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Images of Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and Washington, D.C. and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
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Hubble Image of He2-90
This mysterious object that
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8/31/00
| Date |
8/31/00 |
| Description |
This mysterious object that seems to defy classification was found by astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The object has been classified as a planetary nebula, the glowing remains of a Sun-like star in its death throes, although the Hubble observations suggest it may not fit that classification, either. A quick glance at the Hubble picture at top shows that the object, He2-90, looks like a young, dust-enshrouded star with narrow jets of material resembling strings of beads streaming from each side. The other light streaks running diagonally from He2-90 are artificial effects of the telescope's optical system. Each jet possesses at least six bright clumps of gas speeding along at rates estimated to be at least 600,000 kilometers an hour (375,000 miles an hour). These gaseous clumps are ejected into space about every 100 years and may be caused by periodic instabilities in He2-90's accretion disk. Jets from very young stars behave in a similar way. Deep images taken from a terrestrial observatory show each jet extending at least 100,000 astronomical units (one astronomical unit equals the Earth-Sun distance, 150 million kilometers or 93 million miles). The Hubble astronomers, Dr. Raghvendra Sahai of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and Lars-Ake Nyman of the European Southern Observatory, Chile, and Onsala Space Observatory, Sweden, suspect that He2-9 is a pair of aging stars masquerading as a single youngster. One member of the duo is a bloated red giant star shedding matter from its outer layers. This matter is then captured by gravity in a rotating accretion disk around a compact partner, most likely a young white dwarf (the collapsed remnant of a Sun-like star). The stars are not visible in the Hubble images because they're obscured by a disk of dust. The jets' relatively modest speed implies that one member of the duo is a white dwarf. An accretion disk needs gravity to form. For gravity to create He2-90's disk, the two stars must reside at a cozy distance from each other: within about 10 astronomical units. Astronomers are uncertain about the details, but they believe that magnetic fields associated with accretion disks produce and constrict the pencil-thin jets seen in the Hubble image. The close-up Hubble photo at bottom shows a dark, flaring, disk-like structure (off-center) bisecting the bright light from the object. The disk is seen edge-on. Although this disk is too large to be an accretion disk, it may provide indirect proof of the disk's existence. Most theories for producing jets require the presence of an accretion disk. The round, white objects at the lower left and upper right corners are two bright clumps of gas in the jets, which are close to the companion star. The astronomers traced the jets to within 1,000 astronomical units of the central obscured star. The star ejected this material about 30 years ago. This oddball star was discovered during an imaging survey of planetary nebulae. The images were taken Sept. 28, 1999 with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The images and results appear in the Aug. 1 issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters. JPL designed and built the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md, manages space operations for the Hubble Space Telescope for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. ##### |
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LOS ALAMOS FIRE IMAGED BY NA
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The fire that has raged out
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5/19/00
| Date |
5/19/00 |
| Description |
The fire that has raged out of control this month near Los Alamos, New Mexico, was captured in a series of images by the Multi-angle Imaging Spectro-Radiometer (MISR) on NASA's Terra satellite. The picture is available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pictures/misr These true-color images covering north-central New Mexico capture the bluish-white smoke plume of the Los Alamos fire, just west of the Rio Grande river. The middle image is a downward-looking or "nadir" view taken by MISR. As the satellite flew from north to south, the instrument viewed the scene from nine different angles. The top image was taken by the MISR camera looking 60 degrees forward along its orbit, whereas the bottom image looks 60 degrees aft. The fire plume stands out more dramatically in the steep-angle views. Its color and brightness also change with angle. By comparison, a thin, white water cloud appears in the upper right portion of the scene, and is most easily detected in the top image. MISR scientists use these angle-to-angle differences to monitor particulate pollution and to identify different types of haze. Such observations allow scientists to study how airborne particles interact with sunlight, a measure of their impact on Earth's climate system. The images are about 400 km (250 miles) wide. The spatial resolution of the nadir image is 275 meters (300 yards), resolution is 1.1 kilometers (1,200 yards) for the off-nadir images. North is toward the top. MISR is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, for NASA' s Office of Earth Science, Washington, D.C. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. ##### Photo credit: NASA/GSFC/JPL, MISR Science Team. |
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Pine Island Glacier, Antarct
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These two images of Pine Isl
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4/3/01
| Date |
4/3/01 |
| Description |
These two images of Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica show the recently discovered 25-kilometer (15-mile) long crack that scientists expect will turn into a large iceberg within the next 18 months. The views from NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) on the Terra satellite also reveal differences in the ice sheet's surface texture, highlighting surface fractures and enabling distinction of rough crevasses from smooth blue ice. The image data shown was acquired on December 12, 2000, during Terra orbit 5246. At left is a conventional, true-color image from the downward-looking (nadir) camera. The false-color image at right is a composite of red-band data taken by the MISR forward 60-degree, nadir, and aftward 60-degree cameras, displayed in red, green and blue, respectively. Color variations in the true-color image at left highlight spectral differences. In the multi-angle composite, on the other hand, color variations act as a proxy for differences in the angular reflectance properties of the scene. In this representation, clouds show up as light purple. Blue to orange gradations on the surface indicate a transition in ice texture from smooth to rough. For example, the bright orange carrot-like features are rough crevasses on the glacier's tongue. In the conventional nadir view, the blue ice labeled "rough crevasses"' and "smooth blue ice" are similarly colored, but the multi-angle composite reveals their different textures, with the smoother ice appearing dark purple instead of orange. This could be an indicator of different mechanisms by which this ice is exposed. The multi-angle view also reveals subtle roughness variations on the frozen sea ice between the glacier and the open water in Pine Island Bay. To the left of the 'icebergs' label are chunks of floating ice. Smaller icebergs embedded in the frozen sea ice are visible below and to the right of the label. These small icebergs are associated with dark streaks. Analysis of the illumination geometry suggests that these streaks are surface features, not shadows. Wind-driven motion and thinning of the sea ice in the vicinity of the icebergs are a possible explanation. Recently, Robert Bindschadler, a glaciologist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center discovered in Landsat 7 imagery a newly-formed crack traversing the Pine Island Glacier. This crack is visible as an off-vertical dark line in the MISR nadir view. In the multi-angle composite, the crack and other stress fractures show up very clearly in bright orange. Radar observations of Pine Island Glacier in the 1990's showed the glacier to be shrinking, and the newly discovered crack is expected to eventually lead to the calving of a major iceberg. MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calf., for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, D.C. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology. Image credit: NASA/JPL/GSFC/LaRC, MISR Team ##### |
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Splendid Splinter
| Title |
Splendid Splinter |
| Description |
The spiral galaxy NGC 5907, sometimes known as the "Splinter Galaxy" because of its unusual appearance, is located in the constellation Draco. It is fairly bright, and appears elongated because it has an edge-on alignment when viewed from Earth. It also has a strong set of dust lanes, visible in this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope as red features. The central lane is so pronounced at visible light wavelengths, where it blocks our view of the starlight, that the galaxy was once mistaken for two objects and given two entries in the original New General Catalogue. The catalogue, published by J.L.E. Dreyer in 1888, was an attempt to collect a complete list of all nebulae and star clusters known at the time. NGC 5907's special orientation and close proximity to Earth have made it a popular target for observation by both professional and amateur astronomers. Over the last decade, ever-improving infrared instrumentation have allowed scientists to detect light from the galaxy that was until now hidden by dust. Recent observations using Spitzer's InfraRed Array Camera at infrared wavelengths from 3-10 microns resulted in the discovery of a significant and potentially massive thick stellar disk. This is the first time that a thick disk has been detected and characterized in the infrared. This image is composed of images obtained at four wavelengths: 3.6 microns (blue), 4.5 microns (green), 5.8 microns (orange) and 8 microns (red). The contribution from starlight has been subtracted from the 5.8 and 8 micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features. |
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Mysterious Blob Galaxies Rev
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| Title |
Mysterious Blob Galaxies Revealed |
| Description |
This image composite shows a giant galactic blob (red, left) and the three merging galaxies NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope discovered within it (yellow, right). Blobs are intensely glowing clouds of hot hydrogen gas that envelop faraway galaxies. They are about 10 times as large as the galaxies they surround. Visible-light images like the one shown here (left), reveal the vast extent of blobs, but don't provide much information about their host galaxies. Using its heat-seeking infrared eyes, Spitzer was able to see the dusty galaxies tucked inside one well-known blob located 11 billion light-years away. The findings reveal three monstrously bright galaxies, trillions of times brighter than the Sun, in the process of merging together (right). Spitzer also observed three other blobs located in the same cosmic neighborhood, all of which were found to be glaringly bright. One of these blobs is also known to be a galactic merger, only between two galaxies instead of three. It remains to be seen whether the final two blobs studied also contain mergers. The Spitzer data were acquired by its multiband imaging photometer. The visible-light image was taken by the Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Chile. |
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Mysterious Blob Galaxies Rev
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| Title |
Mysterious Blob Galaxies Revealed |
| Description |
This image composite shows a giant galactic blob (red, left) and the three merging galaxies NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope discovered within it (yellow, right). Blobs are intensely glowing clouds of hot hydrogen gas that envelop faraway galaxies. They are about 10 times as large as the galaxies they surround. Visible-light images like the one shown here (left), reveal the vast extent of blobs, but don't provide much information about their host galaxies. Using its heat-seeking infrared eyes, Spitzer was able to see the dusty galaxies tucked inside one well-known blob located 11 billion light-years away. The findings reveal three monstrously bright galaxies, trillions of times brighter than the Sun, in the process of merging together (right). Spitzer also observed three other blobs located in the same cosmic neighborhood, all of which were found to be glaringly bright. One of these blobs is also known to be a galactic merger, only between two galaxies instead of three. It remains to be seen whether the final two blobs studied also contain mergers. The Spitzer data were acquired by its multiband imaging photometer. The visible-light image was taken by the Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Chile. |
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Mysterious Blob Galaxies Rev
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| Title |
Mysterious Blob Galaxies Revealed |
| Description |
This image composite shows a giant galactic blob (red, left) and the three merging galaxies NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope discovered within it (yellow, right). Blobs are intensely glowing clouds of hot hydrogen gas that envelop faraway galaxies. They are about 10 times as large as the galaxies they surround. Visible-light images like the one shown here (left), reveal the vast extent of blobs, but don't provide much information about their host galaxies. Using its heat-seeking infrared eyes, Spitzer was able to see the dusty galaxies tucked inside one well-known blob located 11 billion light-years away. The findings reveal three monstrously bright galaxies, trillions of times brighter than the Sun, in the process of merging together (right). Spitzer also observed three other blobs located in the same cosmic neighborhood, all of which were found to be glaringly bright. One of these blobs is also known to be a galactic merger, only between two galaxies instead of three. It remains to be seen whether the final two blobs studied also contain mergers. The Spitzer data were acquired by its multiband imaging photometer. The visible-light image was taken by the Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Chile. |
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Amazing Andromeda Galaxy
| Title |
Amazing Andromeda Galaxy |
| Description |
The many "personalities" of our great galactic neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy, are exposed in this new composite image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer and the Spitzer Space Telescope. The wide, ultraviolet eyes of Galaxy Evolution Explorer reveal Andromeda's "fiery" nature -- hotter regions brimming with young and old stars. In contrast, Spitzer's super-sensitive infrared eyes show Andromeda's relatively "cool" side, which includes embryonic stars hidden in their dusty cocoons. Galaxy Evolution Explorer detected young, hot, high-mass stars, which are represented in blue, while populations of relatively older stars are shown as green dots. The bright yellow spot at the galaxy's center depicts a particularly dense population of old stars. Swaths of red in the galaxy's disk indicate areas where Spitzer found cool, dusty regions where stars are forming. These stars are still shrouded by the cosmic clouds of dust and gas that collapsed to form them. Together, Galaxy Evolution Explorer and Spitzer complete the picture of Andromeda's swirling spiral arms. Hints of pinkish purple depict regions where the galaxy's populations of hot, high-mass stars and cooler, dust-enshrouded stars co-exist. Located 2.5 million light-years away, the Andromeda is our largest nearby galactic neighbor. The galaxy's entire disk spans about 260,000 light-years, which means that a light beam would take 260,000 years to travel from one end of the galaxy to the other. By comparison, our Milky Way galaxy's disk is about 100,000 light-years across. This image is a false color composite comprised of data from Galaxy Evolution Explorer's far-ultraviolet detector (blue), near-ultraviolet detector (green), and Spitzer's multiband imaging photometer at 24 microns (red). |
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The Universe's First Firewor
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| Title |
The Universe's First Fireworks |
| Description |
The right panel is an image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope of stars and galaxies in the Ursa Major constellation. This infrared image covers a region of space so large that light would take up to 100 million years to travel across it. The left panel is the same image after stars, galaxies and other sources were masked out. The remaining background light is from a period of time when the universe was less than one billion years old, and most likely originated from the universe's very first groups of objects -- either huge stars or voracious black holes. Darker shades in the image on the left correspond to dimmer parts of the background glow, while yellow and white show the brightest light. |
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The Universe's First Firewor
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| Title |
The Universe's First Fireworks |
| Description |
The right panel is an image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope of stars and galaxies in the Ursa Major constellation. This infrared image covers a region of space so large that light would take up to 100 million years to travel across it. The left panel is the same image after stars, galaxies and other sources were masked out. The remaining background light is from a period of time when the universe was less than one billion years old, and most likely originated from the universe's very first groups of objects -- either huge stars or voracious black holes. Darker shades in the image on the left correspond to dimmer parts of the background glow, while yellow and white show the brightest light. |
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The Universe's First Firewor
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| Title |
The Universe's First Fireworks |
| Description |
The right panel is an image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope of stars and galaxies in the Ursa Major constellation. This infrared image covers a region of space so large that light would take up to 100 million years to travel across it. The left panel is the same image after stars, galaxies and other sources were masked out. The remaining background light is from a period of time when the universe was less than one billion years old, and most likely originated from the universe's very first groups of objects -- either huge stars or voracious black holes. Darker shades in the image on the left correspond to dimmer parts of the background glow, while yellow and white show the brightest light. |
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Brief History of the Univers
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| Title |
Brief History of the Universe |
| Description |
This artist's timeline chronicles the history of the universe, from its explosive beginning to its mature, present-day state. Our universe began in a tremendous explosion known as the Big Bang about 13.7 billion years ago (left side of strip). Observations by NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer and Wilkinson Anisotropy Microwave Probe revealed microwave light from this very early epoch, about 400,000 years after the Big Bang, providing strong evidence that our universe did blast into existence. Results from the Cosmic Background Explorer were honored with the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physics. A period of darkness ensued, until about a few hundred million years later, when the first objects flooded the universe with light. This first light is believed to have been captured in data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The light detected by Spitzer would have originated as visible and ultraviolet light, then stretched, or redshifted, to lower-energy infrared wavelengths during its long voyage to reach us across expanding space. The light detected by the Cosmic Background Explorer and the Wilkinson Anisotropy Microwave Probe from our very young universe traveled farther to reach us, and stretched to even lower-energy microwave wavelengths. Astronomers do not know if the very first objects were either stars or quasars. The first stars, called Population III stars (our star is a Population I star), were much bigger and brighter than any in our nearby universe, with masses about 1,000 times that of our sun. These stars first grouped together into mini-galaxies. By about a few billion years after the Big Bang, the mini-galaxies had merged to form mature galaxies, including spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way. The first quasars ultimately became the centers of powerful galaxies that are more common in the distant universe. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured stunning pictures of earlier galaxies, as far back as ten billion light-years away. |
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Dwarfs in Coma Cluster
| Title |
Dwarfs in Coma Cluster |
| Description |
This false-color mosaic of the central region of the Coma cluster combines infrared and visible-light images to reveal thousands of faint objects (green). Follow-up observations showed that many of these objects, which appear here as faint green smudges, are dwarf galaxies belonging to the cluster. Two large elliptical galaxies, NGC 4889 and NGC 4874, dominate the cluster's center. The mosaic combines visible-light data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (color coded blue) with long- and short-wavelength infrared views (red and green, respectively) from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. |
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Dwarfs in Coma Cluster
| Title |
Dwarfs in Coma Cluster |
| Description |
This false-color mosaic of the central region of the Coma cluster combines infrared and visible-light images to reveal thousands of faint objects (green). Follow-up observations showed that many of these objects, which appear here as faint green smudges, are dwarf galaxies belonging to the cluster. Two large elliptical galaxies, NGC 4889 and NGC 4874, dominate the cluster's center. The mosaic combines visible-light data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (color coded blue) with long- and short-wavelength infrared views (red and green, respectively) from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. |
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Galactic Fossil Revealed in
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| Title |
Galactic Fossil Revealed in Infrared Light |
| Description |
This animation demonstrates the power of infrared light to see what visible light cannot -- a newfound bundle of stars called a globular cluster. The movie shifts from a visible-light image to a near-infrared image to a new mid-infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The visible-light image is from the California Institute of Technology's Digitized Sky Survey and the near-infrared image is from the NASA-funded Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS). Globular clusters date back to the birth of our galaxy, 13 or so billion years ago. There are about 150 clusters sprinkled around the core of the galaxy like seeds in a pumpkin. Astronomers use these galactic "fossils" as tools for studying the age and formation of the Milky Way. Most clusters orbit around the center of the galaxy well above its dust-enshrouded disc, or plane, while making brief, repeated passes through the plane that each last about a million years. Spitzer, with infrared eyes that can see into the dusty galactic plane, first spotted the newfound cluster during its current pass. Astronomers then searched for past references to the cluster and found only one undocumented image from the Two Micron All-Sky Survey. Follow-up observations with the University of Wyoming Infrared Observatory helped set the distance of the new cluster at about 9,000 light-years from Earth -- closer than most clusters -- and set the mass at the equivalent of 300,000 Suns. The cluster's apparent size, as viewed from Earth, is comparable to a grain of rice held at arm's length. It is located in the constellation Aquila. Astronomers believe that this cluster may be one of the last in our galaxy to be uncovered. The Two Micron All-Sky Survey false-color image was obtained using near-infrared wavelengths ranging from 1.3 to 2.2 microns. The Spitzer false-color image composite was taken on April 21, 2004, by its infrared array camera. It is composed of images obtained at four mid-infrared wavelengths: 3.6 microns (blue), 4.5 microns (green), 5.8 microns (orange) and 8 microns (red). The true-color image from the Digitized Sky Survey was acquired with red and blue filters. |
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Spitzer Digs Up Galactic Fos
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| Title |
Spitzer Digs Up Galactic Fossil |
| Description |
This false-color image taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a globular cluster previously hidden in the dusty plane of our Milky Way galaxy. Globular clusters are compact bundles of old stars that date back to the birth of our galaxy, 13 or so billion years ago. Astronomers use these galactic "fossils" as tools for studying the age and formation of the Milky Way. Most clusters orbit around the center of the galaxy well above its dust-enshrouded disc, or plane, while making brief, repeated passes through the plane that each last about a million years. Spitzer, with infrared eyes that can see into the dusty galactic plane, first spotted the newfound cluster during its current pass. A visible-light image (inset) shows only a dark patch of sky. The red streak behind the core of the cluster is a dust cloud, which may indicate the cluster's interaction with the Milky Way. Alternatively, this cloud may lie coincidentally along Spitzer's line of sight. Follow-up observations with the University of Wyoming Infrared Observatory helped set the distance of the new cluster at about 9,000 light-years from Earth -- closer than most clusters -- and set the mass at the equivalent of 300,000 Suns. The cluster's apparent size, as viewed from Earth, is comparable to a grain of rice held at arm's length. It is located in the constellation Aquila. Astronomers believe that this cluster may be one of the last in our galaxy to be uncovered. This image composite was taken on April 21, 2004, by Spitzer's infrared array camera. It is composed of images obtained at four wavelengths: 3.6 microns (blue), 4.5 microns (green), 5.8 microns (orange) and 8 microns (red). The visible-light image is from the Digitized Sky Survey, California University of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. |
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Spitzer Digs Up Galactic Fos
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| Title |
Spitzer Digs Up Galactic Fossil |
| Description |
This false-color image taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a globular cluster previously hidden in the dusty plane of our Milky Way galaxy. Globular clusters are compact bundles of old stars that date back to the birth of our galaxy, 13 or so billion years ago. Astronomers use these galactic "fossils" as tools for studying the age and formation of the Milky Way. Most clusters orbit around the center of the galaxy well above its dust-enshrouded disc, or plane, while making brief, repeated passes through the plane that each last about a million years. Spitzer, with infrared eyes that can see into the dusty galactic plane, first spotted the newfound cluster during its current pass. A visible-light image (inset) shows only a dark patch of sky. The red streak behind the core of the cluster is a dust cloud, which may indicate the cluster's interaction with the Milky Way. Alternatively, this cloud may lie coincidentally along Spitzer's line of sight. Follow-up observations with the University of Wyoming Infrared Observatory helped set the distance of the new cluster at about 9,000 light-years from Earth -- closer than most clusters -- and set the mass at the equivalent of 300,000 Suns. The cluster's apparent size, as viewed from Earth, is comparable to a grain of rice held at arm's length. It is located in the constellation Aquila. Astronomers believe that this cluster may be one of the last in our galaxy to be uncovered. This image composite was taken on April 21, 2004, by Spitzer's infrared array camera. It is composed of images obtained at four wavelengths: 3.6 microns (blue), 4.5 microns (green), 5.8 microns (orange) and 8 microns (red). The visible-light image is from the Digitized Sky Survey, California University of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. |
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Spitzer Digs Up Galactic Fos
…
| Title |
Spitzer Digs Up Galactic Fossil |
| Description |
This false-color image taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a globular cluster previously hidden in the dusty plane of our Milky Way galaxy. Globular clusters are compact bundles of old stars that date back to the birth of our galaxy, 13 or so billion years ago. Astronomers use these galactic "fossils" as tools for studying the age and formation of the Milky Way. Most clusters orbit around the center of the galaxy well above its dust-enshrouded disc, or plane, while making brief, repeated passes through the plane that each last about a million years. Spitzer, with infrared eyes that can see into the dusty galactic plane, first spotted the newfound cluster during its current pass. A visible-light image (inset) shows only a dark patch of sky. The red streak behind the core of the cluster is a dust cloud, which may indicate the cluster's interaction with the Milky Way. Alternatively, this cloud may lie coincidentally along Spitzer's line of sight. Follow-up observations with the University of Wyoming Infrared Observatory helped set the distance of the new cluster at about 9,000 light-years from Earth -- closer than most clusters -- and set the mass at the equivalent of 300,000 Suns. The cluster's apparent size, as viewed from Earth, is comparable to a grain of rice held at arm's length. It is located in the constellation Aquila. Astronomers believe that this cluster may be one of the last in our galaxy to be uncovered. This image composite was taken on April 21, 2004, by Spitzer's infrared array camera. It is composed of images obtained at four wavelengths: 3.6 microns (blue), 4.5 microns (green), 5.8 microns (orange) and 8 microns (red). The visible-light image is from the Digitized Sky Survey, California University of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. |
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Galactic Fossil Found Behind
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| Title |
Galactic Fossil Found Behind Curtain of Dust |
| Description |
This image mosaic shows the same patch of sky in various wavelengths of light. While the visible-light image (left) shows a dark sky speckled with stars, infrared images (middle and right), reveal a never-before-seen bundle of stars, called a globular cluster. The left panel is from the California Institute of Technology's Digitized Sky Survey, the middle panel includes images from the NASA-funded Two Micron All-Sky Survey and the University of Wyoming Infrared Observatory (circle inset), and the right panel is from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Globular clusters date back to the birth of our galaxy, 13 or so billion years ago. There are about 150 clusters sprinkled around the core of the galaxy like seeds in a pumpkin. Astronomers use these galactic "fossils" as tools for studying the age and formation of the Milky Way. Most clusters orbit around the center of the galaxy well above its dust-enshrouded disc, or plane, while making brief, repeated passes through the plane that each last about a million years. Spitzer, with infrared eyes that can see into the dusty galactic plane, first spotted the newfound cluster during its current pass. Astronomers then searched for past references to the cluster and found only one undocumented image from the Two Micron All-Sky Survey. Follow-up observations with the University of Wyoming Infrared Observatory helped set the distance of the new cluster at about 9,000 light-years from Earth -- closer than most clusters -- and set the mass at the equivalent of 300,000 Suns. The cluster's apparent size, as viewed from Earth, is comparable to a grain of rice held at arm's length. It is located in the constellation Aquila. Astronomers believe that this cluster may be one of the last in our galaxy to be uncovered. The Two Micron All-Sky Survey false-color image was obtained using near-infrared wavelengths ranging from 1.3 to 2.2 microns. The University of Wyoming Observatory false-color image was captured on July 31, 2004, at wavelengths ranging from 1.2 to 2.2 microns. The Spitzer false-color image composite was taken on April 21, 2004, by its infrared array camera. It is composed of images obtained at four mid-infrared wavelengths: 3.6 microns (blue), 4.5 microns (green), 5.8 microns (orange) and 8 microns (red). |
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Iapetus Thermal Radiation Im
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| Description |
Iapetus Thermal Radiation Image |
| Full Description |
This image of the infrared heat radiation from Saturn's moon Iapetus was obtained by the Cassini composite infrared spectrometer instrument 16 hours before Cassini's closest approach to this mysterious moon, on December 31, 2004. The thermal radiation is shown as both a grayscale image, equivalent to what we would see if our eyes were sensitive to infrared wavelengths near 15 microns, and as a color-coded temperature map. A previously-released mosaic obtained by Cassini's imaging camera shortly before the composite infrared spectrometer observation, with similar scale and orientation, is also shown for comparison. Temperatures reach nearly 130 Kelvin (-226 Fahrenheit) at noon on the equator on the dark material that covers most of this side of Iapetus, making high noon on Iapetus's dark side probably the warmest places in the Saturn system. This is much warmer than temperatures on another Saturnian moon, Phoebe, measured by composite infrared spectrometer in June 2004. Those Phoebe temperature measurements peaked near 112 Kelvin (-258 Fahrenheit), because though Phoebe is almost as dark as Iapetus's dark material and absorbs nearly as much sunlight, Phoebe rotates much more quickly (once every 9 hours, compared to 79 days for Iapetus). That means the surface has less time to heat up during the day. Temperatures on Iapetus's bright material are much colder, peaking near 100 Kelvin (-280 Fahrenheit), both because the bright material absorbs less sunlight and because it is further from the equator on this side of Iapetus. Temperatures in the large crater near the center of the disc are slightly different from those in surrounding areas, because sloping surfaces within the crater are warmer where they are tilted towards the Sun and cooler when tilted away from the Sun. 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 composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the instrument team's home page, http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov/. *Credit*: NASA/JPL/GSFC |
| Date |
January 10, 2005 |
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Iapetus Surface Composition
| Description |
Iapetus Surface Composition |
| Full Description |
The Cassini visual and infrared mapping spectrometer analyzed the surface composition of Saturn's moon Iapetus as Cassini flew over the polar region on Dec. 31, 2004. The image at left shows the reflectance at 4-microns, which is dominated by the minerals on Iapetus' surface. Two large craters are seen in this image. The polar water ice is relatively dark at this wavelength, so the ice cap is not seen. The next frame shows carbon dioxide on the surface. The carbon dioxide peaks at mid latitudes and shows less strength at the pole and along the equator (the dark band curving near the left edge of the image). The third frame shows the strength of water absorption on Iapetus. The brightest regions are due to water ice near the pole. The grayer areas indicate water bound to minerals on the surface. The color composite shows water as blue, carbon dioxide as green, and non-ice minerals as red. 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 visible and infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For more information about the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer visit http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu/. *Credit*: NASA/JPL/GSFC |
| Date |
January 10, 2005 |
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The Hole at the Pole
| Description |
The Hole at the Pole |
| Full Description |
The Cassini data presented in this view appear to confirm a region of warm atmospheric descent into the eye of a hurricane-like storm locked to Saturn's south pole. The view shows temperature data from the Cassini spacecraft composite infrared spectrometer overlaid onto an image from the imaging science subsystem wide-angle camera. The composite infrared spectrometer data refer to a depth in Saturn's upper stratosphere where the pressure is 0.5 millibars (324 kilometers above the 1-bar level), a region higher than that imaged by the imaging camera and visual and infrared spectrometer during the same observation period. The composite infrared spectrometer data show a very small hot spot over the pole, similar in size to the "eye" of the storm seen in the imaging science subsystem images. See also Looking Saturn in the Eye and Saturn's Surprisingly Stormy South for related images. The color scale at the bottom indicates the temperature in Kelvin corresponding to the colors of the temperature map. Numbers on the grid correspond to lines of latitude and longitude on the planet. Infrared images taken through the Keck I telescope by ground-based observers had previously shown the south polar spot to be warm. Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer has confirmed this with higher resolution temperature maps of the area (like the map displayed here) and sees a temperature increase of about 2 Kelvin (4 degrees Fahrenheit) at the pole. The temperatures are in the stratosphere and higher up than the clouds seen by the Cassini imaging and visual and infrared mapping spectrometer instruments, but they suggest that the atmosphere sinks over the south pole. Because the pressure increases with depth, the descending atmosphere compresses and heats up. The warmer temperatures over the south pole also indicate that the vortex winds are decaying with height in the stratosphere. The descent implied by the temperatures nicely supports the lower cloud altitudes observed by the imaging camera and visual and infrared spectrometer instruments at the pole. The image and atmospheric data were acquired on Oct. 11, 2006, when Cassini was approximately 340,000 kilometers (210,000 miles) from Saturn. The wide-angle camera image was taken using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers. The image has been contrast enhanced using digital image processing techniques. The unprocessed image shows an oblique view toward the pole, and was reprojected to show the planet from a perspective directly over the south pole. Scale in the original image was about 17 kilometers (11 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. The composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org . The composite infrared spectrometer team homepage is at http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov/ . *Credit:* NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute/GSFC |
| Date |
November 9, 2006 |
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Iapetus Temperature Variatio
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| Description |
Iapetus Temperature Variation Map |
| Full Description |
This plot shows how daytime temperatures at low latitudes on the dark material on Saturn's moon Iapetus vary with time of day, from about 130 Kelvin (-226 Fahrenheit) at noon to about 70 Kelvin (-334 Fahrenheit) at sunset. The observations are compared to a "forecast" model (green line) which predicts temperatures based on an assumed value of a parameter called the "thermal inertia. This measures how well the surface can retain heat as conditions change. Rock or solid ice has a high thermal inertia, roughly 2,000,000 as measured in the obscure units used for thermal inertia, meaning that it is good at storing heat and cools down or heats up relatively slowly. On Iapetus, in contrast, temperatures drop precipitously in the afternoon as the Sun sinks towards the horizon, and a very small value of the thermal inertia (30,000 units) is needed in the model to match the data. This means that Iapetus's surface is extremely bad at storing heat, and is thus extremely fluffy, probably due to the pulverizing effect of billions of years of meteorite impacts, though the mysterious process that has darkened this side of Iapetus may also have played a role. 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 composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the instrument team's home page, http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov/. *Credit*: NASA/JPL/GSFC |
| Date |
January 10, 2005 |
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Enceladus Keeps the Home Fir
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| Description |
Enceladus Keeps the Home Fires Burning |
| Full Description |
On Nov. 9, 2006, Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer captured its first view of the infrared heat radiation emanating from the "tiger stripe" fractures at the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus (right) since the discovery of the hot spot 16 months earlier (left). The original discovery was made just before a close flyby of Enceladus on July 14, 2005, and coincided with the discovery of plumes of water-rich gas and ice particles jetting out of the tiger stripes. However, the spacecraft's orbit did not provide any good views of the south pole for follow-up observations until November 2006. The new observations were made from a range of 110,000 kilometers (68,350 miles), slightly more distant than the 80,000-kilometer range (49,700 miles) of the original observations. Comparison of the two images shows that the south polar region continues to be active, and the distribution of temperatures there has changed little in 16 months. The distribution of heat radiation suggests that most or all of the south polar heat comes from the tiger stripes themselves, though the individual stripes are not resolved at the approximate 30-kilometer (19-mile) spatial resolution of these images. The images show the intensity of heat radiation in the 10- to 16-micron wavelength range, translated into temperature and displayed in false color. Peak south polar temperature on both dates reached about 85 Kelvin (minus 306 degrees Fahrenheit), averaged over the 30-kilometer (19-mile) spatial resolution of the data. However, the variation in brightness with wavelength, which is also measured by the composite infrared spectrometer, reveals that the warm region includes small areas, possibly zones a few 100 meters (320 feet) wide along the length of the tiger stripes, that are at higher temperatures, reaching at least 130 Kelvin (minus 225 degrees Fahrenheit) and perhaps much warmer still. While the south polar tiger stripes are almost certainly heated by energy from the moon's interior, daytime regions at low latitudes are warmed by sunlight to temperatures in the high 70s Kelvin (about minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit). The white numbers on the images show west longitudes on Enceladus, which is 500 kilometers (310 miles) in diameter. The dashed line shows the terminator, the boundary between day and night. The blotchy appearance of the cooler regions away from the south pole, and of the sky beyond the globe of Enceladus, is an artifact resulting from the fact that apart from the polar hot spot, the composite infrared spectrometer can barely detect the very faint heat radiation from this very cold moon. 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 was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The, composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The composite infrared spectrometer team homepage is http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov/. *Image Credit:* NASA/JPL/GSFC/Southwest Research Institute |
| Date |
December 22, 2006 |
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Titan Sea and Lake Superior
| Description |
Titan Sea and Lake Superior |
| Full Description |
This side-by-side image shows a Cassini radar image (on the left) of what is the largest body of liquid ever found on Titan's north pole, compared to Lake Superior (on the right). This close-up is part of a larger image (see Titan (T25) Viewed by Cassini's Radar - Feb. 22, 2007) and offers strong evidence for seas on Titan. These seas are most likely liquid methane and ethane. This feature on Titan is at least 100,000 square kilometers (39,000 square miles), which is greater in extent than Lake Superior (82,000 square kilometers or 32,000 square miles), which is one of Earth's largest lakes. The feature covers a greater fraction of Titan than the largest terrestrial inland sea, the Black Sea. The Black Sea covers 0.085 percent of the surface of the Earth, this newly observed body on Titan covers at least 0.12 percent of the surface of Titan. Because of its size, scientists are calling it a sea. The image on the right is from the SeaWiFS project, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. 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 was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the United States and several European countries. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. *Credit:* NASA/JPL/GSFC |
| Date |
March 13, 2007 |
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Warm and Dry on Iapetus
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T |
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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 composite infrared spectrometer team homepage is http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org . Credit: NASA/JPL/GSFC/SwRI/SSI, This image compares midday temperatures on Saturn's moon Iapetus, recorded by the composite infrared spectrometer instrument during Cassini's close Sept. 10, 2007 flyby, with images of the same region recorded during the same flyby by the Cassini imaging science subsystem, shown on the right. See The Other Side of Iapetus for full imaging mosaic. Smallest features visible in the composite infrared spectrometer image (on the left) are about 8 kilometers (5 miles) across. The red rectangle on the visible light (right) image shows the region covered by infrared spectrometer, which extends a distance of 385 kilometers (240 miles) from 36 north, 212 west to 22 south, 220 west. The composite infrared spectrometer determined surface temperatures by measuring the spectrum of infrared radiation emitted by Iapetus in the 9 to 16 micron wavelength range. The dark regions are warmer because they absorb more of the sunlight shining on Iapetus, so dark spots in the visible (right) image show up as warm spots in the infrared image on the left. Temperatures near the equator vary between about 128 Kelvin (minus 229 degrees Fahrenheit) in the darkest regions and about 113 Kelvin (minus 256 degrees Fahrenheit) in the brightest regions. This relatively small temperature difference has a large effect on Iapetus, because at the temperature of the dark regions, a large amount of water ice, which is abundant on most moon surfaces in the Saturn system, can be lost by evaporation over the several-billion year age of Iapetus' surface. Composite infrared spectrometer scientists calculate that when daytime temperatures reach 128 Kelvin (minus 229 degrees Fahrenheit), about 20 meters (65 feet) of ice can be lost per billion years. In the bright regions, with peak temperatures of 113 Kelvin (minus 256 degrees Fahrenheit), only about 10 centimeters, or 2.5 inches, of ice is lost in the same period. It is thus likely that the ice has evaporated completely from the surface of the dark regions of Iapetus, darkening them further, and has collected in the neighboring bright regions, making them brighter, thereby exaggerating initially modest brightness variations. This process is known as thermal segregation. Models by the composite infrared spectrometer team also show that ice evaporated from the warm dark terrain at low latitudes can collect at higher latitudes, and can thus explain the bright polar caps on the dark leading side of Iapetus as well as the relatively dark equatorial regions on the bright trailing side. 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 was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. |
| Date |
October 8, 2007 |
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High Above Saturn's Cloud To
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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. |
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These graphs illustrate wind strength (bottom) and temperature above Saturn. The data were acquired by the Cassini spacecraft's composite infrared spectrometer when Saturn had just begun summer in its southern hemisphere. Altitude increases in the upward direction, and Saturn's south pole is to the right. The color red indicates higher temperatures, and stronger winds. As the top graph show, temperatures are cooler in the troposphere (the layer just above the cloud deck). In the upper stratosphere (the layer above the troposphere), temperatures increase toward the south pole. Temperature variation is muted in the upper troposphere. These observed temperature changes allow the east-west winds to be determined. The measured cloud-top winds from NASA's Voyager mission have also been used to create this wind plot. This is the first time that the stratospheric winds have been determined. They show a marked decline of about 140 meters per second (approximately 300 miles per hour) at low latitudes, moving from the cloud tops to higher levels. The origin of this decay, or wind speed reduction, is not known. Temperature maps obtained in the future from Cassini's new position in orbit around Saturn will have higher latitude resolution, and are expected to show more detail, helping us to unravel the riddles of Saturn's winds above the cloud tops. 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 Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The composite infrared spectrometer team is located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov/ . Image Credit: NASA/JPL/GSFC |
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Saturn's Rings, Cold and Col
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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 |
The varying temperatures of Saturn's rings are depicted here in this false-color image from the Cassini spacecraft. This image represents the most detailed look to date at the temperature of Saturn's rings. The image was made from data taken by Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer instrument. Red represents temperatures of about 110 Kelvin (-261 degrees Fahrenheit), and blue 70 Kelvin (-333 degrees Fahrenheit). Green is equivalent to 90 Kelvin (-298 degrees Fahrenheit). Water freezes at 273 Kelvin (32 degrees Fahrenheit). The spatial resolution of the ring portion of the image is 200 kilometers (124 miles). The data show that the opaque region of the rings, like the outer A ring (on the far right) and the middle B ring, are cooler, while more transparent sections, like the Cassini Division (in red just inside the A ring) or the inner C ring (shown in yellow and red), are relatively warmer. The temperature data were taken on July 1, 2004, of the unlit side of the rings. In order to show the full breadth of the rings, a strip of temperature data was mapped onto a picture of the lit side of the rings taken with the Cassini narrow angle camera on May 11, 2004, a little over a month before Saturn orbit insertion. Cassini is too close to the planet and hence no pictures of the unlit side of the rings are available, so the temperature data were mapped onto a picture of the lit side of rings. Saturn is overexposed and pure white in this picture. Saturn's moon Enceladus is visible below the rings, toward the center. The original picture and caption are available at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA05410. 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 and Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Composite Infrared Spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the instrument team's home page, http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov . Image Credit: NASA/JPL/GSFC/Ames |
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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 |
Auroral "Footprints" of Jupiter's Moons February 27, 2002 A drawing illustrates how flows of electrons steered by Jupiter's magnetic field connect three of Jupiter's large moons with the upper atmosphere near Jupiter's north and south poles. The currents stimulate ultraviolet aurora glows in Jupiter's upper atmosphere. Observations with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, coordinated with the late 2000 flyby of Jupiter by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, captured those auroral footprints for the moons Io (left), Europa (right) and Ganymede (center). In the illustration, Jupiter's magnetic field lines are presented in blue, the moons' orbital paths around Jupiter in yellow. Pink loops from each of the moons to Jupiter's poles depict the flux tubes that are the paths of powerful electric currents. The Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md., manages space operations for Hubble for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. Cassini 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 mission for NASA's Office of Space Science. Credit: NASA/John Spencer, Lowell Observatory and John Clarke, Boston University More information about the Cassini and Galileo joint observations of the Jupiter system is available online at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jupiterflyby. Cassini 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 Galileo and Cassini missions for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. |
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Saturn's Rings, Cold and Col
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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 |
The varying temperatures of Saturn's rings are depicted here in this false-color image from the Cassini spacecraft. This image represents the most detailed look to date at the temperature of Saturn's rings. The image was made from data taken by Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer instrument. Red represents temperatures of about 110 Kelvin (-261 degrees Fahrenheit), and blue 70 Kelvin (-333 degrees Fahrenheit). Green is equivalent to 90 Kelvin (-298 degrees Fahrenheit). Water freezes at 273 Kelvin (32 degrees Fahrenheit). The spatial resolution of the ring portion of the image is 200 kilometers (124 miles). The data show that the opaque region of the rings, like the outer A ring (on the far right) and the middle B ring, are cooler, while more transparent sections, like the Cassini Division (in red just inside the A ring) or the inner C ring (shown in yellow and red), are relatively warmer. The temperature data were taken on July 1, 2004, of the unlit side of the rings. In order to show the full breadth of the rings, a strip of temperature data was mapped onto a picture of the lit side of the rings taken with the Cassini narrow angle camera on May 11, 2004, a little over a month before Saturn orbit insertion. Cassini is too close to the planet and hence no pictures of the unlit side of the rings are available, so the temperature data were mapped onto a picture of the lit side of rings. Saturn is overexposed and pure white in this picture. Saturn's moon Enceladus is visible below the rings, toward the center. The original picture and caption are available at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA05410. 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 and Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Composite Infrared Spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the instrument team's home page, http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov . Image Credit: NASA/JPL/GSFC/Ames |
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Warm Fractures on Enceladus
| Description |
Warm Fractures on Enceladus |
| Full Description |
This image shows the warmest places in the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The unexpected temperatures were discovered by Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer during a close flyby on July 14, 2005. The image shows how these temperatures correspond to the prominent, bluish fractures dubbed "tiger stripes," first imaged by Cassini's imaging science subsystem cameras. Working together the two teams were able to pinpoint the exact location of the warmest regions on Enceladus. The composite infrared spectrometer instrument measured the infrared heat radiation from the surface at wavelengths between 9 and 16.5 microns within each of the 10 squares shown here. Each square is 6 kilometers (4 miles) across. The color of each square, and the number shown above it, describe the composite infrared spectrometer's measurement of the approximate average temperature of the surface within that square. The warmest temperature squares, at 91 and 89 degrees Kelvin (minus 296 and minus 299 degrees Fahrenheit), are located over one of the "tiger stripe" fractures. They contrast sharply with the surrounding temperatures, which are in the range 74 to 81 degrees Kelvin (minus 326 to minus 313 degrees Fahrenheit). The detailed composite infrared spectrometer data suggest that small areas near the fracture are at substantially higher temperatures, well over 100 degrees Kelvin (minus 279 degrees Fahrenheit). Such "warm" temperatures are unlikely to be due to heating of the surface by the feeble sunlight striking Enceladus' south pole. They are a strong indication that internal heat is leaking out of Enceladus and warming the surface along these fractures. Evaporation of this relatively warm ice probably generates the cloud of water vapor detected above Enceladus' south pole by several other Cassini instruments. Scientists are unsure how the internal heat reaches the surface. The process might involve liquid water, slushy brine, or soft but solid ice. The imaging science subsystem image is an enhanced color view with a pixel scale of 122 meters (400 feet) that was acquired at the same time as the composite infrared spectrometer data. It covers a region 125 kilometers (75 miles) across. The spacecraft's distance from Enceladus was 21,000 kilometers (13,000 miles). The broad bluer fractures that can be seen running from the upper left to the lower right of the image are 1 to 2 kilometers (0.6 to 1.2 miles) wide and more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) long. The fractures are thought to be bluer than the surrounding surface because coarser-grained ice (which has a blue color just as thick masses of ice, like glaciers and icebergs, do on Earth) has been exposed in the fractures. The color image was constructed using an ultraviolet filter (centered at 338 nanometers) in the blue channel, a clear filter in the green channel, and an infrared filter (centered at 930 nanometers) in the red channel. 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 was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. 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 composite infrared spectrometer team homepage is http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov/ . The imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org . Credit: NASA/JPL/GSFC/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
July 29, 2005 |
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Enceladus Temperature Map
| Description |
Enceladus Temperature Map |
| Full Description |
This image shows the surprise that startled Cassini scientists on the composite infrared spectrometer team when they got their first look at the infrared (heat) radiation from the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus. There is a dramatic warm spot centered on the pole that is probably a sign of internal heat leaking out of the icy moon. The data were taken during the spacecraft's third flyby of this intriguing moon on July 14, 2005. Based on data from previous flybys, which did not show the south pole well, team members expected that the south pole would be very cold, as shown in the left panel. Enceladus is one of the coldest places in the Saturn system because its extremely bright surface reflects 80 percent of the sunlight that hits it, so only 20 percent is available to heat the surface. As on Earth, the poles should be even colder than the equator because the sun shines at such an oblique angle there. The right hand panel shows a global temperature image made from measurements of Enceladus' heat radiation at wavelengths between 9 and 16.5 microns. Cassini made the observation from a distance of 84,000 kilometers (52,000 miles) on the approach to Enceladus, and the image shows details as small as 25 kilometers (16 miles). Equatorial temperatures are much as expected, topping out at about 80 degrees Kelvin (-315 degrees Fahrenheit), but the south pole is occupied by a well-defined warm region reaching 85 Kelvin (-305 degrees Fahrenheit). That is 15 degrees Kelvin (27 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than expected. The composite infrared spectrometer data further suggest that small areas of the pole are at even higher temperatures, well over 110 degrees Kelvin (-261 degrees Fahrenheit). Evaporation of this relatively warm ice probably generates the cloud of water vapor detected above Enceladus' south pole by several other Cassini instruments. The south polar temperatures are very difficult to explain if sunlight is the only energy source heating the surface, though exotic sunlight-trapping mechanisms have not yet been completely ruled out. It therefore seems likely that portions of the polar region are warmed by heat escaping from the interior of the moon. This would make Enceladus only the third solid body in the solar system, after Earth and Jupiter's volcanic moon Io, where hot spots powered by internal heat have been detected. 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 was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . The composite infrared spectrometer team homepage is, http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov/ . Credit: NASA/JPL/GSFC |
| Date |
July 29, 2005 |
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Phoebe's Radiation
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Phoebe's Radiation |
| Full Description |
This image shows thermal radiation from the day and night sides of Saturn's moon Phoebe, taken by the composite infrared spectrometer onboard Cassini 1.8 hours before the spacecraft's closest approach to Phoebe on June 11, 2004. The left-hand panel displays the image in grayscale format, showing the brightness of Phoebe's radiation in the wavelength range 15-17 microns, which is about 25 times the longest wavelength visible to the naked eye. In the middle panel this brightness is used to estimate the surface temperature distribution across Phoebe. Temperatures are given in degrees Kelvin, and vary from a relatively toasty 107 Kelvin (-267 Fahrenheit), in the late morning near the equator (white, lower right), to less than 75 Kelvin (-324 Fahrenheit) in the northern hemisphere in the pre-dawn hours (dark blue, upper left). The "ragged edge" of Phoebe in this region is an instrumental artifact. Temperatures are affected strongly by topography, as can be seen by comparison with the visible-wavelength image (right). Some of the coldest temperatures are found in the shadowed region inside the large depression in the northern hemisphere (upper right). 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 Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini composite infrared spectrometer home page at http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov/ . Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Atlas Found!
| 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. |
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The Cassini spacecraft has sighted the tiny moon Atlas, which is seen here for the first time since Voyager 1 flew past Saturn in 1980. Cassini's narrow angle camera captured a sequence of 112 images in visible light, which were used to create a movie of Atlas and other moons racing around the outer edge of Saturn's rings. One of those images is shown here. Over the course of almost five and one-quarter hours, Cassini watched the moons as they circled the planet, snapping 1.2-second exposures about 12 minutes apart. These images were part of a sequence designed specifically to search for small moons near Saturn's F ring. Contrast was enhanced in the images, and the rings themselves were overexposed intentionally, to make these small moons visible. A group of three moons can be seen rounding the right loop of Saturn's rings, followed by a fourth moon. In the first group, the moon exterior to Saturn's thin, knotted F ring is Epimetheus (116 kilometers, 72 miles across), the two moons interior to the F ring are Prometheus (102 kilometers, 63 miles across) and tiny unresolved Atlas (32 kilometers, 20 miles across). The fourth moon seen here, exterior to the F ring and tagging along behind the others, is Pandora (84 kilometers, 52 miles across). At the same time, on the left side, Janus can be seen (181 kilometers, 113 miles across). The view is taken looking upward from Cassini's southern vantage point beneath the ring plane. The moons visible here are orbiting Saturn in a plane that is tilted 67 degrees away from the viewer. These images were taken on May 26 and 27, 2004, from a distance of approximately 19.2 million kilometers (11.9 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is approximately 114 kilometers (71 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 Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, 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 and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org . Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Phoebe Temperature Maps
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Phoebe Temperature Maps |
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A montage of maps of Saturn's moon Phoebe shows surface temperatures at various times of day as determined by the composite infrared spectrometer onboard Cassini during the June 11, 2004, Phoebe flyby. The asterisk on each map shows the location of the subsolar point, where the Sun is directly overhead. This point moves across the surface as Phoebe rotates. It is morning in regions to the left of the subsolar point, and afternoon in regions to the right. Like a newspaper weather map, different colors indicate different temperatures, though Phoebe's temperatures are distinctly cooler than even the coldest January day on Earth. Equatorial temperatures peak in the early afternoon near 112 Kelvin (-257 Fahrenheit), plunging to 78 Kelvin (-319 Fahrenheit) before dawn, and are even colder at higher latitudes. The large day/night temperature contrasts imply that Phoebe's surface is covered in loose dust or ice particles that store little heat and thus cool off rapidly at night. Regions of Phoebe's surface that were not observed are shown in black. Most of the maps show the effect on surface temperatures of the large crater-like depression seen in Cassini's visible-wavelength images of Phoebe, which is located just left of center in these maps. Crater walls that are shadowed and cold in the early morning in the first map are sunlit and warm in the late afternoon in the final map. 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 Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini composite infrared spectrometer home page at http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov/ . Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Slower Spinning Rings #1
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Slower Spinning Rings #1 |
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The Cassini composite infrared spectrometer obtained temperature maps of Saturn's main rings (A, B and C) that showed ring temperatures decreasing with increasing solar phase angle (the change of the sun-spacecraft-ring angle) on both the lit and unlit sides of the rings. Temperature changes throughout Saturn's main rings, as measured by the instrument, indicate that Saturn ring particles spin slowly compared to their orbital periods of 6 to 14 hours. They may spin several times per orbit to less than one time per orbit. Scans are shown for the lit and unlit rings, at relatively low (less than 60-degree) and high (more than 130-degree) phase angles. Each scan was painted on the rings at the correct ring orientation, creating a false color image. Warmer temperatures about minus 262 degrees Fahrenheit (110 Kelvin) are shown in red and cooler temperatures about minus 343 degrees (65 K) are shown in blue. Other colors indicate temperatures between minus 343 degrees and minus 262 degrees (65 K and 110 K). The scans of the lit rings are shown in the two panels on the left and scans of the unlit rings are shown in the two panels on the right. The thermal characteristics of each main ring vary noticeably with phase angle. Radial scans of the A, B and C rings show a decrease in temperature with increasing phase angle for both the lit and unlit sides of the rings. The C ring and Cassini Division exhibit the largest change in temperature. The temperature of the lit C ring decreases by about 22 degrees (12 Kelvin) between low and high phase angles. A similar contrast is present for the unlit side of the C ring. The C ring and Cassini Division are darker than the A and B rings so they can absorb more heat from the Sun. The lit B ring shows a temperature contrast of approximately 18 degrees (10 K) while the unlit B ring shows very little thermal contrast. Very little sunlight may make it through the thick B ring to its unlit side. The lit A ring is particularly interesting because the magnitude of the thermal contrast decreases with increasing radial distance from Saturn. The outer A ring shows only a small temperature change with phase angle, possibly because it contains smaller, or more rapidly rotating ring particles, which would have more uniform temperatures with phase angle. 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 was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the instrument team's home page, http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov/. Credit: NASA/JPL/GSFC |
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September 5, 2005 |
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Slower Spinning Rings #2
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Slower Spinning Rings #2 |
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Temperature changes mapped with Cassini's composite and infrared spectrometer throughout Saturn's main rings show the ring temperatures decreasing with the increase of the Sun-spacecraft-ring angle (called phase angle) on both the lit and unlit sides of the rings. These temperature changes indicate that the ring particles spin slowly compared to their orbital periods of 6 to 14 hours. They may spin several times per orbit to less than one time per orbit. Four scans are shown for the lit and unlit rings, at relatively low (less than 60 degrees) and high (more than 130 degrees) phase angles. Warmer temperatures about minus 262 degrees Fahrenheit (110 Kelvin) are shown in red and cooler temperatures about minus 343 degrees (65 K) are shown in blue. Other colors indicate temperatures between minus 343 degrees and minus 262 degrees (65 K and 110 K). The top two scans are for the lit rings and the bottom two scans are for the unlit rings. The change in ring temperature between each scan can be seen clearly. The thermal characteristics of each main ring vary noticeably with phase angle. Radial scans of the A, B and C rings show a decrease in temperature with increasing phase angle for both the lit and unlit sides of the rings. The C ring and Cassini Division exhibit the largest change in temperature. The temperature of the lit C ring decreases by about 22 degrees (12 Kelvin) between low and high phase angles. A similar contrast is present for the unlit side of the C ring. The C ring and Cassini Division are darker than the A and B rings so they can absorb more heat from the Sun. The lit B ring shows a temperature contrast of approximately 18 degrees (10 K) while the unlit B ring shows very little thermal contrast. Very little sunlight may make it through the thick B ring to its unlit side. The lit A ring is particularly interesting because the magnitude of the thermal contrast decreases with increasing radial distance from Saturn. The outer A ring shows only a small temperature change with phase angle, possibly because it contains smaller, or more rapidly rotating ring particles, which would have more uniform temperatures with phase angle. 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 was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the instrument team's home page, http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov/. |
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September 5, 2005 |
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Iapetus Temperature Map
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Iapetus Temperature Map |
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This temperature map of Saturn's moon Iapetus is constructed from observations of Iapetus's infrared heat radiation taken with the Cassini composite infrared spectrometer instrument during the Dec. 31, 2004 flyby. The orange asterisk marks the point on Iapetus where the Sun is directly overhead. Temperatures reach nearly 130 Kelvin (-226 Fahrenheit) at noon on the equator on the dark material that covers most of this side of Iapetus, making high noon on Iapetus's dark side probably the warmest places in the Saturn system. This is much warmer than temperatures on the moon Phoebe measured by the composite infrared spectrometer in June 2004, which peaked near 112 Kelvin (-258 Fahrenheit). That's because, although Phoebe is almost as dark as Iapetus's dark material and absorbs nearly as much sunlight, Phoebe rotates much more quickly (once every 9 hours, compared to 79 days for Iapetus). That means the surface has less time to heat up during the day. Temperatures on Iapetus' bright material are much colder, peaking near 100 Kelvin (-280 Fahrenheit), both because the bright material absorbs less sunlight and because it is further from the equator on this side of Iapetus. 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 composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the instrument team's home page, http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov/. *Credit*: NASA/JPL/GSFC |
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January 10, 2005 |
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Searching for Warmth
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The exciting mystery of an active south polar region on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus continues to unfold as scientists make the correlation between geologically youthful surface fractures and unusually warm temperatures. |
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The exciting mystery of an active south polar region on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus continues to unfold as scientists make the correlation between geologically youthful surface fractures and unusually warm temperatures. This view shows excess heat radiation from cracks near the moon's south pole. These warm fissures are the source of plumes of dust and gas seen by multiple instruments on the Cassini spacecraft during its flyby of Enceladus on July 14, 2005, as described in a series of papers in the March 10, 2006, issue of the journal Science. This image shows two arrays of temperature readings across the surface of Enceladus, as measured by the Cassini composite infrared spectrometer, superimposed on images of the surface taken simultaneously by the imaging science subsystem. Surface temperatures in Kelvin, derived from the intensity of infrared radiation detected by the composite infrared spectrometer, are shown along with their formal uncertainties, although true uncertainties for temperatures below about 75 Kelvin (minus 325 degrees Fahrenheit) are not easily described by a single number. Enhanced thermal emission is seen in the vicinity of the prominent "tiger stripe" fissures discovered by the imaging cameras. In this image, the excess emission is most strongly seen in the left-most composite infrared spectrometer field of view, which includes a fissure near the end of one of the tiger stripes. The peak temperatures, 86 Kelvin and 90 Kelvin (minus 305 and minus 298 degrees Fahrenheit) respectively, are averages over the composite infrared spectrometer field of view, and other composite infrared spectrometer data suggest that much higher temperatures, up to at least 145 Kelvin (minus 199 degrees Fahrenheit), occur in narrow zones a few hundred meters wide along the tiger stripe fissures. See (PIA07794) for a related image. This image is centered near longitude 135 west, latitude 65 south, and each square from the composite infrared spectrometer field of view is 17.5 kilometers (10.9 miles) across. This Cassini narrow-angle camera image has been cropped and resized for presentation. 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 was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. 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 composite infrared spectrometer team homepage is http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov/. The imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org *Credit:* NASA/JPL/GSFC/Space Science Institute |
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March 9, 2006 |
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Searching for Warmth
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The exciting mystery of an active south polar region on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus continues to unfold as scientists make the correlation between geologically youthful surface fractures and unusually warm temperatures. |
| Full Description |
The exciting mystery of an active south polar region on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus continues to unfold as scientists make the correlation between geologically youthful surface fractures and unusually warm temperatures. This view shows excess heat radiation from cracks near the moon's south pole. These warm fissures are the source of plumes of dust and gas seen by multiple instruments on the Cassini spacecraft during its flyby of Enceladus on July 14, 2005, as described in a series of papers in the March 10, 2006, issue of the journal Science. This image shows two arrays of temperature readings across the surface of Enceladus, as measured by the Cassini composite infrared spectrometer, superimposed on images of the surface taken simultaneously by the imaging science subsystem. Surface temperatures in Kelvin, derived from the intensity of infrared radiation detected by composite infrared spectrometer, are shown along with their formal uncertainties, although true uncertainties for temperatures below about 75 Kelvin (minus 325 degrees Fahrenheit) are not easily described by a single number. Enhanced thermal emission is seen in the vicinity of the prominent "tiger stripe" fissures discovered by the imaging cameras. In this image, the excess emission is near the center of the composite infrared spectrometer array, directly over a tiger stripe fissure. The peak temperatures, 86 Kelvin and 90 Kelvin (minus 305 and minus 298 degrees Fahrenheit) respectively, are averages over the composite infrared spectrometer field of view, and other composite and infrared spectrometer data suggest that much higher temperatures, up to at least 145 Kelvin (minus 199 degrees Fahrenheit), occur in narrow zones a few hundred meters wide along the tiger stripe fissures. See (PIA07793) for a related image. This image was taken nearly three times closer to the moon and is centered near longitude 120 west, latitude 82 south, and each composite infrared spectrometer field of view is 6.0 kilometers (3.7 miles) across. This Cassini narrow-angle camera image was cropped and resized for presentation. 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 was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. 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 composite infrared spectrometer team homepage is http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov/. The imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org *Credit:* NASA/JPL/GSFC/Space Science Institute |
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March 9, 2006 |
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Home Reef Reborn
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Home Reef Reborn |
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In the South Pacific, south of Late Island along the Tofua volcanic arc in Tonga, the volcanic island Home Reef is being re-born. The island is thought to have emerged after a volcanic eruption in mid-August that also spewed large amounts of floating pumice into Tongan waters and swept across to Fiji about 350 km (220 miles) to the west of where the new island formed. In 2004, a similar eruption created an ephemeral island about 0.5 by 1.5 km (0.3 by 0.9 miles) in size, it was no longer visible in an ASTER image acquired November 2005. This simulated natural color image shows the vegetation-covered stratovolcanic island of Late Island in the upper right. Home Reef is found in the lower left. The two bluish plumes are hot seawater that is laden with volcanic ash and chemicals, the larger one can be traced for more than 14 km (8.4 miles) to the east. The image was acquired Oct. 10, 2006 and covers an area of 24.3 by 30.2 km. It is located at 18.9 degrees south latitude, 174.7 degrees west longitude. With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region, and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), ASTER images Earth to map and monitors the changing surface of our planet. It is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched Dec. 18, 1999, on NASA's Terra satellite. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the data products. Image credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team |
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The Trifid Nebula: Stellar S
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The Trifid Nebula: Stellar Sibling Rivalry |
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The Secret Lives of Galaxies
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The Secret Lives of Galaxies Unveiled in Deep Survey |
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The Secret Lives of Galaxies
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The Secret Lives of Galaxies Unveiled in Deep Survey |
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The Secret Lives of Galaxies
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The Secret Lives of Galaxies Unveiled in Deep Survey |
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The Secret Lives of Galaxies
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The Secret Lives of Galaxies Unveiled in Deep Survey |
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The Secret Lives of Galaxies
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The Secret Lives of Galaxies Unveiled in Deep Survey |
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The Secret Lives of Galaxies
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| Title |
The Secret Lives of Galaxies Unveiled in Deep Survey |
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The Secret Lives of Galaxies
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| Title |
The Secret Lives of Galaxies Unveiled in Deep Survey |
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The Secret Lives of Galaxies
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| Title |
The Secret Lives of Galaxies Unveiled in Deep Survey |
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