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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
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.
A few days ago, the spacecraft carried us far from the planet and deep within its shadow, completely blocking out the direct rays of the sun. Shaded by the planet, we can peer closer to the sun -- a geometry known as `high phase' -- than our instruments can usually tolerate. From this viewpoint, the tiny particles of water ice that populate certain regions around Saturn brighten substantially, just like the dust on your car's windshield becomes very obvious as you drive into the sun. This is the process of diffraction, and scientists utilize this consequence of the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with small particles to locate and map those locales in circum-Saturnian space where small particles are being created by a variety of processes. 
The new images obtained from within Saturn's shadow together span more than a million kilometers end to end -- out past the orbit of Rhea -- and clearly show the known diffuse rings, notably the G and E rings. Each is made of ice particles so small that they preferentially reflect only the smallest wavelengths and hence appear blue. Our images also show several groups of spoke features, made of small ice grains, stretching across the middle of the main Saturnian rings.
But this unique viewing perspective has shed light on a host of phenomena never seen before. We have discovered a well-defined diffuse ring coincident with the orbits of the co-orbital moons Janus and Epimetheus. This torus of fine particles, similar to those associated with other bodies throughout the solar system, is likely caused by meteoroid impacts onto Janus and Epimetheus that release small particles into Saturn orbit.
 Even more startling are long tendrils of fine icy particles in the vicinity of Enceladus, extending tens of thousands of kilometers fore and aft of the moon. These are very likely the supply lanes of fine icy particles being ejected from the south polar geysers of Enceladus and into the E ring ... planetary interchange in action.
Finally, as we looked back in the direction of the sun, we captured from across the depths of space our own planet, a pale blue orb, seen amidst the pageantry and colorful splendor of Saturn's rings. Nothing has greater power to alter our perception of ourselves and our place in the cosmos than the sight of Earth from faraway places. In the end, this ever-widening view of our own little planet against the immensity of space is perhaps the greatest legacy of all our interplanetary travels.
Enjoy!
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: A Year of Surveillance | | 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.
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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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