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Search Results: All Fields similar to 'Sun or Mercury or Venus or Mars or Jupiter or Saturn or Or or Uranus or Neptune or Pluto'
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Neptune's rings
PIA02207
Neptune
Imaging Science Subsystem -
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| Title |
Neptune's rings |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
This wide-angle Voyager 2 image, taken through the camera's clear filter, is the first to show Neptune's rings in detail. The two main rings, about 53,000 km (33,000 miles) and 63,000 km (39,000 miles) from Neptune, are 5 to 10 times brighter than in earlier images. The difference is due to lighting and viewing geometry. In approach images, the rings were seen in light scattered backward toward the spacecraft at a 15-degree phase angle. However, this image was taken at a 135-degree phase angle as Voyager left the planet. That geometry is ideal for detecting microscopic particles that forward-scatter light preferentially. The fact that Neptune's rings are so much brighter at that angle means the particle-size distribution is quite different from most of Uranus' and Saturn's rings, which contain fewer dust-size grains. However, a few components of the Saturnian and Uranian ring systems exhibit forward-scattering behavior: The F ring and the Encke Gap ringlet at Saturn, and 1986U1R at Uranus. They are also narrow, clumpy ringlets with kinks, and are associated with nearby moonlets too small to detect directly. In this image, the main clumpy arc, composed of three features each about 6 to 8 degrees long, is clearly seen. This image was obtained when Voyager was 1.1 million km (683,000 miles) from Neptune. Exposure time was 111seconds. The Voyager Mission is conducted by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications. |
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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 |
There were two flybys of Venus in Cassini's primary trajectory, on April 26, 1998 and June 24, 1999. This image shows the spacecraft near the cloud-enshrouded Venus. By David Seal (only available electronically). |
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Astronaut Exercise
In the next 50 years, NASA p
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7/8/08
| Description |
In the next 50 years, NASA plans to send astronauts to the Moon and Mars. These astronauts must follow a strenuous exercise program in-flight to prevent the health effects of space flight. These effects include decrease in bone and muscle mass, strength, sensory-motor function (i.e. balance), and the ability to perform aerobic exercise. |
| Date |
7/8/08 |
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ISS Battery
When the solar arrays of the
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7/8/08
| Description |
When the solar arrays of the International Space Station are in the sun, nickel hydrogen batteries such as the one being demonstrated collect solar energy that is later used to power the Station when it is no longer within the Sun's "line-of-sight." |
| Date |
7/8/08 |
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Robot Over the Horizon
The Space Shuttle Endeavour'
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4/2/09
| Description |
The Space Shuttle Endeavour's robotic arm hovers over Earth's horizon, backdropped by a starburst from the Sun. This photo was taken during the STS-77 shuttle mission in 1996. |
| Date |
4/2/09 |
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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 |
Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona (PIA02826) For higher resolution, click here., These two images, taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, show Jupiter in a near-infrared wavelength, and catch Europa, one of Jupiter's largest moons, at different phases. Cassini's narrow-angle camera took both images, the upper one from a distance of 69.9 million kilometers (43.4 million miles) on Oct. 17, 2000, and the lower one from a distance of 65.1 million kilometers (40.4 million miles) on Oct. 22, 2000. Both were taken at a wavelength of 727 nanometers, which is in the near-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The camera's 727-nanometer filter accepts only a narrow spectral range centered on a relatively strong absorption feature due to methane gas. In this spectral region, the amount of light reflected by Jupiter's clouds is only half that reflected in a nearby spectral region outside the methane band. The features that are brightest in these images are the highest and thickest clouds, such as the Great Red Spot and the band of clouds girding the equator, as these scatter sunlight back to space before it has a chance to be absorbed by the methane gas in the atmosphere. This stratigraphic effect can be seen even more prominently in an image released on Oct. 23, 2000, taken in the stronger methane band at 889 nanometers, in which the only bright features are the highest hazes over the equator, the poles and the Great Red Spot. By comparing images taken in the 727 nanometer filter with others taken at 889 nanometers and at a weaker methane band at 619 nanometers, researchers will probe the heights and thickness of clouds in Jupiter's atmosphere. Europa, a satellite of Jupiter about the size of Earth's Moon, is visible to the left of Jupiter in the upper image, and in front of the planet in the lower image. Another of Jupiter's Galilean satellites, Ganymede, which is larger than the planet Mercury, is to the right in the upper image, with brightness variations visible across its surface. In the upper image, Europa is caught entering Jupiter's shadow, and hence appears as a bright crescent, in the lower image, it is seen about one-and-a-half orbits later, in transit across the face of the planet. Because there is neither methane nor any strong absorber in this spectral region on the surface of Europa, it appears strikingly white and bright compared to Jupiter. Imaging observations of the moons Europa, Io and Ganymede entering and passing through Jupiter's shadow are planned for the two-week period surrounding Cassini's closest approach on Dec. 30, 2000. The purpose of these eclipse observations is to detect and measure the variability of emissions that arise from the interaction of the satellites' tenuous atmospheres with the charged particles trapped in Jupiter's magnetic field. At the times these images were taken, Cassini was about 3.3 degrees above Jupiter's equatorial plane, and the Sun-Jupiter-spacecraft angle was about 20 degrees. Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian |
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Apollo 15 on the Launch Pad
Lightening flashes in the sk
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5/6/09
| Description |
Lightening flashes in the sky behind the Saturn V rocket that will propel Apollo 15 to the moon, July 25, 1971. Image Credit: NASA |
| Date |
5/6/09 |
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Total Eclipse of the Sun
On December 3, 2002, people
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6/9/08
| Description |
On December 3, 2002, people in Australia received a rare 32-second celestial show as the moon completely obscured the sun, creating a ring of light. Solar eclipses provide experts an opportunity to study the sun's outer atmosphere, called the corona. This total eclipse was the first to cover Australian shores since 1976. The next is not predicted to occur for several more decades. While people in Australia were observing the solar eclipse, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft also had its eye on the sun. From its unique vantage point in space, scientists have been able to monitor the explosions on the sun that can impact us here on Earth. This image combines a photograph of the solar eclipse (showing the halo-like corona) with data taken by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope instrument aboard SOHO (showing the green inner regions). Image credit: NASA/ESA Text credit: NASA's Earth Observatory |
| Date |
6/9/08 |
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Neither Perpendicular nor Pa
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Most ISS images are nadir, i
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11/3/08
| Description |
Most ISS images are nadir, in which the center point of the image is directly beneath the lens of the camera, but this one is not. This highly oblique image of northwestern African captures the curvature of the Earth and shows its atmosphere. The Earth's atmosphere is composed of 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen and 1 percent other constituents, and it shields us from nearly all harmful radiation coming from the sun and other stars. It also protects us from meteors, most of which burn up before they can strike the planet. Affected by changes in solar activity, the upper atmosphere contributes to weather and climate on Earth. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/UCSD/JSC |
| Date |
11/3/08 |
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Rounding the Corner
| 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 |
A movie sequence of Saturn's G ring over a full orbital revolution captures its single bright arc on the ring's inner edge. The movie is composed of 70 individual narrow-angle camera images taken during a period of just over 20 hours while Cassini stared at the ring. The orbital period for particles in the center of the G ring is about 19.6 hours. At the beginning of the sequence, the ring arc, a site of concentrated ring particles, is seen rounding the ring edge. The arc orbits at a distance of 167,496 kilometers (104,080 miles). It is about 250 kilometers (155 miles) wide in radius and subtends less than 60 degrees of orbital longitude. The classical position of the G ring is about 172,600 kilometers (107,250 miles) from Saturn, and the arc blends smoothly into this region. Scientists suspect that bodies trapped in this remarkably bright feature may be the source of the G ring material, driven outward from the arc by electromagnetic forces in the Saturn system. The arc itself is likely held in place by gravitational resonances with Mimas of the type that anchor the famed arcs in Neptune's rings. There is an obvious narrow dark gap in the G ring beyond the arc. This feature is close to yet another resonance with Mimas, but no arcs are present at this locale. This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 10 degrees above the ringplane. Imaging artifacts jitter within the scene, a result of the high phase angle and faintness of the G ring. Stars slide across the background from upper left to lower right. The images in this movie were taken on Sept. 19 and 20 at a distance of approximately 2.1 to 2.2 million kilometers (1.3 to 1.4 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-G ring-spacecraft, or phase, angle that ranged from 167 to 164 degrees. Image scale is about 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel in the radial (outward from Saturn) direction. 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. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
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Lightning on Earth
| Title |
Lightning on Earth |
| Explanation |
Nobody knows what causes lightning. It is known that charges [ http://physics.bu.edu/~duffy/PY106/Charge.html ] slowly separate in some clouds [ http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/cld/cldtyp/home.rxml ] causing rapid electrical discharges [ http://www.eng.tau.ac.il/Pages/Departments/Inter/edp_lab/ ] (lightning), but how electrical charges [ http://physicsstudio.indstate.edu/java/potential/ProyectI.html ] get separated in clouds [ http://www.geo.mtu.edu/department/classes/ge406/tjbrabec/cloud.html ] remains a topic of much research. Nevertheless, lightning [ http://wvlightning.com/info.html ] bolts are common in clouds during rainstorms, and on average 6000 lightning bolts occur between clouds and the Earth every minute. Above [ http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im0426.html ], several lightning strokes were photographed behind Kitt Peak National Observatory [ http://www.noao.edu/outreach/kpoutreach.html ] in Arizona [ http://www.state.az.us/ ]. Lightning [ http://bondo.wsc.mass.edu/dept/garp/faculty/lightn.htm ] has also been found on the planets Venus [ http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~hansell/lightning/poster.html ], Jupiter [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap971216.html ], Saturn [ http://learn.jpl.nasa.gov/projectspacef/bkg130b.html ], and Uranus [ http://www.spacetoday.org/SolSys/Uranus/Uranus.html ]. NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/ ] launched the TRMM mission [ http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/news.html ] in 1997 that continues to measure rainfall and lightning [ http://thunder.msfc.nasa.gov/primer/ ] on planet Earth [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990131.html ]. |
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Constellation: Earth Moon Ma
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Constellation: Earth Moon Ma
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| Description |
Constellation: Earth Moon Mars |
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What's Up for March?
Bright Saturn and a faint as
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03/03/2010
| Description |
Bright Saturn and a faint asteroid named Lutetia. |
| Date |
03/03/2010 |
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Morning Sun
The morning sun reflects on
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5/6/09
| Description |
The morning sun reflects on the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean as seen from the Apollo 7 spacecraft during its 134th revolution of the Earth on Oct. 20, 1968. Image Credit: NASA |
| Date |
5/6/09 |
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STEREO Sees Lunar Transit
This transit of the moon acr
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6/9/08
| Description |
This transit of the moon across the sun on Feb. 25, 2007, could not be seen from Earth. This sight was visible only from the STEREO-B spacecraft in its orbit about the sun, trailing behind the Earth. NASA's STEREO mission consists of two spacecraft launched in October 2006 to study solar storms. When STEREO-B captured this image, it was about one million miles from the Earth. That's about 4.4 times farther away from the moon than we are on Earth. As a result, the moon appeared about 4.4 times smaller than what we are used to. This alignment of STEREO-B and the moon was not just due to luck. It was arranged with a small tweak to STEREO-B's orbit in December 2006. The sun as it appears here is a composite of images in four different wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light that were separated into color channels and then recombined. Image credit: NASA |
| Date |
6/9/08 |
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Neptune's rings
| Title |
Neptune's rings |
| Description |
This wide-angle Voyager 2 image, taken through the camera's clear filter, is the first to show Neptune's rings in detail. The two main rings, about 53,000 km (33,000 miles) and 63,000 km (39,000 miles) from Neptune, are 5 to 10 times brighter than in earlier images. The difference is due to lighting and viewing geometry. In approach images, the rings were seen in light scattered backward toward the spacecraft at a 15-degree phase angle. However, this image was taken at a 135-degree phase angle as Voyager left the planet. That geometry is ideal for detecting microscopic particles that forward-scatter light preferentially. The fact that Neptune's rings are so much brighter at that angle means the particle-size distribution is quite different from most of Uranus' and Saturn's rings, which contain fewer dust-size grains. However, a few components of the Saturnian and Uranian ring systems exhibit forward-scattering behavior: The F ring and the Encke Gap ringlet at Saturn, and 1986U1R at Uranus. They are also narrow, clumpy ringlets with kinks, and are associated with nearby moonlets too small to detect directly. In this image, the main clumpy arc, composed of three features each about 6 to 8 degrees long, is clearly seen. This image was obtained when Voyager was 1.1 million km (683,000 miles) from Neptune. Exposure time was 111seconds. The Voyager Mission is conducted by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications. |
| Date |
08.26.1989 |
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2008 Solar Eclipse Diamond R
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This "diamond ring" image sh
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8/6/08
| Description |
This "diamond ring" image shows the Aug. 1, 2008, solar eclipse at a point when the moon almost completely covered up the body of the sun. Credit: The Exploratorium |
| Date |
8/6/08 |
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Kepler Leaves Astrotech
NASA's Kepler spacecraft, en
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2/20/09
| Description |
NASA's Kepler spacecraft, enclosed in a canister and protective cover, leaves the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla. Kepler is being moved to Launch Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.The liftoff of Kepler aboard a Delta II rocket is currently targeted for 10:48 p.m. EST March 5 from Pad 17-B. Kepler is designed to survey more than 100,000 stars in our galaxy to determine the number of sun-like stars that have Earth-size and larger planets, including those that lie in a star's "habitable zone," a region where liquid water, and perhaps life, could exist. If these Earth-size worlds do exist around stars like our sun, Kepler is expected to be the first to find them and the first to measure how common they are. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller. Feb. 19, 2009 |
| Date |
2/20/09 |
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Arctic Eclipse
NASA's Terra satellite was r
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8/4/08
| Description |
NASA's Terra satellite was rounding the top of the globe, making its way from the eastern tip of Siberia and across the Arctic Ocean towards northern Norway and northwest Russia, when it captured this unique view of a total solar eclipse on Aug. 1, 2008. The circular disk of the Moon casts an oval-shaped shadow across the left edge of this image. In the region of totality, where the Moon entirely obscures the Sun, the shadow is complete. The edges of the shadow are fuzzy, gradually lightening from black to red, brown, and yellow until the shadow is no longer discernable. In these areas of semi-shadow, the Sun is only partially blocked. On any other day, the photo-like view captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite would be brilliant white since both the ever-present Arctic clouds and the ice that caps the northern sea reflect light. In this image, however, it is as if the world is painted in sepia: the low light casts a yellow-brown glow on much of the scene. The image was captured between 9:35 and 9:45 UTC. In the area shown in the image, the Sun was completely obscured for about two minutes. As Earth rotated, the shadow moved southeast across the surface. At the same time, the satellite crossed the Arctic, its path nearly perpendicular to the eclipse. Because the shadow was moving across Earth's surface as the satellite approached, it has a long oblong shape in this image. In an instantaneous snapshot from a platform that was not moving relative to Earth, the shadow would be more circular. Image credit: Jeff Schmaltz, NASA's MODIS Rapid Response Team Text credit: Holli Riebeek, NASA's Earth Observatory |
| Date |
8/4/08 |
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Eclipse View from the ISS
The International Space Stat
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6/9/08
| Description |
The International Space Station (ISS) was in position to view the umbral (ground) shadow cast by the moon as it moved between Earth and the sun during a solar eclipse on March 29, 2006. This astronaut image captures the umbral shadow across southern Turkey, northern Cyprus and the Mediterranean Sea. Credit: NASA |
| Date |
6/9/08 |
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2008 Solar Eclipse at Totali
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This image shows the Aug. 1,
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8/6/08
| Description |
This image shows the Aug. 1, 2008, solar eclipse at the point of totality, when the moon completely blocks out the body of the sun, revealing the normally hidden, halo-like corona. Credit: The Exploratorium |
| Date |
8/6/08 |
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Aug. 1 Solar Eclipse Image S
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On August 1, a total solar e
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8/4/08
| Description |
On August 1, a total solar eclipse was visible in parts of Canada, northern Greenland, the Arctic, central Russia, Mongolia and China. The eclipse swept across Earth in a narrow path that began in Canada's northern province of Nunavut and ended in northern China's Silk Road region. Though the eclipse was not visible in most of North America, NASA TV and the Exploratorium made streaming video of the event available online. These images are taken from that video. The sun appears differently in some of the images because of the different filters used to capture the event. Times listed are approximate. At 6:54 a.m. ET, clouds began to roll in, threatening to block out the total eclipse. The clouds began to break at 7:06 a.m., and the sky cleared long enough for views of totality at 7:10 a.m. > Larger, unlabeled image Credit: NASA TV/The Exploratorium |
| Date |
8/4/08 |
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Saturn's Blue Cranium
PIA06177
Sol (our sun)
Imaging Science Subsystem -
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| Title |
Saturn's Blue Cranium |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Saturn's northern hemisphere is presently a serene blue, more befitting of Uranus or Neptune, as seen in this natural color image from Cassini. Light rays here travel a much longer path through the relatively cloud-free upper atmosphere. Along this path, shorter wavelength blue light rays are scattered effectively by gases in the atmosphere, and it is this scattered light that gives the region its blue appearance. Why the upper atmosphere in the northern hemisphere is so cloud-free is not known, but may be related to colder temperatures brought on by the ring shadows cast there. Shadows cast by the rings surround the pole, looking almost like dark atmospheric bands. The ring shadows at higher latitudes correspond to locations on the ringplane that are farther from the planet--in other words, the northernmost ring shadow in this view is made by the outer edge of the A ring. Spots of bright clouds also are visible throughout the region. This view is similar to an infrared image obtained by Cassini at nearly the same time (see PIA06567 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06567 ]). The infrared view shows a great deal more detail in the planet's atmosphere, however. Images obtained using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this color view. The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera on Dec. 14, 2004, at a distance of 719,200 kilometers (446,900 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is about 39 kilometers (24 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 team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov [ http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov ] and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org [ http://ciclops.org ]. |
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Hot New Rover Wheels!
NASA's next rover to Mars, u
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07/13/10
| Description |
NASA's next rover to Mars, under construction at JPL, turns its new set of wheels. |
| Date |
07/13/10 |
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Ganymede Mosaic
| Title |
Ganymede Mosaic |
| Explanation |
Ganymede [ http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/ganymede.html ], one of the four Galilean moons [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/ganymede/discovery.html ] of Jupiter, is the largest moon in the Solar System. With a diameter of 5,260 kilometers it is even larger [ http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/datamax.html ] than planets Mercury and Pluto and just over three quarters the size of Mars. Ganymede is [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/ganymede/fact.html ] locked in synchronous rotation [ http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/help.html#syncrot ] with Jupiter. This detailed mosaic [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/ PIAGenCatalogPage.pl?PIA01666 ] of images from the Galileo spacecraft shows the trailing hemisphere of this planet-sized moon. Speckled with bright young craters, Ganymede's surface shows a mixture of old, dark, cratered [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980722.html ] terrain and lighter regions laced with grooves and ridges [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960711.html ]. Ganymede's true colors tend toward subtle browns and grays, but this mosaic's colors have been enhanced to increase surface contrasts. The violet shades extending from the top and bottom are likely due to frost particles in Ganymede's polar regions. |
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A89-7039
Photographer: JPL P-34712 Ra
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8/26/89
| Description |
Photographer: JPL P-34712 Range: 1.1 million kilometers (683,000 miles) This wide-angle Voyager 2 image, taken through the camera's clear filter, is the first to show Neptune's rings in detail. The two main rings, about 53,000 km (33,000 miles) and 63,000 km (39,000 miles) from Neptune, are 5 to 10 times brighter than in earlier images. The difference is due to lighting and viewing geometry. In approach images, the rings were seen in light scattered backward toward the spacecraft at a 15 _ phase angle. However, this image was taken at a 135 _ phase angle as Voyager left the planet. That geometry is ideal for detecting microscopic particles that forward scatter light preferentially. The fact that Neptune's rings are so much brighter at that angle means the particle-size distribution is quite different from most of Uranus' and Saturn's rings, which contain fewer dust-size grains. However, a few componenets of the Saturian and Uranian ring systems exhibit forward-scattering behavior: The F ring and the Encke Gap ringlet at Saturn and 1986U1R at Uranus. They are also narrow, clumpy ringlets with kinks, and are associated with nearby moonlets too small to detect directly. In this image, the main clumpy arc, composed of three features each about 6 to 8 degrees long, is clearly seen. Exposure time for this image was 111 seconds. |
| Date |
8/26/89 |
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Pluto: The Frozen Planet
| Title |
Pluto: The Frozen Planet |
| Explanation |
This portrait of Pluto [ http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/94/17.html ] and its companion Charon [ http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/ pluto.html#charon ] was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1994. Pluto is [ http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/pluto.html ] usually the most distant planet from the Sun [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960916.html ] but because of its eccentric orbit Pluto crossed inside of Neptune's [ http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/neptune.html ] orbit in 1979. On Thursday, February 11th, it crossed back out, recovering its status [ http://www.lowell.edu/users/buie/pluto/ ] as the most distant of nine planets [ http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/ ]. Pluto [ http://www.iau.org/PlutoPR.html ] is still considered to be a planet, although very little is known about it compared to other planets. Pluto [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980708.html ] is smaller than any other planet and even smaller than several other planet's moons. Pluto is [ http://dosxx.colorado.edu/plutohome.html ] probably composed of frozen rock and ice, much like Neptune's moon Triton [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap971123.html ]. Pluto has not yet been visited by a spacecraft, but a mission is being planned [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pluto/pkexprss.htm ] for the next decade. |
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Constellation Mini Feature 4
Constellation on Mars
| Description |
Constellation on Mars |
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Hubble Confirms New Moons of
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| Title |
Hubble Confirms New Moons of Pluto |
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Venus: Just Passing By
| Title |
Venus: Just Passing By |
| Explanation |
Venus, the second closest planet to the Sun [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/venusfact.html ], is a popular way-point for spacecraft headed for the gas giant [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap971030.html ] planets in the outer reaches of the solar system. Why visit Venus [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap971014.html ] first? Using a " gravity assist [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/basics/bsf4-1.htm#gravity ]" maneuver, spacecraft can swing by planets and gain energy during their brief encounter saving fuel for use at the end of their long interplanetary voyage. This colorized image of Venus [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/html/object_page/gal_p37218.html ] was recorded by the Jupiter-bound Galileo spacecraft shortly after its gravity assist flyby of Venus in February of 1990. Galileo's glimpse of the veiled planet [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950822.html ] shows structure in swirling sulfuric acid clouds. The bright area is sunlight glinting [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980402.html ] off the upper cloud deck. The Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/ ] will complete its own [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/today/ ] second flyby of Venus on June 24th. Launched in October of 1997 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap971016.html ], Cassini should reach Saturn [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap981105.html ] in July 2004. |
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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 flyby of Earth in Cassini's primary trajectory occured on August 18, 1999, just 55 days after the second Venus flyby. This image shows the spacecraft over the South Pacific. By David Seal (only available electronically). |
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Saturn's Blue Cranium
| Description |
Saturn's Blue Cranium |
| Full Description |
Saturn's northern hemisphere is presently a serene blue, more befitting of Uranus or Neptune, as seen in this natural color image from Cassini. Light rays here travel a much longer path through the relatively cloud-free upper atmosphere. Along this path, shorter wavelength blue light rays are scattered effectively by gases in the atmosphere, and it is this scattered light that gives the region its blue appearance. Why the upper atmosphere in the northern hemisphere is so cloud-free is not known, but may be related to colder temperatures brought on by the ring shadows cast there. Shadows cast by the rings surround the pole, looking almost like dark atmospheric bands. The ring shadows at higher latitudes correspond to locations on the ringplane that are farther from the planet -- in other words, the northernmost ring shadow in this view is made by the outer edge of the A ring. Spots of bright clouds also are visible throughout the region. This view is similar to an infrared image obtained by Cassini at nearly the same time (see http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06567). The infrared view shows a great deal more detail in the planet's atmosphere, however. Images obtained using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this color view. The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera on Dec. 14, 2004, at a distance of 719,200 kilometers (446,900 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is about 39 kilometers (24 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 team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . For images visit the Cassini imaging team home page http://ciclops.org . *Credit:* NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
February 8, 2005 |
|
Pale Blue Orb (1)
| Description |
Pale Blue Orb |
| Full Description |
Not since NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft saw our home as a pale blue dot from beyond the orbit of Neptune has Earth been imaged in color from the outer solar system. Now, Cassini casts powerful eyes on our home planet, and captures Earth, a pale blue orb -- and a faint suggestion of our moon -- among the glories of the Saturn system. Earth is captured here in a natural color portrait made possible by the passing of Saturn directly in front of the sun from Cassini's point of view. At the distance of Saturn's orbit, Earth is too narrowly separated from the sun for the spacecraft to safely point its cameras and other instruments toward its birthplace without protection from the sun's glare. The Earth-and-moon system is visible as a bright blue point on the right side of the image above center. Here, Cassini is looking down on the Atlantic Ocean and the western coast of north Africa. The phase angle of Earth, seen from Cassini is about 30 degrees. A magnified view of the image taken through the clear filter (monochrome) shows the moon as a dim protrusion to the upper left of Earth. Seen from the outer solar system through Cassini's cameras, the entire expanse of direct human experience, so far, is nothing more than a few pixels across. Earth no longer holds the distinction of being our solar system's only "water world," as several other bodies suggest the possibility that they too harbor liquid water beneath their surfaces. The Saturnian moon, Enceladus, is among them, and is also captured on the left in this image (see inset), with its plume of water ice particles and swathed in the blue E ring which it creates. Delicate fingers of material extend from the active moon into the E ring. See Ghostly Fingers of Enceladus, for a more detailed view of these newly-revealed features. The narrow tenuous G ring and the main rings are seen at the right. The view looks down from about 15 degrees above the un-illuminated side of the rings. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this view. The image was taken by the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 15, 2006, at a distance of approximately 2.1 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Saturn and at a sun-Saturn-spacecraft angle of almost 179 degrees. Image scale is 129 kilometers (80 miles) per pixel. At this time, Cassini was nearly 1.5 billion kilometers (930 million miles) from Earth. 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. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov ., The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
September 19, 2006 |
|
Uranus' Largest Moon: Titani
…
| Title |
Uranus' Largest Moon: Titania |
| Explanation |
Titania's tortured terrain is a mix of valleys and craters. NASA's interplanetary robot spacecraft Voyager [ http://spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov/NASA.Projects/Planetary.Probes/Voyager/Mission.Summary ] 2 passed this moon of Uranus [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950816.html ] in 1986 and took the above photograph. The photograph was then transmitted back to earth by radio [ http://www.science.uwaterloo.ca/physics/p13news/number_2/maxnew-2.html ]. The valleys of Titania [ http://bang.lanl.gov/solarsys/titania.htm ] resemble those on Ariel [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960303.html ] indicate that Titania underwent some unknown tumultuous resurfacing event in its distant past. Although Titania [ http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/titania.html ] is Uranus' largest moon, it is still much smaller than Triton [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950805.html ] - the largest moon of Uranus' sister planet Neptune [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950817.html ]. Titania is essentially a large dirty iceball that orbits Uranus - it is composed of about half water-ice and half rock. Titania was discovered by William Hershel [ http://www.dsi.unimi.it/Users/Students/amoroso/sun/fortunes/life-e.html ] in 1787. |
|
Hubble Captures a Rare Eclip
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| Title |
Hubble Captures a Rare Eclipse on Uranus |
|
Hands-On Book of Hubble Imag
…
| Title |
Hands-On Book of Hubble Images Allows the Visually Impaired to "Touch the Universe |
|
Frame-Filling Rhea
| Description |
Frame-Filling Rhea |
| Full Description |
Saturn's moon Rhea is an alien ice world, but in this frame-filling view it is vaguely familiar. Here, Rhea's cratered surface looks in some ways similar to our own Moon, or the planet Mercury. But make no mistake - Rhea's icy exterior would quickly melt if this moon were brought as close to the Sun as Mercury. Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across. Instead, Rhea preserves a record of impacts at its post in the outer solar system. The large impact crater at center left (near the terminator or boundary between day and night), called Izanagi, is just one of the numerous large impact basins on Rhea. This view shows principally Rhea's southern polar region, centered on 58 degrees South, 265 degrees West. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 1, 2005, at a distance of approximately 255,000 kilometers (158,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 62 degrees. Image scale is 2 kilometers (1.2 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. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
September 9, 2005 |
|
The Plane of the Ecliptic
| title |
The Plane of the Ecliptic |
| description |
The Plane of the Ecliptic is illustrated in this Clementine star tracker camera image which reveals (from right to left) the Moon lit by Earthshine, the Sun's corona rising over the Moon's dark limb, and the planets Saturn, Mars, and Mercury. The ecliptic plane is defined as the imaginary plane containing the Earth's orbit around the Sun. In the course of a year, the Sun's apparent path through the sky lies in this plane. The planetary bodies of our solar system all tend to lie near this plane, since they were formed from the Sun's spinning, flattened, proto-planetary disk. The snapshot above nicely captures a momentary line-up looking out along this fundamental plane of our solar system. *Image Credit*: NASA |
|
Terrestrial Planet Sizes
| title |
Terrestrial Planet Sizes |
| description |
The terrestrial planets are the four innermost planets in the solar system, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. They are called terrestrial because they have a compact, rocky surface like the Earth's. The planets Venus, Earth, and Mars have significant atmospheres, while Mercury has almost none. This diagram shows the approximate relative sizes of the terrestrial planets. Distances are not to scale. *Image Credit*: Lunar and Planetary Institute |
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Hands-On Book of Hubble Imag
…
| Title |
Hands-On Book of Hubble Images Allows the Visually Impaired to "Touch the Universe |
|
Hands-On Book of Hubble Imag
…
| Title |
Hands-On Book of Hubble Images Allows the Visually Impaired to "Touch the Universe |
|
Hands-On Book of Hubble Imag
…
| Title |
Hands-On Book of Hubble Images Allows the Visually Impaired to "Touch the Universe |
|
Hands-On Book of Hubble Imag
…
| Title |
Hands-On Book of Hubble Images Allows the Visually Impaired to "Touch the Universe |
|
Hands-On Book of Hubble Imag
…
| Title |
Hands-On Book of Hubble Images Allows the Visually Impaired to "Touch the Universe |
|
Hands-On Book of Hubble Imag
…
| Title |
Hands-On Book of Hubble Images Allows the Visually Impaired to "Touch the Universe |
|
Hands-On Book of Hubble Imag
…
| Title |
Hands-On Book of Hubble Images Allows the Visually Impaired to "Touch the Universe |
|
Hands-On Book of Hubble Imag
…
| Title |
Hands-On Book of Hubble Images Allows the Visually Impaired to "Touch the Universe |
|
Hands-On Book of Hubble Imag
…
| Title |
Hands-On Book of Hubble Images Allows the Visually Impaired to "Touch the Universe |
|
Hands-On Book of Hubble Imag
…
| Title |
Hands-On Book of Hubble Images Allows the Visually Impaired to "Touch the Universe |
|
Hands-On Book of Hubble Imag
…
| Title |
Hands-On Book of Hubble Images Allows the Visually Impaired to "Touch the Universe |
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