sincerelyscience:

I am planning on making a series of posters commemorating my favorite scientists. First in the series is Carl Sagan, the astrophysicist and science diplomat who changed the lives of many through inspiring them to pursue and understand science through his professorship at Cornell University and a few other universities, his many books and the Cosmos television series. Not only did he inspire many, he achieved many great fears in astronomy such as being a key component in the Mariner 2 mission which discovered the atmospheric conditions of Venus, hypothesizing the presence of an atmosphere on Europa (a moon of Jupiter) and Titan (a moon of Saturn,) and eventually being proven right. He also worked to create a compilation of music and sounds of Earth to be sent aboard the Voyager mission — PS: if you want to hear a great love story, listen to the NPR story featuring Ann Druyan, how she met Carl Sagan and how they fell in love.

ucresearch:

The GIFs above are from this beautiful video (made with footage shot by NASA and ESA using the Cassini spacecraft).  

Planetary scientist (and UCLA alum) Dr. Ashwin Vasavada participated with the Cassini mission to Saturn:  he played a major role in science planning for Saturn atmospheric imaging.

(via likeaphysicist)

rhamphotheca:

The Auroras of Saturn

This false-color composite image, constructed from data obtained by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, shows the glow of auroras streaking out about 1,000 km (600 miles) from the cloud tops of Saturn’s south polar region. It is among the first images released from a study that identifies images showing auroral emissions out of the entire catalogue of images taken by Cassini’s visual and infrared mapping spectrometer.

In this image constructed from data collected in the near-infrared wavelengths of light, the auroral emission is shown in green. The data represents emissions from hydrogen ions in of light between 3 and 4 microns in wavelength. In general, scientists designated blue to indicate sunlight reflected at a wavelength of 2 microns, green to indicate sunlight reflected at 3 microns and red to indicate thermal emission at 5 microns. Saturn’s rings reflect sunlight at 2 microns, but not at 3 and 5 microns, so they appear deep blue.

Saturn’s high altitude haze reflects sunlight at both 2 and 3 microns, but not at 5 microns, and so it appears green to blue-green. The heat emission from the interior of Saturn is only seen at 5 microns wavelength in the spectrometer data, and thus appears red. The dark spots and banded features in the image are clouds and small storms that outline the deeper weather systems and circulation patterns of the planet. They are illuminated from underneath by Saturn’s thermal emission, and thus appear in silhouette.

The composite image was made from 65 individual observations by Cassini’s visual and infrared mapping spectrometer on 1 November 2008. The observations were each six minutes long.

Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/University of Leicester [high-resolution]

(via: Wired Science)

spaceplasma:

The rings of Saturn are the most extensive planetary ring system of any planet in the Solar System. They consist of countless small particles, ranging in size from micrometres to metres, that orbit about Saturn. The ring particles are made almost entirely of water ice, with a trace component of rocky material. There is still no consensus as to their mechanism of formation; some features of the rings suggest a relatively recent origin, but theoretical models indicate they are likely to have formed early in the Solar System’s history.

(Source: pureblindingcolour, via lookatthesefuckinstars)

pappubahry:

Enceladus, lit by the light reflected off Saturn’s rings.  Photographed by Cassini.

(via theheliopause-deactivated201305)

thenewenlightenmentage:

Saturn’s North Pole

(via galaxyclusters)

spaceplasma:

infinity-imagined:

Backlit Saturn photographed by the Cassini Spacecraft.  The moons Enceladus and Tethys are visible in the bottom right.

(via universymphony-deactivated20130)

ohmysagan:

Did you know that Saturn isn’t the only planet with rings? Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune have them too! They just aren’t as impressive.

Pictured above is Jupiter’s ring system. It is faint and consists mainly of dust. It has four main components: a thick inner torus of particles known as the “Halo Ring”; a relatively bright, exceptionally thin “Main Ring”; and two wide, thick and faint outer “Gossamer Rings”, named for the moons of whose material they are composed: Amalthea and Thebe.

The Main and Halo rings consist of dust ejected from the moons Metis, Adrastea and other unobserved parent bodies as the result of high-velocity impacts.

The total mass of the ring system is poorly known, but is probably in the range of 1011 to 1016 kg. The age of the ring system is not known, but it may have existed since the formation of Jupiter.

The top-left picture is Jupiter’s Gossamer Ring (the faint line across the photo) with the distinct Main Ring to the right, obtained by the Galileo spacecraft. The top-right picture is a mosaic of Jupiter’s ring system, also obtained by Galileo, when the Sun was behind the planet and the spacecraft was in Jupiter’s shadow peering back toward the Sun.

(via project-argus)

iliveinaspiralgalaxy:

I try to always reblog/post real photos of space, but I LOVE space art like this. :3

(Source: acid-chaos)