Avg Rating: 9.12/10
Full Size 1024x1024:
JPEG 18 KB
|
|
This raw, unprocessed image of Enceladus was taken by Cassini on Nov. 20, 2009.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 20, 2009. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 543,000 kilometers (337,000 miles) from Enceladus and at a high Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle. Image scale is approximately 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini Equinox Mission is a joint United States and European endeavor. 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 imaging team consists of scientists from the US, England, France, and Germany. The imaging operations center and team lead (Dr. C. Porco) are based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini Equinox Mission visit http://ciclops.org, http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Released: November 21, 2009
Image/Caption Information |
ANAKA HURAKAN RESPONCE TO YOUR ANSWER IS HOW MANY YEARS CAN CASSINI REMAIN IN A STABLE ORBIT. SINCERLY CE'CALCALI
CE'CALCALI THANK YOU CAROLYN FOR TELLING ME THE TRUTH.SINCERLY CE'CALCALI
thank you CAROLYN your the first person on earth to give me an answer,rather than a propaganda notice this is Ce'CalCali i happen to think we should configure the cassini project in its current configurationcould observe saturn for seventeen hundred years of orbit there for i am sending SOAR SEA CALCALI TO MODIFY CASSINI so that it can send images to you and i for 117 years lets see what turns up on TITAN PROMEATHEAUS HE HAS A CITY ON TITAN AND YOU GET THREE WISHES I AM OUT OF TIME FOR NOW ALL IS PROCEEDING WITHIN ALL PARAMETERS TO ACCOMPLISH THIS MISSION TO EARTH RESCUE MISSION TO EARTH CAN BE COMPLEATED SINCERLY CE'CALCALI
myanhurkan: We have proposed to NASA to extend the Cassini mission out to 2017, so that we can be there to see the seasonal changes up through Northern summer. We have yet to hear if that request will be granted.
does any one know exactly how many more years cassini can continue to send back data and images if the mission can be extended if the cassini orbiter began conserving hydrizine fule. anaka hurakan
gaponoff: Whoa! I may have been mistaken. The night side of Enceladus may NOT be illuminated by light from Saturn. I'll have to check the geometry. BUT...the sky around Enc is the E ring. We often see it bright while the night side of Enc is darker.
gapanoff: The `nighttime' side of Enceladus is brighter than you would expect because of reflected light from Saturn. But the space immediately surrounding Enceladus is not pitch black because it is embedded in the E ring...which is produced, incicentally, from the tiny particles coming out of its jets.
Do you mean that the nighttime disk of Saturn (dimly lit by reflected ring light) is the background of this photo? That would explain it. But if that is not Saturn behind Enceladus, then an explanation still awaits.
gaponoff: No, it is reflected sunlight from Saturn.
One of the things I find remarkable about this photo is that the nightime limb of Enceladus is DARKER than the background sky. Thus, there must be enough escaped water vapor and its derivatives co-orbiting with Enceladus to scatter enough sunlight to be evident even in this photograph.
