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Iapetus' New Year's Flyby
| Description |
Iapetus' New Year's Flyby |
| Full Description |
This map of the surface of Saturn's moon Iapetus (1,436 kilometers, or 892 miles across), generated from images taken by NASA's Voyager spacecraft, illustrates the imaging coverage planned during Cassini's flyby on Dec. 31, 2004. Cassini will glide past Iapetus at a distance of approximately 123,400 kilometers (76,700 miles) on New Year's Eve, at a speed of about 2 kilometers per second (4,474 miles per hour). Imaging coverage will be focused primarily on the dark terrain of Iapetus' leading hemisphere, in the area known as Cassini Regio. The spacecraft's namesake, Jean-Dominique Cassini, discovered Iapetus in 1672 and was only able to see the moon's bright trailing hemisphere. Colored lines on the map enclose regions that will be covered at different imaging scales as Cassini approaches Iapetus. Images from Cassini's flyby will be superior in resolution to those obtained by Voyager 2 in August 1981. Voyager 2 passed Iapetus at a distance of approximately 909,000 kilometers (564,800 miles) at closest approach, yielding a best resolution image of about 8 kilometers per pixel. The resolution of Cassini images from this flyby will be 1.5 kilometers per pixel and better. 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 team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org . *Credit*: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
December 30, 2004 |
|
Enceladus: Trailing Hemisphe
…
| Description |
Enceladus: Trailing Hemisphere |
| Full Description |
A variety of surface ages is revealed in this 16-image mosaic taken during Cassini's first close flyby of Enceladus, on Feb. 17, 2005. This mosaic shows the trailing hemisphere of Enceladus -- the side of Enceladus that always faces away from the direction of the satellite's orbital motion. This hemisphere is dominated by Sarandib Planitia (just right of center), a region thought to be dominated by smooth plains in NASA Voyager 2 images taken in August 1981, but shown here in much higher resolution images to be covered in low ridges and troughs. Other major features seen in the region include Labtayt Sulci, a 1-kilometer- (0.6-mile-) deep canyon running northward from a cusp in the south polar terrain boundary (Cashmere Sulci) at lower right to a set of 1-kilometer-tall ridges (Cufa Dorsa and Ebony Dorsum) east of Sarandib Planitia (also seen in Enceladus Mosaic), as well as Samarkand Sulci, a band of ridges and troughs running along the western margin of Sarandib Planitia almost all the way north to Enceladus' north pole. In contrast to the youthful terrain of Sarandib Planitia and the terrain south of it, the terrain north and west of Sarandib appears much older. These regions are covered with impact craters at various stages of degradation, either from viscous relaxation (which causes the craters to flatten over time), or from tectonic activity. To create this single full-disk mosaic, the 16 images were reprojected into an orthographic projection centered at 2.3 degrees north latitude, 317.7 degrees west longitude with a pixel scale of 63 meters (207 feet) per pixel. The original images were taken by the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle and wide-angle cameras from distances ranging from 10,850 to 29,750 kilometers (6,740 to 18,490 miles). The images had a phase, or sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, angle of 28 degrees. 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 29, 2006 |
|
The Other Side of Iapetus
| Description |
Cassini captures the first high-resolution glimpse of the bright trailing hemisphere of Saturn's moon Iapetus. |
| Full Description |
Cassini captures the first high-resolution glimpse of the bright trailing hemisphere of Saturn's moon Iapetus. This false-color mosaic shows the entire hemisphere of Iapetus (1,468 kilometers, or 912 miles across) visible from Cassini on the outbound leg of its encounter with the two-toned moon in Sept. 2007. The central longitude of the trailing hemisphere is 24 degrees to the left of the mosaic's center. Also shown here is the complicated transition region between the dark leading and bright trailing hemispheres. This region, visible along the right side of the image, was observed in many of the images acquired by Cassini near closest approach during the encounter. Revealed here for the first time in detail are the geologic structures that mark the trailing hemisphere. The region appears heavily cratered, particularly in the north and south polar regions. Near the top of the mosaic, numerous impact features visible in NASA Voyager 2 spacecraft images (acquired in 1981) are visible, including the craters Ogier and Charlemagne. The most prominent topographic feature in this view, in the bottom half of the mosaic, is a 450-kilometer (280-mile) wide impact basin, one of at least nine such large basins on Iapetus. In fact, the basin overlaps an older, similar-sized impact basin to its southeast. In many places, the dark material -- thought to be composed of nitrogen-bearing organic compounds called cyanides, hydrated minerals and other carbonaceous minerals -- appears to coat equator-facing slopes and crater floors. The distribution of this material and variations in the color of the bright material across the trailing hemisphere will be crucial clues to understanding the origin of Iapetus' peculiar bright-dark dual personality. The view was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 10, 2007, at a distance of about 73,000 kilometers (45,000 miles) from Iapetus. The color seen in this view represents an expansion of the wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum visible to human eyes. The intense reddish-brown hue of the dark material is far less pronounced in true color images. The use of enhanced color makes the reddish character of the dark material more visible than it would be to the naked eye. This mosaic consists of 60 images covering 15 footprints across the surface of Iapetus. The view is an orthographic projection centered on 10.8 degrees south latitude, 246.5 degrees west longitude and has a resolution of 426 meters (0.26 miles) per pixel. An orthographic view is most like the view seen by a distant observer looking through a telescope. At each footprint, a full resolution clear filter image was combined with half-resolution images taken with infrared, green and ultraviolet spectral filters (centered at 752, 568 and 338 nanometers, respectively) to create this full-resolution false color mosaic. 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 8, 2007 |
|
On the Final Frontier
| Description |
Saturn sits nested in its rings of ice as Cassini once again plunges toward the graceful giant. |
| Full Description |
Saturn sits nested in its rings of ice as Cassini once again plunges toward the graceful giant. This natural color mosaic was acquired by the Cassini spacecraft as it soared 39 degrees above the unilluminated side of the rings. Little light makes its way through the rings to be scattered in Cassini's direction in this viewing geometry, making the rings appear somewhat dark compared to the reflective planet. The view can be contrasted with earlier mosaics designed to showcase the rings rather than the planet, which were therefore given longer exposure times (see Blinding Saturn and Ring World). Bright clouds play in the blue-gray skies of the north. The ring shadows continue to caress the planet as they slide farther south toward their momentary disappearance during equinox in 2009. The rings' reflected light illuminates the southern hemisphere on Saturn's night side. The scene is reminiscent of the parting glance of NASA's Voyager 1 as it said goodbye to Saturn in 1981 (see PIA00335). Cassini, however, will continue to orbit Saturn for many years to come. Three of Saturn's moons are visible in this image: Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) at the 2 o'clock position, Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) at the 4 o'clock position and Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) at the 8 o'clock position. Pandora is a faint speck just outside the narrow F ring. This mosaic was constructed from wide-angle camera images taken just before the narrow-angle camera mosaic PIA08389. The view combines 45 images -- 15 separate sets of red, green and blue images -- taken over the course of about two hours, as Cassini scanned across the entire main ring system. The images in this view were obtained on May 9, 2007, at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is about 62 kilometers (39 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 15, 2007 |
|
Watching Saturn's Winds
| Description |
Subtle features in Saturn's equatorial region and the nearly edge-on rings are captured in this view. |
| Full Description |
Subtle features in Saturn's equatorial region and the nearly edge-on rings are captured in this view. Images like this will be carefully studied to see if changes in wind speed recorded in Hubble Space Telescope images are continuing, or whether the winds have reverted to their high-speed configuration measured by Voyager in 1981. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 6, 2005 using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 727 nanometers and at a distance of approximately 3 million kilometers (1.9 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 35 kilometers (22 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 |
January 9, 2006 |
|
Saturn's C-Ring
| title |
Saturn's C-Ring |
| date |
08.03.1981 |
| description |
This Voyager 2 view, focusing on Saturn's C-ring (and to a lesser extent, the B-ring at top and left) was compiled from three separate images taken through ultraviolet, clear and green filters. When it acquired these frames, Voyager 2 was 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from the planet. In general, C-ring material is very bland and gray, the color of dirty ice. Color differences between this ring and the B-ring indicate differing surface compositions for the material composing these complex structures. More than 60 bright and dark ringlets are evident here, the small, bland squares are caused by the removal of reseau (reference) marks during processing. *Image Credit*: NASA |
|
Voyager 2 Launch
| title |
Voyager 2 Launch |
| date |
08.20.1977 |
| description |
Voyager 2 was launched August 20, 1977, sixteen days before Voyager 1 aboard a Titan-Centaur rocket. Their different flight trajectories caused Voyager 2 to arrive at Jupiter four months later than Voyager 1, thus explaining their numbering. The initial mission plan for Voyager 2 specified visits only to Jupiter and Saturn. The plan was augmented in 1981 to include a visit to Uranus, and again in 1985 to include a flyby of Neptune. After completing the tour of the outer planets in 1989, the Voyager spacecraft began exploring interstellar space. The Voyager mission has been managed by NASA's Office of Space Science and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. *Image Credit*: NASA |
|
The Other Side of Iapetus
| title |
The Other Side of Iapetus |
| date |
09.10.2007 |
| description |
Cassini captures the first high-resolution glimpse of the bright trailing hemisphere of Saturn's moon Iapetus. This false-color mosaic shows the entire hemisphere of Iapetus (1,468 kilometers, or 912 miles across) visible from Cassini on the outbound leg of its encounter with the two-toned moon in Sept. 2007. The central longitude of the trailing hemisphere is 24 degrees to the left of the mosaic's center. Also shown here is the complicated transition region between the dark leading and bright trailing hemispheres. This region, visible along the right side of the image, was observed in many of the images acquired by Cassini near closest approach during the encounter. Revealed here for the first time in detail are the geologic structures that mark the trailing hemisphere. The region appears heavily cratered, particularly in the north and south polar regions. Near the top of the mosaic, numerous impact features visible in NASA Voyager 2 spacecraft images (acquired in 1981) are visible, including the craters Ogier and Charlemagne. The most prominent topographic feature in this view, in the bottom half of the mosaic, is a 450-kilometer (280-mile) wide impact basin, one of at least nine such large basins on Iapetus. In fact, the basin overlaps an older, similar-sized impact basin to its southeast. In many places, the dark material -- thought to be composed of nitrogen-bearing organic compounds called cyanides, hydrated minerals and other carbonaceous minerals -- appears to coat equator-facing slopes and crater floors. The distribution of this material and variations in the color of the bright material across the trailing hemisphere will be crucial clues to understanding the origin of Iapetus' peculiar bright-dark dual personality. The view was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 10, 2007, at a distance of about 73,000 kilometers (45,000 miles) from Iapetus. The color seen in this view represents an expansion of the wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum visible to human eyes. The intense reddish-brown hue of the dark material is far less pronounced in true color images. The use of enhanced color makes the reddish character of the dark material more visible than it would be to the naked eye. This mosaic consists of 60 images covering 15 footprints across the surface of Iapetus. The view is an orthographic projection centered on 10.8 degrees south latitude, 246.5 degrees west longitude and has a resolution of 426 meters (0.26 miles) per pixel. An orthographic view is most like the view seen by a distant observer looking through a telescope. At each footprint, a full resolution clear filter image was combined with half-resolution images taken with infrared, green and ultraviolet spectral filters (centered at 752, 568 and 338 nanometers, respectively) to create this full-resolution false color mosaic. 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 [ http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov ] . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org [ http://ciclops.org ] . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
|
On the Final Frontier
| title |
On the Final Frontier |
| date |
05.09.2007 |
| description |
Saturn sits nested in its rings of ice as Cassini once again plunges toward the graceful giant. This natural color mosaic was acquired by the Cassini spacecraft as it soared 39 degrees above the unilluminated side of the rings. Little light makes its way through the rings to be scattered in Cassini's direction in this viewing geometry, making the rings appear somewhat dark compared to the reflective planet. The view can be contrasted with earlier mosaics designed to showcase the rings rather than the planet, which were therefore given longer exposure times (see Blinding Saturn [ http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=5463 ] and Ring World [ http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=2508 ]). Bright clouds play in the blue-gray skies of the north. The ring shadows continue to caress the planet as they slide farther south toward their momentary disappearance during equinox in 2009. The rings' reflected light illuminates the southern hemisphere on Saturn's night side. The scene is reminiscent of the parting glance of NASA's Voyager 1 as it said goodbye to Saturn in 1981 (see Saturn's Shadow [ http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=2121 ]). Cassini, however, will continue to orbit Saturn for many years to come. Three of Saturn's moons are visible in this image: Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) at the 2 o'clock position, Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) at the 4 o'clock position and Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) at the 8 o'clock position. Pandora is a faint speck just outside the narrow F ring. This mosaic was constructed from wide-angle camera images taken just before the narrow-angle camera mosaic Expance of Ice. The view combines 45 images -- 15 separate sets of red, green and blue images -- taken over the course of about two hours, as Cassini scanned across the entire main ring system. The images in this view were obtained on May 9, 2007, at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is about 62 kilometers (39 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 [ http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov ] . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org [ http://ciclops.org ] . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
|
Voyager 2 Looks at Saturn's
…
| title |
Voyager 2 Looks at Saturn's Rings |
| date |
08.17.1981 |
| description |
Voyager 2 false-color image of Saturn's rings. Subtle color variations due to differences in surface composition of the particles making up the rings are enhanced in this image produced by combining ultraviolet, clear, and orange frames. The frame was taken from a distance of 8.9 million km on August 17, 9 days before closest approach, and measures about 68,000 km from top to bottom. (Voyager 2, P-23953) *Image Credit*: NASA |
|
Iapetus
| title |
Iapetus |
| date |
08.22.1981 |
| description |
Saturn's outermost large moon, Iapetus, has a bright, heavily cratered icy terrain and a dark terrain, as shown in this Voyager 2 image taken on August 22, 1981. Amazingly, the dark material covers precisely the side of Iapetus that leads in the direction of orbital motion around Saturn (except for the poles), whereas the bright material occurs on the trailing hemisphere and at the poles. The bright terrain is made of dirty ice, and the dark terrain is surfaced by carbonaceous molecules, according to measurements made with Earth-based telescopes. Iapetus' dark hemisphere has been likened to tar or asphalt and is so dark that no details within this terrain were visible to Voyager 2. The bright icy hemisphere, likened to dirty snow, shows many large impact craters. The closest approach by Voyager 2 to Iapetus was a relatively distant 600,000 miles, so that our best images, such as this, have a resolution of about 12 miles. The dark material is made of organic substances, probably including poisonous cyano compounds such as frozen hydrogen cyanide polymers. Though we know a little about the dark terrain's chemical nature, we do not understand its origin. Two theories have been developed, but neither is fully satisfactory: (1) the dark material may be organic dust knocked off the small neighboring satellite Phoebe and "painted" onto the leading side of Iapetus as the dust spirals toward Saturn and Iapetus hurtles through the tenuous dust cloud, or (2) the dark material may be made of icy-cold carbonaceous "cryovolcanic" lavas that were erupted from Iapetus' interior and then blackened by solar radiation, charged particles, and cosmic rays. A determination of the actual cause, as well as discovery of any other geologic features smaller than 12 miles across, awaits the Cassini orbiter. *Image Credit*: NASA |
|
Fuzzy Phoebe
| title |
Fuzzy Phoebe |
| date |
09.04.1981 |
| description |
Voyager 2 took this photo sequence of Saturn's outer satellite, Phoebe, on Sept. 4, 1981, from 2.2 million kilometers (1.36 million miles) away. The top image is the normal version and the bottom is an enhanced version to increase resolution. This sequence lasts 23.4 hours and contains 35 images. The early images were taken about 43 minutes apart, while the later ones are about 29 minutes apart. There are two significant gaps in the sequence: images 7 and 8 are separated by 2.3 hours and images 19 and 20 are separated by 2.8 hours. Because the sunlight is coming from the left, mountains and ridges can best be seen as they reflect the sunlight near the terminator (right side of Phoebe). Other intrinsically bright spots can be seen rotating across the whole disk. In this time-lapse sequence, Phoebe appears to be a lumpy spheroid with possible large mountains sometimes showing on the limb (left side of Phoebe). The photos show that Phoebe is about 220 kilometers (132 miles) in diameter. Its rotation period (length of day) was determined from this set of images to be 9.4 hours. The photo shows that Phoebe is about twice the size of Earth-based measurements, and dark, with five percent reflectivity -- much darker than any other Saturnian satellite. That, and information from Earth-based observations, indicates Phoebe is almost certainly a captured asteroid or Kuiper Belt object, and did not form in the original Saturn nebula as Saturn's other satellites did. Phoebe is the only Saturnian satellite that does not always show the same face to Saturn: Its orbital period is 550 days. Its rotation period (length of day), determined from Voyager 2 observations, is nine to ten hours. Other ground-based observations that indicate that Phoebe is a captured asteroid: It orbits Saturn in the ecliptic plane (the plane in which Earth and most other planets orbit the Sun), rather than in Saturn's equatorial plane as the other Saturn satellites do. And Phoebe's orbit is retrograde -- in the direction opposite to that of the other satellites. *Image Credit*: NASA |
|
Saturn's Rings
| Title |
Saturn's Rings |
| Full Description |
This Voyager 2 view, focusing on Saturn's C-ring (and to a lesser extent, the B- ring at top and left) was compiled from three separate images taken through ultraviolet, clear and green filters. On August 23, 1981, when it acquired these frames, Voyager 2 was 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from the planet. In general, C-ring material is very bland and gray, the color of dirty ice. Color differences between this ring and the B-ring indicate differing surface compositions for the material composing these complex structures. More than 60 bright and dark ringlets are evident here, the small, bland squares are caused by the removal of reseau (reference) marks during processing. |
| Date |
08/25/1981 |
| NASA Center |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
|
Solar System Montage of Voya
…
| Title |
Solar System Montage of Voyager Images |
| Full Description |
This montage of images taken by the Voyager spacecraft of the planets and four of Jupiter's moons is set against a false-color Rosette Nebula with Earth's moon in the foreground. Studying and mapping Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and many of their moons, Voyager provided scientists with better images and data than they had ever had before or expected from the program. Although launched sixteen days after Voyager 2, Voyager 1's trajectory was a faster path, arriving at Jupiter in March 1979. Voyager 2 arrived about four months later in July 1979. Both spacecraft were then directed to Saturn with Voyager 1 arriving in November 1980 and Voyager 2 in August 1981. Voyager 2 was then diverted to the remaining gas giants, Uranus in January 1986 and Neptune in August 1989. Data collection continues by both Voyager 1 and 2 as the renamed Voyager Interstellar Mission searches for the edge of the solar wind influence (the heliopause) and exits the Solar System. A shortened list of the discoveries of Voyager 1 and 2 include:the discovery of the Uranian and Neptunian magnetospheres (magnetic environments caused by various types of planet cores), the discovery of twenty-two new satellites including three at Jupiter, three at Saturn, ten at Uranus, and six at Neptune, Io was found to have active volcanism (the only other Solar System body than Earth to be confirmed), Triton was found to have active geyser-like structures and an atmosphere, Auroral Zones (where gases become excited after being hit by solar particles) were discovered at Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune, Jupiter was found to have rings, Neptune, originally thought to be too cold to support such atmospheric disturbances, had large-scale storms. |
| Date |
UNKNOWN |
| NASA Center |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
|
Voyager 2 Launch
| Title |
Voyager 2 Launch |
| Full Description |
Voyager 2 was launched August 20, 1977, sixteen days before Voyager 1 aboard a Titan-Centaur rocket. Their different flight trajectories caused Voyager 2 to arrive at Jupiter four months later than Voyager 1, thus explaining their numbering. The initial mission plan for Voyager 2 specified visits only to Jupiter and Saturn. The plan was augmented in 1981 to include a visit to Uranus, and again in 1985 to include a flyby of Neptune. After completing the tour of the outer planets in 1989, the Voyager spacecraft began exploring interstellar space. The Voyager mission has been managed by NASA's Office of Space Science and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. |
| Date |
08/20/1977 |
| NASA Center |
Kennedy Space Center |
|
Saturn Seen from Far and Nea
…
| Title |
Saturn Seen from Far and Near |
|
Saturn, Rings, and Two Moons
| Title |
Saturn, Rings, and Two Moons |
| Explanation |
This image of Saturn was made by NASA's robot spacecraft Voyager [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/voyager.html ] 2 as it began to explore the Saturn system in 1981. Saturn's famous rings are visible along with two of its moons, Rhea and Dione which appear as faint dots in the right and lower right part of the picture. Astronomers believe that Saturn's moons play a fundamental role in sculpting its elaborate ring system. For more information about the picture see the NASA, JPL press release. [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/caption/saturn.txt ] |
|
Night side of Titan
| Title |
Night side of Titan |
| Description |
Voyager 2 obtained this wide-angle image of the night side of Titan on Aug. 25 at a high phase angle of 154` and a range of 907,000 kilometers (563,000 miles). Green and violet images were combined to make this photograph. The result is a view of the extended atmosphere of this satellite of Saturn, the bright orangish ring being caused by the atmosphere's scattering of the incident sunlight. The bluish outer ring is further evidence of scattering by the submicron size particles that extend several hundred kilometers above the main clouds. This type of photograph is a direct indication of Titan's extensive atmosphere. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena. |
| Date |
08.27.1981 |
|
Photograph of Saturns' satel
…
| Title |
Photograph of Saturns' satellite Tethys |
| Description |
This Voyager 2 photograph of Tethys shows objects about 5 kilometers (3 miles) in size and is one of the best images of the Saturnian satellite returned by the spacecraft or its predecessor, Voyager 1. Voyager 2 obtained this picture Aug. 26 from a range of 282,000 kilometers (175,000 miles). It has been specially processed by computer to bring out fine detail on the surface. A boundary between heavily cratered regions (top right) and more lightly cratered areas (bottom right) is very similar to boundaries on the moons Dione and Rhea, indicating a period of internal activity early in Tethys' history that partially resurfaced the older terrain. The large crater in the upper right lies almost on the huge trench system that girdles nearly three-fourths of the circumference of the satellite. The trench itself is seen in this image as a linear set of markings to the lower left of the crater. The trench, several kilometers deep, is indicative of a cold, stiff ice crust at the time of its formation. Formation of this trench system could have resulted from the expansion of Tethys as its warm interior froze. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. |
| Date |
08.31.1981 |
|
Pictures of Tethys' large cr
…
| Title |
Pictures of Tethys' large crater. |
| Description |
This series of Voyager 2 pictures of Tethys shows its distinctive large crater, 400 kilometers (250 miles) in diameter, as it rotates toward the termination and limb of this satellite of Saturn. These images were obtained at four-hour intervals beginning late Aug. 24 and ending early the next day, the distances were 1.1 million km. (670,000 mi.), 826,000 km. (510,000 mi.) and 680,000 km. (420,000 mi.), respectively. The crater, the remnant of a large impact, has a central peak and several concentric rings. Some grooves radiating from the center may be formed of material thrown from the crater during the impact. The bottom frame, with the crater in profile, reveals that its floor has risen back to the spherical shape of the satellite, unlike the large crater seen on Tethys sister moon Mimas. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. |
| Date |
08.26.1981 |
|
Rhea - icy cratered surface
| Title |
Rhea - icy cratered surface |
| Description |
The icy, cratered surface of Saturn's moon Rhea is seen in this image taken by Voyager 1 on Nov. 12, 1980, at a range of 85,000 kilometers (52,800 miles) as the spacecraft passed over the satellite's north pole. The heavily cratered surface attests to the satellite's ancient age. The largest craters, 50 to 100 kilometers (30 to 60 miles) across and several kilometers deep, are freshly preserved in Rhea's icy crust. The craters and landscape resemble those on the Moon and Mercury, and are unlike the flattened crater forms that have collapsed in the soft icy crusts of the Jovian moons Callisto, Ganymede and Europa. Scientists believe that Rhea (which is just 1,600 kilometers or 995 miles in diameter, compared to the 5,500-kilometer or 3,400-mile diameter of Ganymede) froze and became rigid, behaving like a rocky surface, very early in its history. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. |
| Date |
02.10.1981 |
|
Saturn - Enceladus from a di
…
| Title |
Saturn - Enceladus from a distance of 119,000 kilometers (74,000 miles) |
| Description |
This Voyager 2 mosaic of Enceladus was made from images taken through the clear, violet and green filters Aug. 25, 1981, from a distance of 119,000 kilometers (74,000 miles). In many ways, the surface of this satellite of Saturn resembles that of Jupiter's Galilean satellite Ganymede. Enceladus, however, is only one-tenth Ganymede's size. Some regions of Enceladus show impact craters up to 35 kilometers (22 miles) in diameter, whereas other areas are smooth and uncratered. Linear sets of grooves tens of kilometers long traverse the surface and are probably faults resulting from deformation of the crust. The uncratered regions are geologically young and suggest that Enceladus has experienced a period of relatively recent internal melting. The rims of several craters near the lower center of the picture have been flooded by the smooth terrain. The satellite is about 500 kilometers (310 miles) in diameter and has the brightest and whitest surface of any of Saturn's satellites. Features as small as 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) are visible in this highest-resolution view of Enceladus. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. |
| Date |
08.28.1981 |
|
Saturn - high-resolution fil
…
| Title |
Saturn - high-resolution filtered image of Enceladus |
| Description |
This high-resolution filtered image of Enceladus was made from several images obtained Aug. 25 by Voyager 2 from a range of 119,000 kilometers (74,000 miles). It shows further surface detail on this Saturnian moon (also viewed in the accompanying release P-23955C/BW, S-2-50, imaged about the same time). Enceladus is seen to resemble Jupiter's Galilean satellite Ganymede, which is, however, about 10 times larger. Faintly visible here in "Saturnshine" is the hemisphere turned away from the sun. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. |
| Date |
08.28.1981 |
|
Saturn - large crater on Tet
…
| Title |
Saturn - large crater on Tethys |
| Description |
Special processing has brought out surface detail in this Voyager 2 image focusing on the large crater on Tethys. The spacecraft took this photograph Aug. 25, when it was 826,000 kilometers (513,000 miles) from the icy moon of Saturn. Here, resolution is about 15 km. (9 mi.). The crater has been flattened by the flow of softer ice and no longer shows the deep bowl shape characteristic of fresh craters in hard, cold ice or rock. It appears to have been formed early in Tethys' history, at a time when its interior was still relatively warm and soft. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. |
| Date |
08.30.1981 |
|
Saturn - Tethys from 594,000
…
| Title |
Saturn - Tethys from 594,000 kilometers (368,000 miles) away. |
| Description |
Voyager 2 obtained this image of Tethys on Aug. 25, when the spacecraft was 594,000 kilometers (368,000 miles) from this satellite of Saturn. This photograph was compiled from images taken through the violet, clear and green filters of Voyager's narrow-angle camera. Tethys shows two distinct types of terrain--bright, densely cratered regions, and relatively dark, lightly cratered planes that extend in a broad belt across the satellite. The densely cratered terrain is believed to be part of the ancient crust of the satellite, the lightly cratered planes are thought to have been formed later by internal processes. Also clearly seen is a trough that runs parallel to the terminator (the day-night boundary, seen at right). This trough is an extension of the huge canyon system Voyager 1 saw last fall. This system extends nearly two-thirds the distance around Tethys. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. |
| Date |
08.27.1981 |
|
Saturn With Rhea and Dione (
…
| Title |
Saturn With Rhea and Dione (false color) |
| Description |
NASA's Voyager 2 took this 'false color' photograph of Saturn on July 21, 1981, when the spacecraft was 33.9 million kilometers (21 million miles) from the planet. Two bright, presumably convective cloud patterns are visible in the mid-northern hemisphere and several dark spoke-like features can be seen in the broad B-ring (left of planet). The moons Rhea and Dione appear as blue dots to the south and southeast of Saturn, respectively. Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Saturn on Aug. 25, 1981. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California |
| Date |
08.13.1981 |
|
Saturn's Atmospheric Changes
| Title |
Saturn's Atmospheric Changes |
| Description |
Saturn's rings are bright and its northern hemisphere defined by bright features as NASA's Voyager 2 approaches Saturn, which it will encounter on Aug. 25, 1981. Three images, taken through ultraviolet, violet and green filters on July 12, 1981, were combined to make this photograph. Several changes are apparent in Saturn's atmosphere since Voyager 1's November 1980 encounter, and the planet's rings have brightened considerably due to the higher sun angle. Voyager 2 was 43 million kilometers (27 million miles) from Saturn when it took this photograph. The Voyager project is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. |
| Date |
08.22.1981 |
|
Saturn's B-ring
| Title |
Saturn's B-ring |
| Description |
Prominent dark spokes are visible in the outer half of Saturn's broad B-ring in this Voyager 2 photograph taken on Aug. 3, 1981 from a range of about 22 million kilometers (14 million miles). The features appear as filamentary markings about 12,000 kilometers (7,S00 miles) long, which rotate around the planet with the motion of particles in the rings. The nature of these features, discovered by Voyager 1, is not totally understood, but scientists believe the spokes may be caused by dust levitated above the ring plane by electric fields, Voyager 2 photography of the rings edge-on, scheduled for Aug. 25, 1981, will provide an opportunity to test that theory. Because the Sun is now illuminating the rings from a higher angle, Voyager 2's photographs reveal ring structure from a greater distance than that seen by Voyager 1 in its November 1980 encounter. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. |
| Date |
08.13.1981 |
|
Saturn's moon Tethys
| Title |
Saturn's moon Tethys |
| Description |
Voyager 2 obtained this view of Saturn's moon Tethys on Aug.25 from a distance of 540,000 kilometers (335,000 miles). It shows the numerous impact craters and fault valleys of a very ancient surface. Tethys itself is 1,090 km. (675 mi.) in diameter, and the great chasm seen at the top of this image extends 1,700 km. (1,050 mi.), halfway across the satellite. The largest impact crater visible here is 90 km. (55 mi.) in diameter. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. |
| Date |
08.26.1981 |
|
Saturn's outer satellite, Ph
…
| Title |
Saturn's outer satellite, Phoebe. |
| Description |
Voyager 2 took this photo of Saturn's outer satellite, Phoebe, on Sept. 4, 1981, from 2.2 million kilometers (1.36 million miles) away. The photo shows that Phoebe is about 200 kilometers (120 miles) in diameter, about twice the size of Earth-based measurements, and dark, with five percent reflectivity -- much darker than any other Saturnian satellite. That, and information from Earth-based observations, indicates Phoebe is almost certainly a captured asteroid, and did not form in the original Saturn nebula as Saturn's other satellites did. Phoebe is the only Saturnian satellite that does not always show the same face to Saturn: Its orbital period is 550 days. Its rotation period (length of day), determined from Voyager 2 observations, is nine to ten hours. Other ground-based observations that indicate that Phoebe is a captured asteroid: It orbits Saturn in the ecliptic plane (the plane in which Earth and most other planets orbit the Sun), rather than in Saturn's equatorial plane as the other Saturn satellites do. And Phoebe's orbit is retrograde -- in the direction opposite to that of the other satellites. Voyager is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. |
| Date |
09.11.1981 |
|
Saturn's rings - high resolu
…
| Title |
Saturn's rings - high resolution |
| Description |
Voyager 2 obtained this high-resolution picture of Saturn's rings Aug. 22, when the spacecraft was 4 million kilometers (2.5 million miles) away. Evident here are the numerous "spoke" features, in the B-ring, their very sharp, narrow appearance suggests short formation times. Scientists think electromagnetic forces are responsible in some way for these features, but no detailed theory has been worked out. Pictures such as this and analyses of Voyager 2's spoke movies may reveal more clues about the origins of these complex structures. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. |
| Date |
08.24.1981 |
|
Saturn's shadow upon the rin
…
| Title |
Saturn's shadow upon the rings |
| Description |
Voyager 2 returned this wide-angle, clear-filtered image of the shadow of Saturn upon the rings just after engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory successfully commanded the camera platform to point to the planet. Problems with the platform had prevented the spacecraft from returning photographs the past few days. This first picture after the repair was obtained the evening of Aug. 28, when Voyager 2 was 3.2 million kilometers (2 million miles) from the planet and racing away at more than 26,000 mph. Saturn's nightside can be seen at upper left, with the shadow cast by the planet falling across the rings in the center of this image. The white lines, or "noise," across the photograph are the result of temporary ground communications troubles between the Australian Deep Space Network tracking station and Voyager mission control in Pasadena. The picture was received in Australia in perfect condition, the noise will be removed in subsequent processing. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. |
| Date |
08.29.1981 |
|
Surface of Enceladus
| Title |
Surface of Enceladus |
| Description |
The surface of Enceladus is seen in this closeup view obtained Aug. 25, when Voyager 2 was 112,000 kilometers (69,500 miles) from this satellite of Saturn. This view, in which Enceladus north pole is toward the bottom right, shows the moon to bear a striking resemblance of Ganymede, the largest Galilean satellite of Jupiter. Moderately cratered areas have been transected by strips of younger grooved terrain. This more recently formed terrain--the light cratering says it must be relatively young--has consumed portions of craters such as those near the bottom center of this picture. This suggests that Enceladus has experienced internal melting even though it is only about 490 km. (300 mi.) in diameter. The grooves and linear features indicate that the satellite has been subjected to considerable crustal deformation as a result of this internal melting. The largest crater visible here is about 35 km. (20 mi.) across. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. |
| Date |
08.26.1981 |
|
Tethys
| Title |
Tethys |
| Description |
The Saturn satellite Tethys was viewed by Voyager 2 on Aug. 25 from a distance of 1 million kilometers (620,000 mi.). Evident on the surface of this icy moon is an enormous impact crater almost 400 km. (250 mi.) in diameter and about 15 km. (10 mi.) deep. Tethys itself is only 1,050 km. (650 mi.) in diameter. The crater contains a central peak about as high as the crater is deep, it is the result of rebound after the impact. Tethys resembles its sister satellite Mimas, seen closeup by Voyager 1 last fall. That body has a crater 130 km. (80 mi.) in diameter. The Tethys crater, which is so large that Mimas would fit inside, is on the opposite side of the great rift valley observed by Voyager 1. Many other, smaller craters pock-mark the surface here. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. |
| Date |
08.25.1981 |
|
High resolution view of Teth
…
| Title |
High resolution view of Tethys |
| Description |
This highest-resolution view of Tethys was obtained Aug. 26 when Voyager 2 was 120,000 kilometers (74,500 miles) from this satellite of Saturn. This image was taken 1 1/2 hours after the spacecraft passed through the planet's ring plane. The smallest features visible here are about 2.2 km. (1.4 mi.) across. The heavily cratered terrain implies a very old surface that has changed little since shortly after the solar system formed. Tethys is a bright object made largely of ice, it has a diameter of 1,050 km. (650 mi.). The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. |
| Date |
08.28.1981 |
|
Titan
| Title |
Titan |
| Description |
This narrow-angle camera image of Titan was taken through the Clear filter from a distance of 0.9 million km on 25 August 1981. With a phase angle of 155 degrees, the thick atmosphere can be seen illuminated completely around the disk. A distinct upper haze layer is present over much of the circumference of the disk. JPL managed the Voyager Project for NASA's Office of Space Science. |
| Date |
05.25.2000 |
|
Iapetus Bright and Dark Terr
…
| Title |
Iapetus Bright and Dark Terrains |
| Description |
Saturn's outermost large moon, Iapetus, has a bright, heavily cratered icy terrain and a dark terrain, as shown in this Voyager 2 image taken on August 22, 1981. Amazingly, the dark material covers precisely the side of Iapetus that leads in the direction of orbital motion around Saturn (except for the poles), whereas the bright material occurs on the trailing hemisphere and at the poles. The bright terrain is made of dirty ice, and the dark terrain is surfaced by carbonaceous molecules, according to measurements made with Earth-based telescopes. Iapetus' dark hemisphere has been likened to tar or asphalt and is so dark that no details within this terrain were visible to Voyager 2. The bright icy hemisphere, likened to dirty snow, shows many large impact craters. The closest approach by Voyager 2 to Iapetus was a relatively distant 600,000 miles, so that our best images, such as this, have a resolution of about 12 miles. The dark material is made of organic substances, probably including poisonous cyano compounds such as frozen hydrogen cyanide polymers. Though we know a little about the dark terrain's chemical nature, we do not understand its origin. Two theories have been developed, but neither is fully satisfactory--(1) the dark material may be organic dust knocked off the small neighboring satellite Phoebe and "painted" onto the leading side of Iapetus as the dust spirals toward Saturn and Iapetus hurtles through the tenuous dust cloud, or (2) the dark material may be made of icy-cold carbonaceous "cryovolcanic" lavas that were erupted from Iapetus' interior and then blackened by solar radiation, charged particles, and cosmic rays. A determination of the actual cause, as well as discovery of any other geologic features smaller than 12 miles across, awaits the Cassini Saturn orbiter to arrive in 2004. |
| Date |
04.01.1990 |
|
Voyager 2 image of Saturn
| Title |
Voyager 2 image of Saturn |
| Description |
This Voyager 2 image, taken Aug. 18 from a distance of 6.8 million kilometers (4.2 million miles), shows the region extending from 20 north latitude to Saturn's polar region. Several small-scale spots evident at around 37 north move in an easterly jet at a speed approaching 15 meters-per-second (33 mph). Toward the boundary with the white cloud band are several cloud strands that mark part of the westerly flow of the atmosphere. This flow reaches a maximum in the "ribbonlike" structure, with wind speeds of about 150 meters-per-second (330 mph). Further cloud bands and small-scale spots can be seen toward Saturn's north pole. The smallest features evident here measure about 65 km. (40 mi.) across. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. |
| Date |
08.21.1981 |
|
Wide-Angle Image of Saturn's
…
| Title |
Wide-Angle Image of Saturn's Rings |
| Description |
This wide-angle image of Saturn's rings was taken Aug. 26 just before Voyager 2's crossing of the plane of these complex structures. The spacecraft was 103,000 kilometers (64,000 miles) from the rings when it acquired this image. This extremely oblique view of the bright side of the rings highly magnifies features near the bottom of the picture and compresses features across to the other side of the west ansa (the western edge of the loop in the rings). Starting from the bottom, one can see the F-ring, the A-ring with the Encke Gap, the Cassini Division (the narrow dark band at center), the B-ring and the C-ring. The high-contrast bright and dark areas of the C-ring are seen at right, then, continuing upward, come the B- and A-rings straddling the Cassini Division and a very foreshortened view of the A-ring. The bright streaks in the B-ring are the spokes in forward-scattered light. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. |
| Date |
08.29.1981 |
|
The Other Side of Iapetus
PIA08384
Saturn
Imaging Science Subsystem -
…
| Title |
The Other Side of Iapetus |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Cassini captures the first high-resolution glimpse of the bright trailing hemisphere of Saturn's moon Iapetus. This false-color mosaic shows the entire hemisphere of Iapetus (1,468 kilometers, or 912 miles across) visible from Cassini on the outbound leg of its encounter with the two-toned moon in Sept. 2007. The central longitude of the trailing hemisphere is 24 degrees to the left of the mosaic's center. Also shown here is the complicated transition region between the dark leading and bright trailing hemispheres. This region, visible along the right side of the image, was observed in many of the images acquired by Cassini near closest approach during the encounter. Revealed here for the first time in detail are the geologic structures that mark the trailing hemisphere. The region appears heavily cratered, particularly in the north and south polar regions. Near the top of the mosaic, numerous impact features visible in NASA Voyager 2 spacecraft images (acquired in 1981) are visible, including the craters Ogier and Charlemagne. The most prominent topographic feature in this view, in the bottom half of the mosaic, is a 450-kilometer (280-mile) wide impact basin, one of at least nine such large basins on Iapetus. In fact, the basin overlaps an older, similar-sized impact basin to its southeast. In many places, the dark material--thought to be composed of nitrogen-bearing organic compounds called cyanides, hydrated minerals and other carbonaceous minerals--appears to coat equator-facing slopes and crater floors. The distribution of this material and variations in the color of the bright material across the trailing hemisphere will be crucial clues to understanding the origin of Iapetus' peculiar bright-dark dual personality. The view was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 10, 2007, at a distance of about 73,000 kilometers (45,000 miles) from Iapetus. The color seen in this view represents an expansion of the wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum visible to human eyes. The intense reddish-brown hue of the dark material is far less pronounced in true color images. The use of enhanced color makes the reddish character of the dark material more visible than it would be to the naked eye. This mosaic consists of 60 images covering 15 footprints across the surface of Iapetus. The view is an orthographic projection centered on 10.8 degrees south latitude, 246.5 degrees west longitude and has a resolution of 426 meters (0.26 miles) per pixel. An orthographic view is most like the view seen by a distant observer looking through a telescope. At each footprint, a full resolution clear filter image was combined with half-resolution images taken with infrared, green and ultraviolet spectral filters (centered at 752, 568 and 338 nanometers, respectively) to create this full-resolution false color mosaic. 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/home/index.cfm [ http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov ]. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org [ http://ciclops.org ]. |
|
Saturn With Rhea and Dione (
…
PIA01143
Sol (our sun)
Imaging Science Subsystem -
…
| Title |
Saturn With Rhea and Dione (false color) |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
NASA's Voyager 2 took this 'false color' photograph of Saturn on July 21, 1981, when the spacecraft was 33.9 million kilometers (21 million miles) from the planet. Two bright, presumably convective cloud patterns are visible in the mid-northern hemisphere and several dark spoke-like features can be seen in the broad B-ring (left of planet). The moons Rhea and Dione appear as blue dots to the south and southeast of Saturn, respectively. Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Saturn on Aug. 25, 1981. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California |
|
Uranus - Final Image
PIA00143
Sol (our sun)
Imaging Science Subsystem -
…
| Title |
Uranus - Final Image |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
This view of Uranus was recorded by Voyager 2 on Jan 25, 1986, as the spacecraft left the planet behind and set forth on the cruise to Neptune Voyager was 1 million kilometers (about 600,000 miles) from Uranus when it acquired this wide-angle view. The picture -- a color composite of blue, green and orange frames -- has a resolution of 140 km (90 mi). The thin crescent of Uranus is seen here at an angle of 153 degrees between the spacecraft, the planet and the Sun. Even at this extreme angle, Uranus retains the pale blue-green color seen by ground-based astronomers and recorded by Voyager during its historic encounter. This color results from the presence of methane in Uranus' atmosphere, the gas absorbs red wavelengths of light, leaving the predominant hue seen here. The tendency for the crescent to become white at the extreme edge is caused by the presence of a high-altitude haze Voyager 2 -- having encountered Jupiter in 1979, Saturn in 1981 and Uranus in 1986 -- will proceed on its journey to Neptune. Closest approach is scheduled for Aug 24, 1989. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. |
|
Jupiter with Io Crossing
PIA00455
Sol (our sun)
Imaging Science Subsystem -
…
| Title |
Jupiter with Io Crossing |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Jupiter's satellite Io poses before the giant planet in this photo returned January 17, 1979, from a distance of 29 million miles (47 million kilometers). The satellite's shadow can be seen falling on the face of Jupiter at left. Io is traveling from left to right in its one-and-three-quarter-day orbit around Jupiter. Even from this great distance the image of Io shows dark poles and a bright equatorial region. Voyager will make its closest approach to Jupiter -- 174,000 miles (280,000 kilometer) -- on March 5. It will then continue to Saturn in November 1980, Meanwhile Voyager 2, a sister spacecraft, will fly past Jupiter July 9, 1979, and reach Saturn in August 1981. This color image was taken through orange, green and blue filters. The Voyagers are managed for NASA's Office of Space Science by Jet Propulsion Laboratory. |
|
Enceladus: Trailing Hemisphe
…
PIA08353
Saturn
Imaging Science Subsystem -
…
| Title |
Enceladus: Trailing Hemisphere |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
A variety of surface ages is revealed in this 16-image mosaic taken during Cassini's first close flyby of Enceladus, on Feb. 17, 2005. This mosaic shows the trailing hemisphere of Enceladus -- the side of Enceladus that always faces away from the direction of the satellite's orbital motion. This hemisphere is dominated by Sarandib Planitia (just right of center), a region thought to be dominated by smooth plains in NASA Voyager 2 images taken in August 1981, but shown here in much higher resolution images to be covered in low ridges and troughs. Other major features seen in the region include Labtayt Sulci, a 1-kilometer- (0.6-mile-) deep canyon running northward from a cusp in the south polar terrain boundary (Cashmere Sulci) at lower right to a set of 1-kilometer-tall ridges (Cufa Dorsa and Ebony Dorsum) east of Sarandib Planitia (also seen in PIA06191 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06191 ]), as well as Samarkand Sulci, a band of ridges and troughs running along the western margin of Sarandib Planitia almost all the way north to Enceladus' north pole. In contrast to the youthful terrain of Sarandib Planitia and the terrain south of it, the terrain north and west of Sarandib appears much older. These regions are covered with impact craters at various stages of degradation, either from viscous relaxation (which causes the craters to flatten over time), or from tectonic activity. To create this single full-disk mosaic, the 16 images were reprojected into an orthographic projection centered at 2.3 degrees north latitude, 317.7 degrees west longitude with a pixel scale of 63 meters (207 feet) per pixel. The original images were taken by the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle and wide-angle cameras from distances ranging from 10,850 to 29,750 kilometers (6,740 to 18,490 miles). The images had a phase, or sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, angle of 28 degrees. 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/home/index.cfm [ http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov ]. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org [ http://ciclops.org ]. |
|
Saturn With Rhea and Dione (
…
PIA00030
Sol (our sun)
| Title |
Saturn With Rhea and Dione (true color) |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
NASA's Voyager 2 took this 'true color' photograph of Saturn on July 21, 1981, when the spacecraft was 33.9 million kilometers (21 million miles) from the planet. Two bright, presumably convective cloud patterns are visible in the mid-northern hemisphere and several dark spoke-like features can be seen in the broad B-ring (left of planet). The moons Rhea and Dione appear as blue dots to the south and southeast of Saturn, respectively. Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Saturn on Aug. 25, 1981. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. |
|
Watching Saturn's Winds
PIA07670
Sol (our sun)
Imaging Science Subsystem -
…
| Title |
Watching Saturn's Winds |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Subtle features in Saturn's equatorial region and the nearly edge-on rings are captured in this view. Images like this will be carefully studied to see if changes in wind speed recorded in Hubble Space Telescope images are continuing, or whether the winds have reverted to their high-speed configuration measured by Voyager in 1981. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 6, 2005 using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 727 nanometers and at a distance of approximately 3 million kilometers (1.9 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 35 kilometers (22 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 [ http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov ]. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org [ http://ciclops.org ]. |
|
Saturn and its rings
PIA01969
Sol (our sun)
Imaging Science Subsystem -
…
| Title |
Saturn and its rings |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Voyager 1 looked back at Saturn on Nov. 16, 1980, four days after the spacecraft flew past the planet, to observe the appearance of Saturn and its rings from this unique perspective. A few of the spokelike ring features discovered by Voyager appear in the rings as bright patches in this image, taken at a distance of 5.3 million kilometers (3.3 million miles) from the planet. Saturn's shadow falls upon the rings, and the bright Saturn crescent is seen through all but the densest portion of the rings. From Saturn, Voyager 1 is on a trajectory taking the spacecraft out of the ecliptic plane, away from the Sun and eventually out of the solar system (by about 1990). Although its mission to Jupiter and Saturn is nearly over (the Saturn encounter ends Dec. 18, 1980), Voyager 1 will be tracked by the Deep Space Network as far as possible in an effort to determine where the influence of the Sun ends and interstellar space begins. Voyager 1's flight path through interstellar space is in the direction of the constellation Ophiuchus. Voyager 2 will reach Saturn on August 25, 1981, and is targeted to encounter Uranus in 1986 and possibly Neptune in 1989. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. |
|
Saturn's Atmospheric Changes
PIA03152
Sol (our sun)
Imaging Science Subsystem -
…
| Title |
Saturn's Atmospheric Changes |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Saturn's rings are bright and its northern hemisphere defined by bright features as NASA's Voyager 2 approaches Saturn, which it will encounter on Aug. 25, 1981. Three images, taken through ultraviolet, violet and green filters on July 12, 1981, were combined to make this photograph. Several changes are apparent in Saturn's atmosphere since Voyager 1's November 1980 encounter, and the planet's rings have brightened considerably due to the higher sun angle. Voyager 2 was 43 million kilometers (27 million miles) from Saturn when it took this photograph. The Voyager project is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. |
|
On the Final Frontier
PIA08388
Saturn
Imaging Science Subsystem -
…
| Title |
On the Final Frontier |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Saturn sits nested in its rings of ice as Cassini once again plunges toward the graceful giant. This natural color mosaic was acquired by the Cassini spacecraft as it soared 39 degrees above the unilluminated side of the rings. Little light makes its way through the rings to be scattered in Cassini's direction in this viewing geometry, making the rings appear somewhat dark compared to the reflective planet. The view can be contrasted with earlier mosaics designed to showcase the rings rather than the planet, which were therefore given longer exposure times (see PIA08362 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08362 ] and PIA08361 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08361 ]). Bright clouds play in the blue-gray skies of the north. The ring shadows continue to caress the planet as they slide farther south toward their momentary disappearance during equinox in 2009. The rings' reflected light illuminates the southern hemisphere on Saturn's night side. The scene is reminiscent of the parting glance of NASA's Voyager 1 as it said goodbye to Saturn in 1981 (see PIA00335 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00335 ]). Cassini, however, will continue to orbit Saturn for many years to come. Three of Saturn's moons are visible in this image: Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) at the 2 o'clock position, Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) at the 4 o'clock position and Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) at the 8 o'clock position. Pandora is a faint speck just outside the narrow F ring. This mosaic was constructed from wide-angle camera images taken just before the narrow-angle camera mosaic PIA08389 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08389 ]. The view combines 45 images -- 15 separate sets of red, green and blue images--taken over the course of about two hours, as Cassini scanned across the entire main ring system. The images in this view were obtained on May 9, 2007, at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is about 62 kilometers (39 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/home/index.cfm [ http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov ]. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org [ http://ciclops.org ]. |
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