Space missions

Re: Awesome pic of Hyperion

jsmoody — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 12:59:04 GMT

A new, false color pic on the Cassini website now:

Details:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-release-details.cfm?newsID=605

and larger pic:

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA07740.jpg

Hyperion looks stranger and stranger with each new photo!

Re: Awesome pic of Hyperion

pmshayley — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 19:10:49 GMT

The new avatar is my response to the whole abortion debate: an ugly baby.

Re: Awesome pic of Hyperion

jsmoody — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 17:34:03 GMT

Well, I couldn't resist posting this one. It's one of my favorites of the more recent photos from Cassini:

Larger version here:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS14/N00039923.jpg

It would be really cool to have a night sky that looks like that!

pms - what's with the new avatar? But then....I always knew you were a big baby!

Re: Awesome pic of Hyperion

pmshayley — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 15:11:04 GMT

Ooo, ooo, I know! I know!

It's made of spoiled clotted cream!

Re: Awesome pic of Hyperion

jsmoody — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 14:51:02 GMT

I think it's probably mostly dirty ice, near the surface anyway. So maybe whatever hit it melted the ice and then it refroze in those odd shapes?

Re: Awesome pic of Hyperion

pmshayley — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 14:48:19 GMT

You know, it looks like everything that hit this one just kinda stuck into it, like it is a soft surface that absorbed the force of the impact and held the impactor in place. The dark spots around some of those rocks give that impression. Weird.

Re: Awesome pic of Hyperion

jsmoody — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 13:39:20 GMT

Very cool closeups of Tethys too:

For larger version:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS14/N00040100.jpg

Re: Awesome pic of Hyperion

pmshayley — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 16:22:27 GMT

The oddest thing about that pic is the section that feathers away from the middle. A big old piece of crater, then an almost full circle of smooth ripples that flow out towards the edges. Weird.

Re: Awesome pic of Hyperion

jsmoody — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 12:58:45 GMT

There are even more new photos on the Raw Images section today. That moon is really strange:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS14/N00040238.jpg

I was trying to think what would cause such a cratering pattern. Looks like a big crater with thousands (or more) little craters covering every inch inside it. I wondered if it could have gotten smacked really hard by something large and then the peices fell back or it ran into them in a later orbit or something.

That moon looks like a giant peice of coral or a peice of honeycomb or something!

Re: Awesome pic of Hyperion

jsmoody — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 23:30:42 GMT

There seem to be a lot of Saturnian moons that are not round. They are too small. Jupiter has some irregular moons too.

Check out the raw images off the main page, it lets you choose which object to view pics of.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/index.cfm

There seemed to be some bugs in this site a while back. I don't know if they've got them fixed yet. They should have by now.

I think Januus, Calypso, Helene, Methone Pallene, Pan, Pandora and several others are irregular.

The Cassini site is VERY cool. I visit it almost everyday to see what's going on. The recent close flybys of Hyperion and Tethys produced some really cool pics.

I also visit the Mars Rover site almost daily:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html

Re: Awesome pic of Hyperion

pmshayley — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 20:58:43 GMT

The Tethysian landscape is quite remarkable! So unlike the marred and potted surface of Hyperion. I did not realize that Hyperion was not an orb shaped body, though; any idea how many moons are not in the traditional "ball" shape and are more like Heperion?

Thanks for the links, Sr. Moody; much like the Hubble site, I never thought to look for one specific to each mission. Told ya I was shhtupid.

Re: Awesome pic of Hyperion

jsmoody — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 20:04:50 GMT

More pics here:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/raw-images-list.cfm?browseLatest=1

Like I said before, some of the links are broken. Most of them work though.

Keep hitting "Next" and you will come to some pretty cool pics of Tethys too.

Re: Awesome pic of Hyperion

pmshayley — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 19:45:19 GMT

Wow! Talk about taking a pounding. That thing looks like the Mike Tyson of interstellar targets. Would love to see some other shots of it. Also, that would be the most challenging place to try and land a probe, with as close together as most of those craters are.

Awesome pic of Hyperion

jsmoody — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 19:23:04 GMT

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS14/W00010681.jpg

Great picture from Cassini. There are several more in the "Raw Images" page. Some of the links don't work but I'm sure they will get them fixed soon.