Stunning new image of Saturn released

[BJJ-Blue]

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/FInpgLett5qDhpU9OmIGSg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en/blogs/technews/mw-630-saturn-cassini.jpg

"Science fiction movies have spoiled us on high definition views of our planetary neighbors, but real-life photographs with equal jaw-dropping potential are exceedingly rare. That's what makes NASA's awe-inspiring snapshot of Saturn (hi-res version here) such a stunning piece of eye candy.

Taken by NASA's Cassini robotic orbiter, the shot was captured from the dark side of Saturn as the Sun's bright rays illuminated every piece of dust and debris circling the planet. Cassini has offered astronomers a never-before-seen look at Saturn and revealed more information about the planet than any craft before it. The craft has taken so many pictures of the ringed wonder that they were recently made into a short flyby film that looks like it was created by George Lucas rather than a robotic space explorer.

The Cassini probe was launched in 1997 and took a further 7 years to reach Saturn's orbit. The total cost of its overarching objective of studying the ringed planet stands at a staggering $3.26 billion. However, the wealth of information it has wrought — including amazing pictures like the one above, and recordings of massive lightning storms on the planet — have already made it one of the best investments in space exploration. Hopefully Juno — which began a 5-year trek to Jupiter just last month — will bring us some equally stunning shots of Saturn's neighbor."

Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/nasa-cassini-orbiter-snaps-unbelievable-picture-saturn-144133480.html

[David Jamieson]

pics a bit old.

hey, please remove the sarcastic insult from your sig line. You are taking my stance out of context and insulting me with the barb.

I don't put "bjj blue is a right wing hater" in my sig line I would appreciate it if you could show a little tact and remove the insult from yours. If you are going to quote me, do it directly, with context and without comment.

The alternative is you not posting here anymore.

thanks. :)

[BJJ-Blue]

Please start a new thread or PM me if you want to discuss my sig. I was told by a moderator to not take threads off track, but to start a new one. This thread is about the planet Saturn, not my sig. And since I follow the rules, I won't discuss my sig in a thread about Saturn.

thanks

[MasterKiller]

You're welcome.

[rett]

I don't put "bjj blue is a right wing hater" in my sig line

Of course you don't; he doesn't hate right wingers.

b'dum dum tschh!

On topic, I really dig astronomy threads and pictures. I've got three Hubble posters in my study, including my absolute fave the Crab Nebula.

Check out the high res pic (on the largest zoom) at the Crab Nebula's own wiki page.

The Crab is sublime. It has something to teach humanity.

[Taixuquan99]

http://faithduringreality.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/fail-owned-powned-shoveling-fail-ep.jpg?w=614
http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/10/10/128681436156666138.jpg
http://th03.deviantart.net/fs29/150/i/2008/140/d/6/Soul_eater_gets_powned_by_LaLue_ChaN.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y106/toasty0z/powned.jpg

[Xiao3 Meng4]

I'm an avid follower of Space News.

My recent favourite pictures are actually Time-Lapse movies of Stellar Jets; the Hubble Space Telescope has been used to view certain stellar jets repeatedly over the last 14 years, and now astronomers have stitched the images together, revealing how these jets move and change over time. The movies are both fascinating and stunningly beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFB0vgjIHiI&feature=feedlik - my favourite
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufadgneScAM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvA9GnjtAWM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MxplEu7sqs&feature=related

Also of interest:

Dead NASA satellite set to fall from space in late September/early October, but no one knows where and when yet (http://www.space.com/12893-dead-nasa-satellite-falling-space-junk.html)

[wenshu]

http://vimeo.com/12344286

http://vimeo.com/11386048

http://www.indiegogo.com/OUTSIDE-IN-IMAX-in-a-Basement

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y300/sakurajade/tumblr_ljskrd9DNO1qafrh6.gif

[wenshu]

Whats even cooler about Saturn are her moons.

In the second video you can see as Cassini flys by Titan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8tCa2UJL9Y&feature=related
Skip to ~1:00 for footage of the Hyugens probe's descent through Titan's atmosphere.

then Mimas
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Mimas_Cassini.jpg/250px-Mimas_Cassini.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimas_(moon)

At the end is Enceladus
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5f/Enceladusstripes_cassini.jpg/509px-Enceladusstripes_cassini.jpg

Possible water ocean
In late 2008, scientists observed water vapor spewing from Enceladus's surface. This could indicate the presence of liquid water, which might also make it possible for Enceladus to support life.[57] Candice Hansen,[58] a scientist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, headed up a research team on the plumes after they were found to be moving at ~2,189 kilometers per hour (1,360 miles per hour). Since that speed is unusual and is usually attained when water is involved, they decided to investigate the compositions of the plumes.[59]
Eventually it was discovered that in the E-ring about 6% of particles contain 0.5–2% of sodium salts by mass, which is a significant amount. In the parts of the plume close to Enceladus the fraction of "salty" particles increases to 70% by number and >99% by mass. Such particles presumably are frozen spray from the salty underground ocean. On the other hand, the small salt-poor particles form by ****genous nucleation directly from the gas phase. The sources of salty particles are uniformly distributed along the tiger stripes, whereas sources of "fresh" particles are closely related to the high-speed gas jets. The "salty" particles move slowly and mostly fall back onto the surface, while the fast "fresh" particles escape to the E-ring, explaining its salt-poor composition.[60]
The "salty" composition of the plume strongly argues that its source is a subsurface salty ocean or subsurface caverns filled with salty water.[61] Alternatives such as the clathrate sublimation hypothesis can not explain how "salty" particles form.[60] Additionally, Cassini found traces of organic compounds in some dust grains.[60] Enceladus is therefore a candidate for harboring extraterrestrial life.[62]

[bawang]

i see your strategy david jamieson. get bjj and ahrdwork to keep posting, and getting them addicted to posting here, then suddenly taking it all away. make them feel attached to this forum then rip it from their fingers. its beautiful.

[David Jamieson]

i see your strategy david jamieson. get bjj and ahrdwork to keep posting, and getting them addicted to posting here, then suddenly taking it all away. make them feel attached to this forum then rip it from their fingers. its beautiful.

you haven't read the art of war yet?

I recommend it. Keeps drains clean and a fresh smell through out the whole house.

MK, you are a real man. I take it all back. :)

[Taixuquan99]

you haven't read the art of war yet?

I recommend it. Keeps drains clean and a fresh smell through out the whole house.

MK, you are a real man. I take it all back. :)

aren't you the guy who said the fed is a private corporation?

jk...don't touch my sig if you please, mister kfqgm man.

[David Jamieson]

aren't you the guy who said the fed is a private corporation?

jk...don't touch my sig if you please, mister kfqgm man.

*shakes fist rapidly and wildly at the sky*

[bawang]

hey bjjblue i think you are a stupid gay. a stupid stupid gay. oh wahts that you cant answer because you have ban LOLODOFLOLOOLOdsdfg

[David Jamieson]

dude, not cool.

[Lucas]

dude, not cool.

was it hard for you to type that while smiling? :p

[rett]

Can we just have an astronomy thread please?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Crab_Nebula.jpg

[David Jamieson]

was it hard for you to type that while smiling? :p

dude....not....

[SimonM]

http://www.stsci.edu/ftp/observer/hdf/DetailWF4.gif

[rett]

http://www.stsci.edu/ftp/observer/hdf/DetailWF4.gif

Ahh... deep space. Galaxies. That's probably about a square millimeter (at arms length) of the night sky. Flippin amazing.

[wenshu]

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/Images/news/WMAP_fullsky.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMB_cold_spot
The CMB Cold Spot or WMAP Cold Spot is a region of the sky seen in microwaves which analysis found to be unusually large and cold relative to the expected properties of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). The "cold spot" is approximately 70 µK colder than the average CMB temperature (approximately 2.7 K), whereas the root mean square of typical temperature variations is only 18 µK.[1][nb 1]

Supervoid


The mean ISW imprint 50 supervoids have on the Cosmic Microwave Background[5]: color scale from -20 to +20 µK.
One possible explanation of the cold spot is a huge void between us and the primordial CMB. Voids can produce a cooler region than surrounding sightlines from the late-time integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect.[6] This effect would be much smaller if dark energy weren't stretching the void as photons went through it.
Rudnick et al.[7] found a dip in NVSS galaxy number counts in the direction of the Cold Spot, suggesting the presence of a supervoid. Since then, some additional works have cast doubt on the supervoid explanation. The correlation between the NVSS dip and the Cold Spot was found to be marginal using a more conservative statistical analysis.[8] Also, a direct survey for galaxies in several one-degree-square fields within the Cold Spot found no evidence for a supervoid.[9] However, the supervoid explanation has not been ruled out entirely; it remains intriguing, since supervoids do seem capable of affecting the CMB measurably.[5][10]
Although large voids are known in the universe, a void would have to be exceptionally vast to explain the cold spot, perhaps 1000 times larger in volume than expected typical voids. It would be 6 billion–10 billion light-years away and nearly one billion light-years across, and would be perhaps even more improbable to occur in the large scale structure than the WMAP cold spot would be in the primordial CMB.

Cosmic texture
In late 2007, Cruz et al.[11] argued that the Cold Spot could be due to a cosmic texture, a remnant of a phase transition in the early Universe.

Parallel universe
A controversial claim by Laura Mersini-Houghton is that it could be the imprint of another universe beyond our own, caused by quantum entanglement between universes before they were separated by cosmic inflation.[12] Laura Mersini-Houghton said, "Standard cosmology cannot explain such a giant cosmic hole" and made the remarkable hypothesis that the WMAP cold spot is "… the unmistakable imprint of another universe beyond the edge of our own." If true this provides the first empirical evidence for a parallel universe (though theoretical models of parallel universes existed previously). It would also support string theory. The team claims there are testable consequences for its theory. If the parallel universe theory is true there will be a similar void in the opposite hemisphere of the Celestial sphere,[13][14] (which New Scientist reported to be the Southern hemisphere-the results of the New Mexico array study reported as Northern hemisphere[15]).

A sophisticated method of data analysis - Kolmogorov complexity - has derived evidence for a north and a south cold spots in the satellite data:[16] "...among the high randomness regions is the southern non-Gaussian anomaly, the Cold Spot, with a stratification expected for the voids. Existence of its counterpart, a Northern Cold Spot with almost identical randomness properties among other low-temperature regions is revealed."

That these predictions and others were made prior to the measurements see Laura Mersini. However, apart from the Southern Cold Spot, the varied statistical methods in general fail to confirm each other regarding a Northern Cold Spot.[17] The 'K-map' used to detect the Northern Cold Spot was noted to have twice the measure of randomness measured in the standard model - the reason is speculated to be the randomness introduced by voids (unaccounted for voids were speculated to be the reason for the increased randomness above the standard model).[18]

Sensitivity to finding method
Researchers at the University of Michigan pointed out that the cold spot is mainly anomalous because it stands out compared to the relatively hot ring around it; it is not unusual if one only considers the size and coldness of the spot itself.[4] More technically, its detection and significance depends on using a compensated filter like a Mexican hat wavelet to find it.

[wenshu]

http://web.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/jarrett/XSCz/pview.html

http://spider.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/jarrett/papers/LSS/jarrett_Fig1.jpg

Figure 1. Panoramic view of the entire near-infrared sky reveals the distribution of galaxies beyond the Milky Way. The image is derived from the 2MASS Extended Source Catalog (XSC)--more than 1.5 million galaxies, and the Point Source Catalog (PSC)--nearly 0.5 billion Milky Way stars. The galaxies are color coded by "redshift" obtained from the UGC, CfA, Tully NBGC, LCRS, 2dF, 6dFGS, and SDSS surveys (and from various observations compiled by the NASA Extragalactic Database), or photo- metrically deduced from the K band (2.2 um). Blue are the nearest sources (z < 0.01); green are at moderate distances (0.01 < z < 0.04) and red are the most distant sources that 2MASS resolves (0.04 < z < 0.1). The map is projected with an equal area Aitoff in the Galactic system (Milky Way at center).

http://web.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/jarrett/lss/index.html (http://web.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/jarrett/XSCz/pview.html)

[wenshu]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jymDn0W6U


The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world's most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.

[wenshu]

http://legault.perso.sfr.fr/iss_atlantis_transit_2010.html

Image of the solar transit of the International Space Station (ISS) and Space Shuttle Atlantis 50 minutes before docking, taken from the area of Madrid (Spain) on May 16th 2010 at 13h 28min 55s UT.

http://legault.perso.sfr.fr/iss_atlantis_2010_25.jpg
http://legault.perso.sfr.fr/iss_atlantis_2010_crop.jpg

[David Jamieson]

As Above, So Below.

http://5.media.tumblr.com/f37VfjNohku1bcsqZX2qakwRo1_500.jpg

[Xiao3 Meng4]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1fvMSs9cps

[Drake]

"If you knew anything about the true nature of the universe, anything at all, you would have hidden from it in terror." ~Ming the Merciless

[David Jamieson]

"If you knew anything about the true nature of the universe, anything at all, you would have hidden from it in terror." ~Ming the Merciless

This is true. There is nothing more startling than to have your own face revealed after never having seen it despite it being in front of you for your whole life... :)

[Syn7]

I find the unknowns to be quite fascinating, and seeking is really the only thing that gets me up in the mornings. If I knew everything I would have to off myself.

But what I have learned doesn't scare me, it fascinates me. Not true for yall?
Granted there are scary things out there, but I find the more I get to know these things the less scary they are.

Besides, show me a person with true knowledge of the nature of our universe and I'll be all over it. Even if we hit something by fluke, we still don't really know we know. So we actually don't know. Even if it happens to be true. Feel me? So how could we know it's terror? People can't even agree whether reality is subjective or objective let alone comming any where near any sort of universal truth about the univers nature or otherwise.

[Drake]

I find the unknowns to be quite fascinating, and seeking is really the only thing that gets me up in the mornings. If I knew everything I would have to off myself.

But what I have learned doesn't scare me, it fascinates me. Not true for yall?
Granted there are scary things out there, but I find the more I get to know these things the less scary they are.

Besides, show me a person with true knowledge of the nature of our universe and I'll be all over it. Even if we hit something by fluke, we still don't really know we know. So we actually don't know. Even if it happens to be true. Feel me? So how could we know it's terror? People can't even agree whether reality is subjective or objective let alone comming any where near any sort of universal truth about the univers nature or otherwise.

God ****, Mr. Literal... it's just a quote from a cheesy 80s sci-fi movie. ****.

[David Jamieson]

God ****, Mr. Literal... it's just a quote from a cheesy 80s sci-fi movie. ****.

There's more than 100,000 people in the UK who list their religion as "Jedi" on the census.

[Lee Chiang Po]

The universe is a dark and cold place. So vast that it takes forever for light to travel across a small portion of it. We will never travel outside our own solar sytem. It is too vast and we live a finite number of years. It would be like a life sentence in solitary confinement. Then is we did go to one of the planets we would have to remain in confinement. We will never live off the earth, never travel the universe. Heck, we will never travel our own galaxy. Pictures are grand, and we do learn a few things about it, but none of it is worth the price tag. If we could go places with this it would be great. I would love to travel to another world and set up house there, providing I didn't have to live in a contained habitat. But this will never happen, and they say the universe is getting bigger all the time. I think they need to stop funding these expensive toys for a bunch of over aged kids and put the bucks to good use. All those billions of dollars could do a great deal of good down here at ground level.

Seeing as how the world is coming to it's end in a year, I think we should just start spending and enjoying what time we have left. Run up your debt as high as you can, really party down. Spend to your hearts desire. You will not have to pay it back.

[Hebrew Hammer]

Well I suppose it beats the alternative...I'm tired of circling Uranus.

[Syn7]

As Above, So Below.

http://5.media.tumblr.com/f37VfjNohku1bcsqZX2qakwRo1_500.jpg

Word. Very cool pics.

It makes you wonder how ancient ascetics knew the world of the very large and the world of the very small are shockingly similar.

Now only if we can get the math to work. Unification doesn't seem so far off though. I'm sure we'll do that before we ever see a graviton or any 'god particle'. Move over Higgs boson.

I wonder if m-theory will live up to the hype. So far it's just philosophy.

[Syn7]

God ****, Mr. Literal... it's just a quote from a cheesy 80s sci-fi movie. ****.

yah, i know. but it got me thinking and so i rambled it all out. it wasn't an attack towards you or anything.

[Syn7]

There's more than 100,000 people in the UK who list their religion as "Jedi" on the census.

movies have alot of power and in some cases the do more to dictate where society goes than any politico can.

it's un-fukcing-believable how many people believe most of what they see on tv and its even crazier that people can be more moved to act or react to a film or tv show than by real news about real people in real situations.

i don't think "hollywood" is anywhere near as responsible as it should be. alot of the crap they spew out is quite destructive to the collective.

[Syn7]

The universe is a dark and cold place. So vast that it takes forever for light to travel across a small portion of it. We will never travel outside our own solar sytem. It is too vast and we live a finite number of years. It would be like a life sentence in solitary confinement. Then is we did go to one of the planets we would have to remain in confinement. We will never live off the earth, never travel the universe. Heck, we will never travel our own galaxy. Pictures are grand, and we do learn a few things about it, but none of it is worth the price tag. If we could go places with this it would be great. I would love to travel to another world and set up house there, providing I didn't have to live in a contained habitat. But this will never happen, and they say the universe is getting bigger all the time. I think they need to stop funding these expensive toys for a bunch of over aged kids and put the bucks to good use. All those billions of dollars could do a great deal of good down here at ground level.

Seeing as how the world is coming to it's end in a year, I think we should just start spending and enjoying what time we have left. Run up your debt as high as you can, really party down. Spend to your hearts desire. You will not have to pay it back.


i think that once we learn how to keep a body in stasis that we will travel lifetimes away. alotta folks would gladly give up living out the next 100 years to wake up on some other planet. between stasis and our increasing abilities to reach out further and further, it doesnt seem all that far fetched to me. its simply a matter of time IMO.
i doubt we will travel star trek style, but thousands mph + 2 or 3 lifetimes in stasis = one far assed trip. and we keep finding new planets all the time. there are other livable rocks out there, we just need to find them. again, only a matter of time.

unless we kill ourselves before we can achieve all this. but even the destruction of our environment encourages us to leave earth and look for "more". and we will have people living on other planets and our moon in the not so distant future. within 100 years for sure.

[wenshu]

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/io9/2012/01/saturnwithtethys.jpg

http://s3.amazonaws.com/ciclops_ir_2011/6982_16755_1.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=14V1KFXK26R9EA1V0Q 02&Expires=1325915866&Signature=%2FaYwJKEHmUS3U4MAIb27OM7ajes%3D

[Lucas]

Thats cool. so is the thin line the ring from a direct view and then a shadow of it under, and then a moon?

[wenshu]

You're right about the rings. Different moons in each shot; Tethys in the the first, Encadelus in the second.

[Lucas]

dude thats tight