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Aug 14, 2008: Targeting the Jet Sources - The geologically active "tiger stripe" fractures of Enceladus are revealed in unprecedented detail in three high-resolution Cassini image mosaics, acquired during the Aug. 11 flyby. [Press release here.] |
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Aug 12, 2008: Skeet Shooting Enceladus - Cassini's first-of-a-kind sharp shooting over the south polar terrain of Enceladus to image the unusual geology there was a dazzling success, capturing, at close range, several of the 'tiger stripe' fractures that cross the south pole. |
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Aug 7, 2008: Enceladus Rev 80 Flyby - Skeet Shooting Enceladus: Cassini will plunge toward Enceladus on Aug. 11, coming within a mere 50 kilometers of its equatorial region and diving through the icy spray of its towering south polar plume. The detailed schedule of events for this remarkably close encounter, which is expected to return exquisitely detailed views of the surface vents of Enceladus' famous jets, is presented in a special edition of the regular CICLOPS feature, Looking Ahead. |
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Captain's Log
December 29, 2006
As another year in Saturn orbit and sixteen additional revolutions around the planet come to a close, we look back on the spoils of 2006, a Year of Surveillance, when we dove in close and enjoyed repeated looks at the bodies and phenomena we  discovered during our first 1.5 years around the ringed planet.
We continued to eye the never-ending jetting of fine icy particles from the south pole of Enceladus. Discovered in 2005, this magnificent phenomenon is now impossible to overlook and readily apparent any time we observe Enceladus at high phase.
Orbiting close to the ringplane as we did for the first half of the year, it was easy to capture 30-km diameter Pan protruding above and below the very much thinner rings, as it cruised along in its orbit. Early analyses of the sizes, shapes and densities of ring-region moons like Pan, Daphnis, Atlas, Prometheus and Pandora, indicate that these bodies have attained their present dimensions by accreting the ring material around them until they can now grow no more. Thus it would appear that Pan and its ring-region companions are not themselves the result of the original catastrophic disruption of a larger body that likely created the rings, though they may contain in their interiors the remnants of such destruction around which smaller ring particles later accreted.
Saturn, of course, loomed ever present, looking at times serene and softly-hued, at other times dark and regal, at still other times bruised by a huge, ominous static-producing storm, and  at least once just barely visible from behind the hazy limb of smog-enveloped Titan.
In July, we climbed once again into a highly inclined orbit, allowing direct inspection of the rings and the moons in and around them. And once again, we sighted in Saturn's B ring the faint transient features called spokes, now a common sight in Cassini's images of the B ring. Around the same time, we collected an awesome set of high resolution images of the F ring, revealing for the first time astonishing structures -- like delicately entwined silver threads -- very likely the dynamical consequences of interactions with small moons in the rings. We were also treated to a far better view than before of the radially narrow arc of ring material that was discovered in 2005 to form the sharp inner edge of the G ring, and are closer to believing that it does indeed owe its existence to a gravitational perturbation by the Saturnian moon, Mimas. Finally, additional high resolution images and analyses of the structures within Saturn's innermost D ring pointed to a startling conclusion: a vertically warped, continuous spiral structure in the outer D ring could only reasonably be explained by an impact into that region in 1984 ... the ‘Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9’ of Saturn's rings. Who would have imagined when we started on this journey that we would be capable of pinpointing a ring-altering impact event to recent times?
But perhaps the most memorable event of the whole year was the 9 hour interval when Cassini was favorably positioned -- above the rings, far from the planet, and deep within its shadow -- to image for the first time the inner Saturnian system as no human had ever seen it: in full, end to end, during a total eclipse of the Sun. This  was an event that saw the discovery of two new rings, yielded a breathtaking view of Enceladus exhaling its bright spray and wreathing Saturn in a sparkling blue ring of crystalline ice, and, finally, occasioned a fleeting glimpse of our own lovely planet, Earth, cradled in the arms of Saturn's rings. We will be lucky to see anything so moving again.
In keeping with our tradition of marking the close of another year living among the denizens that travel the realm of Saturn, we are releasing today a collection of images, maps, movies, and anaglyphs of some of the ringed planet's most unusual companions. That we have lived to witness such remarkable sights, that we have had in our lifetime the privilege to explore and know intimately another planetary system as remote and wondrous as Saturn's, is itself extraordinary and cause for celebration.
And so, as 2006 passes into history and 2007 knocks on our door, let this special moment in time and your presence in it lift your spirits, make you shout and be ever so grateful to be alive. We are not here for long. Let's enjoy it while it lasts.
Happy New Year to all!
Carolyn Porco
Cassini Imaging Team Leader
CICLOPS/Space Science Institute
Boulder, CO
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| Captain's Log: Mission Accomplished! | | June 30, 2008 | In late 1990, a collection of hundreds of scientists and as many engineers across the US and Europe were assembled together and given the charge to undertake a far-sighted interplanetary expedition of enormous scope and reach.
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| Captain's Log: Diving Over Enceladus | | March 26, 2008 | Our run of daring tactical maneuvers over the surface of Enceladus to uncover as much as we can about this strange beast began two weeks ago, and today we learn what came of that encounter.
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| Captain's Log: Holiday Greetings 2007 | | December 24, 2007 | So another year around Saturn is coming to a close, and by anyone's measure it has been a momentous time of adventure and revelation.
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| Captain's Log: Cassini's Diamond Anniversary | | October 15, 2007 | Ten years ago today, like a great mythological bird rising in brilliant magnificence from its funeral pyre, a mighty Titan IV rocket, equipped to scale the gravity binding it and its precious cargo to Earth, leapt with a deafening roar from Cape Canaveral's Launch Pad 40 on a pillar of orange flames, veered gracefully towards the east, and quickly receded into the black of night.
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| Captain's Log: The Wetlands of Titan | | March 15, 2007 | Will the wonders in this distant corner of our solar system ever cease? In recent months, our travels have taken us to realms around Saturn never before visited by spacefaring vehicles, showing us vistas never before seen by human eyes.
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| Captain's Log: Total Eclipse of the Sun ... and a Pale Blue Orb | | September 19, 2006 | In its ceaseless wanderings around Saturn over the last two years, Cassini has delighted us Earthlings with ever-changing vistas of Saturn and its collection of rings and moons. Today, we are treated to a rare view of the Saturnian system like we've never seen it before.
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| Captain's Log: Sixty-Four Sights from Saturn | | June 18, 2006 | Today, former Beatle Paul McCartney turns 64, a landmark anniversary made so by his own special blend of diverse musical creativity and sunny disposition captured in the old-fashioned song `When I'm 64', recorded 40 years ago this year.
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| Captain's Log: Enceladus! | | March 9, 2006 | Enceladus! Last November, special imaging sequences trained on Enceladus as it sat backlit by the sun revealed in striking detail the plume of material that we had flown through back in July as we buzzed the Enceladus surface.
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