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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

The Mission to Saturn is at hand...

Cassini-Huygens is now prepared to fire retro-rockets to enter Saturn orbit.

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From NASA:

As Cassini coasts into the final month of its nearly seven-year trek, the serene majesty of its destination looms ahead. The spacecraft's cameras are functioning beautifully and continue to return stunning views from Cassini's position, 1.2 billion kilometers (750 million miles) from Earth and now 15.7 million kilometers (9.8 million miles) from Saturn.
In this narrow angle camera image from May 21, 2004, the ringed planet displays subtle, multi-hued atmospheric bands, colored by yet undetermined compounds. Cassini mission scientists hope to determine the exact composition of this material.

This image also offers a preview of the detailed survey Cassini will conduct on the planet's dazzling rings. Slight differences in color denote both differences in ring particle composition and light scattering properties.

Images taken through blue, green and red filters were combined to create this natural color view. The image scale is 132 kilometers (82 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 Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, 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.

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Imaging control team is: ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/

Mission control of the mission can be found here: saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm

And featured on Astronomy Picture of the Day: antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040614.html

This is going to be a great mission!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

This image was captured by the Hubble Telescope and is huge. Give it time to load and enjoy.

www.brokencube.net/single/uploads/lordofrings_hst_bigLarge.jpg

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Newsletter subscriber and Forum member "MSSUN", graciously sent in this excellent link on the Saturn mission. It is a multi-media site from NASA and is chock full of info and graphics.

saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/saturn-arrival/saturn-spotlight-why/index.cfm

Thanks MSSUN, and write in again soon.

[astroviewerNGC2207]

Cassini is going to give us stunning pictures and massive amounts of data to decipher in the yrs to come.

I just wonder if the "freaks" are going to come up with the same nonsense they did with Galileo when they steered it into jupiter?
Some said that upiter was going to explode !! lmao ...

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

I just wonder if the "freaks" are going to come up with the same nonsense they did with Galileo when they steered it into Jupiter?

I heard that theory as well...and quite laughable. But for those who do not know.

When NASA purposely sent the Galileo probe screaming into the atmosphere of Jupiter, people thought that the radioactive isotope fuel on the spacecraft would ignite the planet into one big fireball and turn it into another sun!

Now...we know that Jupiter almost became a sun in it's own right, as it puts out more radiation than it takes in, but the insignificant amount of radioactive material we put on board wouldn't make Jupiter blush.

But....where is that Planet X....I got things to do!

[astroviewerNGC2207]

Well Chicago thats not entirely true ...
It would take all the matter ... (excuding the sun) of all the planets and the entire ( theorized ) ort cloud and still be 5% short of the mass to make a sun like object large enough to ignite.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Southern Storms...or are they?...

(Jun 17, 2004) The latest image from Cassini shows four dark turbulent storms in Saturn's southern hemisphere. Storms like this are short lived, and will often merge together, or spawn new storms. This image was taken over a month ago, on May 15, when the spacecraft was 24.7 million km (15.3 million miles) away from Saturn. Cassini will arrive at Saturn at the end of June.

Now, I think they are not storms bit impact disturbances. They look incredibly similar to the point of impact that Jupiter experienced with Comet Shomaker-Levy of '86. The contrast of the spots are much darker than the other disturbances around the area, indicating perhaps that material was thrown up from the depths of the planet, as in the Jupiter event. It's pure speculation on my part, and it's only black and white, but I think it might be.

[stargazer]

Hi Guys,

Im not sure how many of you know this or not. But when they sent Galileo crashing into the Planet no one was going to watch hit. But someone at a large scope decided to do it anyways. And thanks to them we are able to see what happened to it. Now I have heard that when Hubble dies and goes off line it will someday come crashing down to Earth. They dont know when or where but it is a scarey thought to think that something as big will come back down to earth that way. I guess only time will tell.

B

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

I didn't know it was a watchable event. In relation to the planet, the spacecraft would have been too small to capture... I think. Any pics?

I remember a theory going around when the craft was about to crash into Juipter, in that the small amount of radioactive fuel on board would be enough to ignite the Juipter atmosphere and create a small sun from it. Silly theory but I was indeed watching. We could have had a binary system going on here. Only thing is that I don't have SPF 500+ on hand.

[starbux]

Chicago said:

I remember a theory going around when the craft was about to crash into Juipter, in that the small amount of radioactive fuel on board would be enough to ignite the Juipter atmosphere and create a small sun from it. Silly theory but I was indeed watching. We could have had a binary system going on here. Only thing is that I don't have SPF 500+ on hand.

A second sun might have been far-fetched (given Jupiter's inadaquate mass), however the notion that a nuclear explosion could have occurred is not. Galileo was sent to crash about the time that Jupiter was near conjunction with the sun (therefore unobservable at the time. But about a month or so later when Jupiter WAS observable a dark spot, not unlike one of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts, was seen. It is speculated that the pressure surrounding the well-encased (and therefore not subject to the breakup from the initial firey "reentry") nuclear material would have been sufficient to implode the material after falling for a month or so.

Here is the article. Of course the author is Hoagland so it might be best filed under "unexplained phenomenae"
www.enterprisemission.com/NukingJupiter.html

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Hoagland may have some farout ideas, but I think he's on to somethings in certain subjects. There's more to Mars than what we are lead to believe.

[stargazer]

I will find the pics again and let you know where they are at so that they can be posted. I really dont know all that much about hoaglund (?) never heard of the name until I came here.

B

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Hoagland is a former NASA consultant from the Viking days and was Cronkite's adviser when he was on tv.

Hoagland states that there is evidence of ancient civilization on Mars. He doesn't make these claims willy-nilly but uses NASA's images to support his thoughts. He claims that the images all the way from the Viking mission are altered to show a more desolate and inhospitable environment that we were led to believe.

Maybe he's right in some of his claims. We won't know till we get there, but the mystery of the possibility of ancient intelligent life is fascinating. I don't exclude it.

I recommend a visit to his site and come to your own conclusions: www.enterprisemission.com/

This thread should continue on the Unexplained board. Plenty to discuss.

[stargazer]

Well Guys,

I tried to start a new thread but it wont let me so I will poast it here.

This just in from JPL on th mission.

On June 30 at 7:36 p.m. Pacific Time (10:36 p.m. EDT), Cassini will begin executing a series of commands to enter orbit around the ringed planet. The spacecraft will fire its main engine for a crucial 96 minutes to slow down and be captured in orbit about Saturn.

Well Guys I guess we are just over a day away from Saturn. Anyone going to try to catch this fine event.

B

[stargazer]

Hi Guys,

I found the pics I was talking about but I was wrong. They are on the Comet that crashed into the planet. Sorry


B

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

I vividly remember the comet debris impact on Jupiter in the wee hours of the morning. PBS had a live feed on the event. I still have it on tape somewhere.

[stargazer]

that would be cool to see.

B

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

When I have some spare time, I'll find it, copy it and present it to you next time we meet. Along with the Police tape that I forgot.

[sarwat]

Live Feeds of the space walk and Cassini arrival from NASA Sattelite TV and on their website.

Space walk 3:30 pm CDT
Cassini Arrival 8:30pm CDT

Note: Cassini Images expected only in the morning

www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html

Sarwat