APOD: Cassini Looks Out from Saturn (2017 Apr 30)

[APOD Robot]

Cassini Looks Out from Saturn

Explanation: This is what Saturn looks like from inside the rings. Last week, for the first time, NASA directed the Cassini spacecraft to swoop between Saturn and its rings. During the dive, the robotic spacecraft took hundreds of images showing unprecedented detail for structures in Saturn's atmosphere. Looking back out, however, the spacecraft was also able to capture impressive vistas. In the featured image taken a few hours before closest approach, Saturn's unusual northern hexagon is seen surrounding the North Pole. Saturn's C ring is the closest visible, while the dark Cassini Division separates the inner B ring from the outer A. A close inspection will find the two small moons that shepherd the F-ring, the farthest ring discernable. This image is raw and will be officially verified, calibrated and released at a later date. Cassini remains on schedule to end its mission by plunging into Saturn's atmosphere on September 15.

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[Boomer12k]

Would have LOVED for it to have been in color....

:---[===] *

[heehaw]

What a fantastic view! Too bad we are not there, ourselves, to see it! Hey wait, we ARE seeing it! Well, in fact humans will NEVER go to Saturn: there would be no benefit of any kind in doing so, and nightmare difficulties. The same applies, in spades, to Jupiter: the particle environment is toxic. And the idea of humans ever going to Uranus or Neptune is laughable: what would we do when we got there? And I won't talk about Pluto! But it is more than that: humans going to Mercury is a ridiculous idea, and humans landing on Venus .... ! ! ! Which leaves Mars, our own Moon, and asteroids. I plump for a permanent manned (and womaned) US base on our own Moon. Does anyone know of a downloadable detailed technical study of such a base? I know NASA has looked hard at such a base at one of the poles. I would prefer a base at an equatorial location, but it may be that that is impossible even with nuclear power to keep from everyone dying during the two-week-long nights. I don't know, and I would like to know. Heck, I'd love to visit such a base myself!

[rstevenson]

Mars, the Moon, and the asteroids are certainly first up for humans to visit, explore and even occupy. But never say "NEVER"!

Rob

[Chris Peterson]

Hey wait, we ARE seeing it! Well, in fact humans will NEVER go to Saturn: there would be no benefit of any kind in doing so, and nightmare difficulties.

Well, never is a very long time. And we're ever closer to knocking ourselves back to the dark ages. Still, I can imagine a future a few hundred years down the line where the actual mechanics of space travel are sufficiently simple and routine that we could have a colonized solar system- something like we see in The Expanse or many of Kim Stanley Robinson's books.

There's no compelling social or scientific reason to be colonizing or visiting other planets right now, but who knows what the future will look like?

[rj rl]

Immense in all the senses.

[neufer]

Hey wait, we ARE seeing it! Well, in fact humans will NEVER go to Saturn: there would be no benefit of any kind in doing so, and nightmare difficulties.

There's no compelling social or scientific reason to be colonizing or visiting other planets right now, but who knows what the future will look like?

The future will produce better & cheaper space craft and better & cheaper virtual reality such everyone on this planet will be able to enjoy the astronaut experience.

[Chris Peterson]

There's no compelling social or scientific reason to be colonizing or visiting other planets right now, but who knows what the future will look like?

The future will produce better & cheaper space craft and better & cheaper virtual reality such everyone on this planet will be able to enjoy the astronaut experience.

I agree. But many people may not care about the "astronaut experience", they may just want to be colonists and live off the Earth (and maybe politically independent of Earth, as well).

[sillyworm]

"I agree. But many people may not care about the "astronaut experience", they may just want to be colonists and live off the Earth (and maybe politically independent of Earth, as well)."
Trying to imagine that experience...colonizing...how far into the future that will be....with the expense & initial scientific & manual worker populace.Politics.....always a challenge....here & "THEN".I just hope we realize how important it is to appreciate what we have here on Earth.

[Cousin Ricky]

Saturn's C ring is the closest visible, while the dark Cassini Division separates the inner B ring from the outer A. A close inspection will find the two small moons that shepherd the F-ring, the farthest ring discernable.

I don’t see the C ring in this image. I see what looks to be the B ring, the Cassini Division, the A ring, the Encke Gap, the remainder of the A ring, and then the F ring.

[Chris Peterson]

Saturn's C ring is the closest visible, while the dark Cassini Division separates the inner B ring from the outer A. A close inspection will find the two small moons that shepherd the F-ring, the farthest ring discernable.

I don’t see the C ring in this image. I see what looks to be the B ring, the Cassini Division, the A ring, the Encke Gap, the remainder of the A ring, and then the F ring.

I agree, it looks like the C ring is blocked by the planet (and most of the B ring, as well).

[RJN]

I don’t see the C ring in this image. I see what looks to be the B ring, the Cassini Division, the A ring, the Encke Gap, the remainder of the A ring, and then the F ring.

Thanks, CR. I have now corrected the APOD text.

[heehaw]

That was an good discussion of the future in space, re humans actually going to the various planets....
When I was a teenager, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada's Edmonton Center had an organized debate at one of its monthly meetings as to whether men would ever go to the Moon, or not. It must have been about 1956. One of us youngsters debated one of "the old fogies" - University of Alberta professors. As luck would have it, my young friend drew "No we won't" to argue! As I recall, he won the debate, on interesting grounds in retrospect: the winning argument was simply that, although it was possible, it would simply cost too much!

[Chris Peterson]

As I recall, he won the debate, on interesting grounds in retrospect: the winning argument was simply that, although it was possible, it would simply cost too much!

It's a good argument, but it overlooked the fact that going to the Moon was fundamentally a political and military decision framed by the Cold War, and as such, didn't follow the normal rules of economics.

[neufer]

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When I was a teenager, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada's Edmonton Center had an organized debate at one of its monthly meetings as to whether men would ever go to the Moon, or not. It must have been about 1956. One of us youngsters debated one of "the old fogies" - University of Alberta professors. As luck would have it, my young friend drew "No we won't" to argue! As I recall, he won the debate, on interesting grounds in retrospect: the winning argument was simply that, although it was possible, it would simply cost too much!

It's a good argument, but it overlooked the fact that going to the Moon was fundamentally a political and military decision framed by the Cold War, and as such, didn't follow the normal rules of economics.

What a difference Sputnik made in 1957.

[Chris Peterson]

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When I was a teenager, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada's Edmonton Center had an organized debate at one of its monthly meetings as to whether men would ever go to the Moon, or not. It must have been about 1956. One of us youngsters debated one of "the old fogies" - University of Alberta professors. As luck would have it, my young friend drew "No we won't" to argue! As I recall, he won the debate, on interesting grounds in retrospect: the winning argument was simply that, although it was possible, it would simply cost too much!

It's a good argument, but it overlooked the fact that going to the Moon was fundamentally a political and military decision framed by the Cold War, and as such, didn't follow the normal rules of economics.

What a difference Sputnik made in 1957.

Exactly. It was also wonderful for my math and science education!

[saturno2]

Very very interesting image of the my favorite planet
What do you see in the center of the hexagon of the North Pole?

[neufer]

I don’t see the C ring in this image. I see what looks to be the B ring, the Cassini Division, the A ring, the Encke Gap, the remainder of the A ring, and then the F ring.

Thanks, CR. I have now corrected the APOD text.

<<The C Ring is a wide but faint ring located inward of the B Ring. It was discovered in 1850 by William and George Bond, though William R. Dawes and Johann Galle also saw it independently. William Lassell termed it the "CREPE Ring" because it seemed to be composed of darker material than the brighter A and B Rings.>>

CREPE (n.) 1797, from French crêpe, from Old French crespe (14c.), from Latin crispa, fem. of crispus "curled, wrinkled". Meaning "small, thin pancake" is from 1877.

CRAPE (n.) 1630s, Englished spelling of crepe.

CRAPS (n.) 1843, from Louisiana French craps "the game of hazard," from an 18c. continental French corruption of English crabs, which was 18c. slang for "a throw of two or three" (the lowest throw).

CRAP (v.) "defecate," 1846, from one of a cluster of words generally applied to things cast off or discarded, all probably from Middle English crappe "grain that was trodden underfoot in a barn, chaff" (mid-15c.), from Middle French crape "siftings," from Old French crappe, from Medieval Latin crappa, crapinum "chaff." Despite folk etymology insistence, not from Thomas Crapper (1837-1910) who was, however, a busy plumber and may have had some minor role in the development of modern toilets. Crap (v.) as a variant of crop (v.) was noted early 19c, as a peculiarity of speech in Scotland and what was then the U.S. Southwest (Arkansas, etc.).

• Draw out yere sword, thou vile South'ron!
  Red wat wi' blude o' my kin!
  That sword it crapped the bonniest flower
  E'er lifted its head to the sun!
  [Allan Cunningham (1784-1842), "The Young Maxwell"]

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<<William Lassell (18 June 1799 – 5 October 1880) was an English merchant and astronomer. He made his fortune as a beer brewer, which enabled him to indulge his interest in astronomy. He built an observatory at his house "Starfield" in West Derby, a suburb of Liverpool. There he had a 24-inch reflector telescope, for which he pioneered the use of an equatorial mount for easy tracking of objects as the Earth rotates. He ground and polished the mirror himself, using equipment he constructed.

In 1846 Lassell discovered Triton, the largest moon of Neptune, just 17 days after the discovery of Neptune itself by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle. In 1848 he independently co-discovered Hyperion, a moon of Saturn. In 1851 he discovered Ariel and Umbriel, two moons of Uranus.

In 1855, he built a 48-inch telescope, which he installed in Malta because of the observing conditions that were better than in often-overcast England. On his return to the UK after several years in Malta he moved to Maidenhead and operated his 24-inch telescope in an observatory there. The 48-inch telescope was dismantled and was eventually scrapped.

Lassell was a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS) from 1839, won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1849, and served as its president for two years starting in 1870. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1849 and won their Royal Medal in 1858. Lassel was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL). He was furthermore elected an honorary Fellow of the Society of Sciences of Upsala, and received an honorary LL.D. degree from the University of Cambridge.

Lassell died in Maidenhead in 1880. Upon his death, he left a fortune of £80,000 (roughly equivalent to £7,200,000 in 2015). His telescope was presented to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. The crater Lassell on the Moon, a crater on Mars, the asteroid 2636 Lassell and a ring of Neptune are named in his honour.>>

[Cousin Ricky]

I don’t see the C ring in this image. I see what looks to be the B ring, the Cassini Division, the A ring, the Encke Gap, the remainder of the A ring, and then the F ring.

Thanks, CR. I have now corrected the APOD text.

You're welcome, and thanks.