched across the south-central United States in the first of January, affecting Arizona, southern Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and western Arkansas. A pocket of Exceptional Drought—the highest drought category on the scale—spanned northeastern Texas, southeastern Oklahoma, and intruded a short distance into western Arkansas. The lack of rain, high temperatures, and strong winds were a menace for firefighters across the region, who continued to battle grassland and other wildfires through the first part of the month. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team |
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Comet LINEAR Disperses
| Title |
Comet LINEAR Disperses |
| Explanation |
What's happened to the nucleus of Comet LINEAR? The brightest comet [ http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/comets.html ] this year has unexpectedly broken up [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000731.html ] into many smaller pieces. The break-up occurred on or about July 25 and was noted by many astronomers around the world with particularly pioneering work [ http://meteors.com/cometlinear/update2.html ] by Mark Kidger [ http://www.iac.es/galeria/mrk/index.html ] (IAC [ http://www.iac.es/ ]). Since then astronomers [ http://www.iau.org/ ] had been searching [ http://www.ing.iac.es/PR/press/ing300.html ] in vain to find any fragments left of the nucleus [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000805.html ], and watching to see how fast the remaining debris fades. Just three days ago the Hubble Space Telescope [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970306.html ] was maneuvered to photograph the region [ http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/2000/27/pr-photos.html ] and recovered some of the disintegrating fragments that used to compose Comet LINEAR [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000704.html ]'s nucleus. The above image [ http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/2000/27/pr.html ] covers only the very tip of an elongated diffuse train [ http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/2000/27/index.html ] of slowly dispersing gas, dust, ice fragments, and gravel. The largest bits remaining of the badly fractured nucleus [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000805.html ] appear to be less than 30 meters across. This debris train will not collide with the Earth [ http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast31jul_1m.htm ] and so will not cause a meteor shower [ http://comets.amsmeteors.org/ ]. Interested astronomers are now theorizing why Comet LINEAR [ http://encke.jpl.nasa.gov/ ]'s nucleus disintegrated into such small pieces. |
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Approaching Jupiter
| Title |
Approaching Jupiter |
| Explanation |
In 1979 the Voyager 1 spacecraft [ http://vraptor.jpl.nasa.gov/voyager/voyager_fs.html ] compiled this view as it approached the gas giant Jupiter [ http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/jupiter.html ]. Snapping a picture every time the Great Red Spot [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960827.html ] was properly aligned, the above time-lapse sequence [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/PIAGenCatalogPage.pl?PIA02259 ] shows not only spot [ http://www.gfdl.gov/~gw/ ] rotation but also the swirling of neighboring clouds [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000429.html ]. Since Jupiter [ http://www.solarviews.com/eng/jupiter.htm ] takes about 10 hours to rotate, this short sequence actually covers several days. Voyager 1 shot past Jupiter [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/jupiter.html ] rapidly taking pictures on which many discoveries [ http://www.solarviews.com/eng/vgrjup.htm ] would be made, including previously unknown cloud patterns [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970920.html ], rings [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980916.html ], moons [ http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/amalthea.html#adrastea ], and active volcanoes [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960805.html ] on Jupiter's moon Io [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/moons/io.html ]. Voyager is moving so fast that it will one day leave [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980620.html ] our Solar System [ http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/overview.html ]. |
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Sail On, Stardust
| Title |
Sail On, Stardust |
| Explanation |
Spacecraft on long interplanetary voyages [ http://www-spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Sintro.htm ] often use the planets themselves as gravitational "sling shots" to boost them along their way. Launched [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/ commemorative.html ] in February of 1999 on a historic voyage to a comet, the Stardust spacecraft [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/ega/ ] is no different. On 15 January 2001 Stardust made its closest approach to planet Earth [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/status/010115.html ] since launch, coming within about 6,000 kilometers of the surface. It used this gravity assist maneuver [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/basics/bsf4-1.htm#gravity ] to increase its speed and alter its trajectory toward an encounter with comet Wild 2 [ http://www.ssep.org/stardust/wild-2.html ], which it should reach in 2004. Shortly before its time of closest approach, astronomer Gordon Garradd recorded this exposure [ http://www.ozemail.com.au/~loomberah/stardust.htm ] of Stardust sailing through the skies above Loomberah, Australia. Nearby and moving fast [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/ega/images.html ], the spacecraft appears as a streak against a background of faint stars in the constellation Cetus [ http://www.astronomical.org/constellations/cet.html ]. Stardust cruised within just 98,000 kilometers of the Moon [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/ega/lunar.html ] about 15 hours later. After collecting [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/tech/ aerogel.html ] dust from the tail of comet Wild 2, Stardust's voyage [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/details.html ] will continue -- as it returns the samples to Earth in 2006. |
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