The End of a Very Successful Mission

On Sept. 15, Cassini will dive straight into Saturn, collecting data from the planet's atmosphere and firing it back to Earth in the 1 to 2 minutes before breaking apart. The dive will bring an  end to the probe's 13-year extended mission in the Saturn system, where it has unearthed many incredible and unexpected science discoveries. 

On Sept. 13 and 14, Cassini's cameras will take the probe's last images of the system. 

On Sept. 15, starting at 4:37 a.m. the "final plunge" will begin as the spacecraft gets into position to sample the atmosphere. Normally,there is at least an hours-long delay between when the probe collects data and transmits it back to Earth, but because Cassini will only be able to transmit for 1 to 2 minutes during the final plunge, the probe will send data within 2 to 3 seconds of collecting it, Cassini scientists have said. The spacecraft will transmit data back to Earth from eight of its 11 instruments, but it will not have enough bandwidth to send images (which require larger data files), which is why the probe will take its final snapshots of the system on Sept. 14.

To read the complete article, click HERE

Beam Me Up # 477 is now online

Episode 477 centers around a nice story, Stars in Her Eyes, by Vaughn Stanger which I run in the last half of the program. 

Articles this program included a heart felt good-by to John Glenn, books that may have changed the science fiction landscape and speaking of landscapes, in Cassini's final year, the probe will make many new close approaches to Saturn's major moon Titan which it will record as well as many of the inner rings which has been slated for the probe to dive through. This goes on until September of 2017, at which time it has been programmed to Saturn's cloud tops. 

Click   HERE  for podcast audio

Cassini's Final Year Will Not Be Idle

Did you know that NASA's Cassini has been working diligently in the Saturn system for 13 years!

Cassini will also end it's mission Sept. 2017 when it will dive straight into Saturn. 

This last year will hardly be idle.  Cassini still needs to complete projects like a flyby of Titan, Saturn's largest moon of which it has made over 125 close passes.

For more information, please press HERE

Cassini's Fantastic Photos of Recent Enceladus Flyby

Here is a historic photo taken by the Cassini probe of it's

recent dive through the frozen water geyser erupting from Enceladus'south pole. On the 28th of October 2015 Cassini dove to within 18.6 miles of Enceladus' surface. The tiny icey moon is thought to be a promicing hideout for alien life. The geyser (which is geothermally heated) is spewing water which Cassini availed itself of. So at 12,000 mph the probe collected a drop which it is now analyzing .

Check out the complete Gizmodo article by selecting HERE

The Great Red Sunburn

Jupiter has one of the largest planetary atmospheres in the solar system, with three atmosphere layers made up of ammonia, ammonium hydrosulfide and water clouds at different altitudes.   As chaotic and beautiful Jupiter's atmosphere is, the great red spot out-shines them all.

The Great Red Spot is a vortex the size of three Earths.  Researchers have been theorising for hundreds of years as to the cause of the Great Red Spot's color. Up until recently it was thought that the color was some kind of red phosphorus or sulfur compound rising from beneath Jupiter's clouds.

Scientists at Nasa's JPL have been studying data gained from Nasa's Cassini spacecraft, which flew by Jupiter in December 2000 on its way to Saturn and its moons.  They also conducted laboratory experiments  by blasting ammonia and acetylene gases (chemicals known to exist in Jupiter's atmosphere) with ultraviolet light, in order to simulate how the sun affects these chemicals.  The experiment produced a reddish material that matched a model of the Great Red Spot where the red-colored material had been confined to the uppermost reaches of the vortex.

"Our models suggest most of the Great Red Spot is actually pretty bland in color, beneath the upper cloud layer of reddish material," said Kevin Baines, a Cassini team scientist from JPL. "Under the reddish 'sunburn' the clouds are probably whitish or greyish."

Read more in the article on International Business Time site

Space Going Wasp?!!!

This ultra hi resolution photo comes from the Cassini spacecraft, working hard out at Saturn.  This example is of Saturn's plane Hyperion which we can all agree that this is a wonderful photo but damn if this ultra crisp photo does not appear to be a space going wasp nest! 

This stunning view of Hyperion was obtained during Cassini's close flyby on Sept. 26, 2005.  The image were taken as Cassini passed about 310 miles above the moon's surface. Hyperion itself 165 miles in diameter.   The moon has a decided red coloration which was toned down so other false colors could be added to the photo to highlight the highly unusual landscape and the massive impact event.


You can read more at SPLOID blog   and more info from the Spaceflightnow blog

Summer Storms are Blowin on Titan

Computer models have long predicted the onset of storms in the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has finally been able to capture these storm clouds over Titan's  northern sea  Ligeia Mare.  The storm being tracked was producing very Earthlike winds of  7 to 10 mph.

Storm clouds have been documented on Titan's southern latitudes since Cassini arrived in 2004, during Titan's summer in the lower latitudes.  But until 2010 when Titan entered summer in the northern latitude, no clouds had been seen until now.

The picture here was obtained in July 2014 as Cassini receded from Titan after a close flyby.

I would hazard a guess that most of us suffer from hubris when thinking of a Titan year being analogous to a Luna year here on Earth. (for those of you scratching your head and saying umm luna year is the same as Earths because it travels around the Sun with us...well no...a "year" is one orbit around the primary by a secondary or satellite.  Luna year apx. 29 days) Titans year however is 30 Earth years and a season is about 7 EYs.   Wow do you start to get the scale of things out in the gas giant arena?   Luna orbits Earth so fast because it is so freakishly close!

You can read the rest of the Astronomy Magazine article HERE



http://www.astronomy.com/news/2014/08/cassini-tracks-clouds-developing-over-a-titan-sea

"Grand Finalie" Cassini's Last and Most Daring Mission

After a decade of romping through Saturn's collection of moons, rings and the planet itself, the Cassini mission is drawing to a close.  Cassini has all but exhausted its supply of fuel that was used by the craft's maneuvering thrusters.  

Now with a clear end in sight, controllers can be a little less conservative.  From the Discovery article:

• Starting in 2016, Cassini will be commanded to carry out a “daring set of orbits that is, in some ways, like a whole new mission,”
• Cassini will be given commands that will take it high above Saturn’s poles and then fly outside the planet’s narrow F-ring.  Then, its trajectory will evolve to make a dive between the innermost ring and the planet 22 times. Flying through the ring plane will increase the potential for impacts with ring dust, ice grains and even large rocks, so until now such an orbital profile has been avoided at all costs.

If, after this the craft is still able to take commands, Cassini will be given instructions to dive into Saturn's dense atmosphere.  

Read the complete Discovery article HERE

 

Help Name Cassini's Final Mission

Carol sent me a link to an interesting NASA site.

The Cassini probe at Saturn will be entering the final phase of its mission in 2016.  NASA is looking to the public to "name" this final phase which now goes by the moniker “the proximal orbits”.

For a more complete description of the final phase of the Cassini probe and how to get instructions on submitting a "name" check out this NASA site.....HERE 

In Saturn's Shadow

Check out this stunning photo of Saturn taken by the Cassini spacecraft as it loitered in Saturn's shadow.   This photo is truly unique because not only does it show Saturn in a stunning back lit but also it's inner rings, seven of it's moons and home planet Earth as well as Mars and Venus!  The extreme wide angle shot is a mosaic of 323 shots covering a distance of  almost 405,000 miles!

To read the complete article and view the hi rez picture, click this LINK

Cassini Records Meteor Hits on Saturn's Rings

Cameras on the Cassini spacecraft recently recorded debris plumes caused by meteors impacting Saturn's rings.   Not a lot is known about the meteors other than speculation as to their size.  Estimates have suggested that they were far smaller, possibly as tiny as three feet across, than even those that crashed in rural Russia.  The damage however comes from the meteor's high velocity, somewhere in the order of ten miles a second.  

The first images were taken in '09 but were overlooked because of their minuscule size. If you look at the photos here,  you can see light colored streaks.  Even though they were tiny, the resulting dust plume,  at the brightest part is over 3000 miles long but only 125 miles wide, which made it difficult to detect at certain angles. 

You can read more of the article here on IO9

Cassini Photographs 1.5 Billion Square Mile Storm

Wow talk about some severely crappy weather....NASA's Cassini Spacecraft has documented a huge storm that developed 12 weeks earlier in Saturn's northern latitudes that:

•  was the largest and most intense observed on Saturn by NASA’s Voyager or Cassini spacecraft

The storm covers an area of 1.5 billion square miles or eight times the surface area of the Earth!

Check out the daily galaxy article here






Daily Galaxy article

A Thunderstorm Bigger Than Earth?!

Tim sends in this article from Yahoo News concerning a thunderstorm as wide as the Earth now taking place on the planet Saturn. This huge storm began building last December and has now reached its' peek ferocity. NASA's Cassini spacecraft and amateur astronomers alike have separately documented what is now being touted as "One of the most violent weather events in the Solar System."

Storms of this magnitude seem to take place once a year, that's Saturn years which are 29 Earth years long, when Saturn is closest to the sun, which warms Saturn's dense atmosphere a bit. The storm is rolling the atmosphere of Saturn so much that a brilliant white spot has appeared.

From the article:

• The show is so big that it can be visible by telescopes from distant Earth. Five have been observed in the last 130 years. The last occurred in 1990.

For more on this unusual event, check out the Yahoo News article here

Cassini Mission a short film by Chris Abbas

A thoroughly engrossing short film by Chris Abbas using footage captured by NASA's Cassini Imaging Science System. It is on Vimeo but I also found it on Boing Boing as well. Enjoy!

CASSINI MISSION from cabbas on Vimeo.

Outside In - Saturn flyby

The Dvice blog brought this neat project to my attention. The Outside In project is a full-length feature IMAX film that aims to take the watcher on a breath taking tour of the Solar System. What will make this project truly unique will be the source material. No CGI will be used. Instead the movie will be built up from literally thousands of photographs taken of the Solar System by a variety of space craft. The whole project is dependant completely on donations, but instead of waiting for the money the film's producers have worked on completing part of the film consisting of a fly-by of the Saturn system using Cassini photos. This short alone is spectacular! The composites are flawless in my opinion. Check this short out and take a look at the film's web site here.

Outside In Concept Teaser Trailer from stephen v2 on Vimeo.

Cassini find something strange on Titan?

Tim Sayell just wrote in with an article that I have been seeing a lot of lately. From Yahoo News

comes a report that NASA's probe Cassini has found something strange on Saturn's moon Titan. The new data rekindles speculation that Titan may harbor some sort of life all its own.

Chemical analysis of data returned by Cassini suggested that hydrogen was flowing down through Titan's atmosphere and disappearing at the surface. First thing is that this really shouldn't be taking place, second, what IS then causing the discrepancy. Some scientists speculate that there may be a strange life form responsible.

From the article:

• Another study investigating hydrocarbons on Titan's surface found a lack of acetylene, a compound that could be consumed as food by life that relies on liquid methane instead of liquid water to live.

Of course there are many explanations on what these could be. Read the Yahoo News article and you decide.

On Saturn, Do We Have Blizzards

Blizzards that's right, on Saturn. And these storms are so huge they can be seen from Earth by amateur astronomers! Data received from the orbiting Cassini spacecraft showed a large, turbulent storm, covering an area at least five times larger than the biggest blizzard that hit Earth so far this year.

Amateur astronomers are particularly useful to NASA because of the nature of the Cassini probe, it must be aligned to take readings months in advance, where as with amateurs they can reposition their equipment in minutes and take highly sophisticated pictures and data readings.

Amateurs from such diverse locals as Australia and the Philippines have been sending in pictures that give NASA a clue as to just how violent these storms are. Cassini showed that ultra-violent storms were taking place about 250 miles deep in Saturn's massive atmosphere.
lightning has been observed in the clouds tops which are comprised mostly of water and ammonia.

Read complete Yahoo News article here

Thanks again to Tim Sayell

Enceladus shows Cassini its hot spots!

In areas, previously not well mapped, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has documented 30 individual geysers, including more than 20 that had not been seen before on Saturn's moon Enceladus. These geysers are situated along a network of fractures on Enceladus' southern pole. Cassini's on-board composite infrared spectrometer shows that the ice sprays contain water ice, water vapor and organic compounds.

The areas around these geysers proved to be very warm by local averages. -135 degrees Fahrenheit and may be as high as -100 degrees Fahrenheit. Compared to an average of -370 Fahrenheit these fracture hot spots are very warm indeed.

This last pass by Cassini will be the last to use visible light cameras, as Enceladus will now enter a 15 year period of darkness.

Check out the complete article on ScienceDaily

Cassini discovers strange hills on Titan

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has found hills with odd radial patterns on Titan, Saturn's largest moon. As you can see in this picture, the hill top, center has straight line grooves as does the hill in the lower left quadrant. Stranger still is the hill, lower right which has an even stranger star shaped pattern. The grooved mounds, located in a northern hemisphere, are about 50 miles wide and about 200 feet high, and the patterns had not previously been seen on Titan before. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory theorize that the patterns might be caused by tectonic forces, such as the forces that pull the crust of a planet apart, or rainfall that leads to erosion.

upi.com

Saturn's Rings to Disappear!

Tim Sayell sends in an article from Yahoo News that proves that just when you think you have things figured out, the Universe throws in a curve.

I did not know that Saturn's rings disappear! It's true and it's one of those things that you say to yourself...damn I should have known that! DUH!

Here is how it works. We know Saturn's rings are mostly made up of stuff that reflects light. Now the rings are truly odd creatures. The are 170,000 miles wide but only 30 FEET thick. Why is that important? Well consider, at 170,000 miles wide, they can reflect a serious amount of sunlight as long as they are at right angles to the sunlight. But at 30 feet thick, were there ever a time in Saturn's 29.7 year orbit around the sun that the rings are edge on, they would reflect almost no light. Well guess what, Saturn has an inclination (Like Earth's that causes the seasons) and so every 15 years Saturn's rings present themselves edge on and effectly disappear!

When will it happen? Well it starts August 11th when the rings will appear to fade until they are for all intents invisible and reappear by September 28.

Read more here from the article that Tim sent in

There is quite a lot more about some of the science that will be going on throughout this process by NASA's Cassini spacecraft and some interesting science info.

Thanks Tim!