Carolyn:
Yes, I'll add it to the "About This Video"-information.
I'm glad you liked the video; for me it gives bit of a feeling of riding with Cassini and makes me appreciate both the probe itself and your team's work with the images.
Here's a new link to the new version of the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5PqLPU2VA4
I hope site's administrator could remove my previous post with the wrong non-working URL to the previous video.
Keep up the good work!
Spin0
Thanks, Spin0. And while you're at it, I'd appreciate it if you'd mention specifically that the images are the work of the Cassini Imaging Team. JPL never seems to mention this.
Spin0: Nice video, BUT... those images were taken by the Cassini Imaging Team. The official credit line should read: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute. Can you pls correct that in your You Tube video?
Hi Andrew,
It does indeed look so far like the flyby, at least as far as imaging is concerned, was a success. From previous more distant observations, we expect the northern hemisphere to be cratered and not to look like the south pole. And of course, we were already well aware of the softened nature of the craters.
We'll let you all know just exactly what the assessment of our new bounty is as soon as we figure it out ourselves!
Stay tuned.
Carolyn
Hi every one,
Just to say, the images are coming in. They can be seen on the regular Cassini / Huygens NASA / JPL site in the Raw Images. I strongly suggest that you all go & take a look. They are absolutely incredible.
The ones after closest approach are showing a very reworked, resurfaced icy object, with a large canyon coming into view @ the Nine O' Clock position.
The crescent Encleladus pre closest approach, show a more heavily cratered, older surface, in fact Enceladus looks like two very different objects, dependent on wheter you are looking 'down' onto the Northern Hemisphere or 'up' at the Southern Hemisphere. Dione also, shows something similar, though not as dramatic. However the craters do look a little softened, not hard like Rhea, but softened like many on Dione or the Uranus moons Titania & Oberon.
Strange, but extremely fascinating.
Andrew Brown.
A note: Cassini's closest approach will be far of the "tiger stripes". Cassini will pass through the plume at a height of roughly 600 kilometers, so no doubt Carolyn is right -I believed she would be at 50 kilometers of the tiger stripes-.
Also notice, by the way, that the height of the flyby has been revised; I remember to have seen last years the original idea was a height of around 25 kilometers.
By the way, it's really impressive the precision needed to guide a spacecraft that moves so fast at a distance so close to a target. Even though Sir Isaac Newton does most of the job, the Nav team deserves also A LOT of credit.
I guess raw images should be available tomorrow. No doubt they'll be worth to see.
Folks: We have tried already to image the material around Rhea but didn't see anything yet. We will be trying again in the extended mission. We can't be sure what the material is until we've caught it in an image but it may be nothing more than a very diffuse dust halo. As for the source of the material...may merely be material sputtered off Rhea and into orbit around the moon, and nothing fancy like a broken up comet.
What a week this turning out to be.
Ring around Rhea, close brush past Enceladus next Wednesday.
I too am wondering about Rhea's ring. Could it have formed from ejecta from the Tirawa basin??
Andrew Brown.
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has found evidence of material orbiting Rhea, Saturn's second largest moon. This is the first time rings may have been found around a moon.On March 12, NASA's Cassini spacecraft will make its closest flyby yet to Saturn's moon Enceladus. Cassini's goal: To scoop up samples of water-ice particles and gas spewing from Old-Faithful-like geysers.
Carolyn
I am very excited at the news of Rhea, and of the up coming flyby of Enceladus. If i may politely inquire two questions how good of images will we hope to receive? I am interested to know if its possible,to find an explanation for these rings that they are remnants from an asteroid or comet collision in Rhea's distant past. Such a collision may have pitched large quantities of gas and solid particles around Rhea
vista
Does Cassini have sensitive enough instruments to detect any chemical imbalances in the water vapour that could be a sign of.....Shhhhhhh...the L word??
(and has Dr Porco thought any more about appearing on The Space Show?)
What resolution will the sharpest images be, before they smear due to the speed of the encounter?
I remember very well, the Galileo spacecraft being sent through the Thor volcano plume on Io.
The same concerns then were expressed about partical size & it turned out the sulphur dioxide particles were microscopic & Galileo came through just fine.
I'm sure the same will happen with Cassini with Enceladus cryovolcanic particles.
I am really looking forward to this.
Andrew Brown.
We are not expecting to encounter particles that are dangerous to Cassini. Such particles would have to be much larger than the typical sizes (a few microns) of the particles we find around Enceladus. Also, when we are at 50 km altitude, we are nowhere near the plume but near the equator. We think we'll be completely safe.
"Are you sure Cassini will not be hit by particles enough largue to damage her?."
I was wondering the same thing and already had a question about it in mind. Here it goes: Will the HGA be used as a shield during closest approach, just like was done with the ring plane crossing during SOI ?
Are you sure Cassini will not be hit by particles enough largue to damage her?. With the largue relative speed Cassini will have relative to Enceladus, a hit may be problematic (50 kilometers...with that speed, that distance is transversed in just a bit more than three seconds).
Anyway, good luck with that flyby; without doubt, it's one of the most exciting Cassini highlights for this year as well as the next flybys -if everything goes well and they take place-.
(PS: for curious, my nick of "Red Dragon" has nothing to see with Hannibal Lecter's movie :)
