Amazing new image of Saturn from Cassini

[Mike]

Take a look at the astro photo of the day for today - http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061016.html

[Tony G]

Awesome, truely awesome.
Forget the webcams, SBIG and modified cameras, I getting one of those Cassini cameras for Christmas now.

Tony G

[Rick]

A hurricane-like storm, two-thirds the diameter of Earth, is raging at Saturn's south pole, new images from Nasa's Cassini space probe reveal.

Measuring 5,000 miles (8,000km) across, the storm is the first hurricane ever detected on a planet other than Earth.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6135450.stm

[Rick]

It's an impressive-looking storm, but the "first ever" claim seems to come in part from defining "hurricane" narrowly enough...

[Mike]

One of the most bizarre weather patterns in the solar system has been photographed at Saturn, where astronomers have spotted a huge, six-sided feature circling the north pole.

Rather than the normally sinuous cloud structures seen on all planets that have atmospheres, this thing is a hexagon.



The honeycomb feature has been seen before. NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft imaged it more than two decades ago. Now, having spotted it with the Cassini spacecraft, scientists conclude it is a long-lasting oddity.

For the full story - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17816192/

[Rick]

A new moon has been discovered orbiting Saturn - bringing the planet's latest moon tally up to 60.

The body was spotted in a series of images taken by cameras onboard the Cassini spacecraft.

Initial calculations suggest the moon is about 2km-wide (1.2 miles) and its orbit sits between those of two other Saturnian moons, Methone and Pallene.

The Cassini Imaging Team, who found the object, said Saturn's moon count could rise further still.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6908190.stm

And: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/features/feature20070719.cfm

[Rick]

The US space agency (Nasa) has extended the international Cassini-Huygens mission by two years.

The unmanned Cassini-Huygens spacecraft entered orbit around Saturn in 2004 on a mission that was supposed to come to an end in July this year.

The two-year mission extension will encompass some 60 extra orbits of Saturn and more flybys of its moons.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7350429.stm

[mickw]

A monster storm spawning bolts of lightning 10,000 times more powerful than any seen on Earth is raging on the ringed planet Saturn.

The powerful electrical storm cropped up in Saturn's southern hemisphere five months ago, when it was first spotted by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, and has persevered to become the planet's longest continuously recorded tempest to date.

"We saw similar storms in 2004 and 2006 that each lasted for nearly a month, but this storm is longer-lived by far," said Georg Fischer, an associate with Cassini's radio and plasma wave science team at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, in a statement. "And it appeared after nearly two years during which we did not detect any electrical storm activity from Saturn."

More:  http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080429-saturn-lightning-storm.html

[mickw]

 powerful lightning storm brewing in Saturn's atmosphere since January has become the solar system's longest continuously observed thunderstorm, astronomers have announced.

The storm breaks the record duration of 7.5 months set by another thunderstorm observed on Saturn by NASA's Cassini spacecraft between November 2007 and July 2008.

The current thunderstorm on Saturn is the ninth that has been measured since Cassini swung into orbit around Saturn in July 2004.

Lightning discharges in Saturn's atmosphere emit very powerful radio waves, which are measured by the antennas and receivers of the Cassini Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) instrument. The radio waves are about 10,000 times stronger than their terrestrial counterparts and originate from huge thunderstorms in Saturn's atmosphere with diameters of about 1,900 miles (3,000 km).

More:   http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090914-saturn-lightning-record.html

[mickw]

A Cassini scientist explains the flickering "northern lights" high above Saturn, shown for the first time in a visible-light movie. credit: NASA

More:   http://www.redorbit.com/news/video/space/6/saturns_aurora_in_a_new_light/29967/index.html

[mickw]

Cameras aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft have captured images of a mysterious hexagon-shaped cloud formation that is likely formed by the path of a jet stream flowing around the planet's north pole.

The hexagon, which was discovered by the Voyager spacecraft in the early 1980s, encircles Saturn with an estimated diameter wider than two Earths. The associated jet stream likely whips along the hexagon at about 220 miles per hour (100 meters per second).

"The longevity of the hexagon makes this something special, given that weather on Earth lasts on the order of weeks," said Kunio Sayanagi, a Cassini imaging team associate at the California Institute of Technology. "It's a mystery on par with the strange weather conditions that give rise to the long-lived Great Red Spot of Jupiter."

The last visible-light images of the entire hexagon were captured by NASA's Voyager spacecraft nearly 30 years ago, the last time spring began on Saturn. For the next 15 years, the north pole was shrouded in darkness


More:   http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/091209-saturn-hexagon.html

[Rick]

The US space agency Nasa has extended the international Cassini-Huygens mission once again.

The unmanned Cassini-Huygens probe arrived at Saturn in 2004 on a mission that was meant to come to end in 2008.

Its mission had already been extended up to 2010. Nasa now says the spacecraft will explore the Saturn system until 2017.

Dr Jim Green, director of Nasa's planetary science division, announced the extension on Wednesday.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8497095.stm

[Rick]

Cassini Swings Above Saturn to Compose a Portrait

This natural-color view -- seen as human eyes would have seen it - was obtained on Oct. 10, 2013. It shows off the differently colored bands of weather at Saturn. A bright, wavy stream of clouds around 42 degrees north latitude appears to mark some of the turbulent aftermath of a giant storm that reached its violent peak in early 2011. The mysterious six-sided weather pattern known as the hexagon is also visible around Saturn's north pole.

More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-311

[Rick]

Cassini Beams Back First Images from New Orbit

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has sent to Earth its first views of Saturn's atmosphere since beginning the latest phase of its mission. The new images show scenes from high above Saturn's northern hemisphere, including the planet's intriguing hexagon-shaped jet stream.

Cassini began its new mission phase, called its Ring-Grazing Orbits, on Nov. 30. Each of these weeklong orbits -- 20 in all -- carries the spacecraft high above Saturn's northern hemisphere before sending it skimming past the outer edges of the planet's main rings.

Cassini's imaging cameras acquired these latest views on Dec. 2 and 3, about two days before the first ring-grazing approach to the planet. Future passes will include images from near closest approach, including some of the closest-ever views of the outer rings and small moons that orbit there.

More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6693