Here's today's press release from the Cassini Science Team:
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has successfully completed its second-closest encounter with Saturn's icy moon Helene, beaming down raw images of the small moon. At closest approach, on June 18, Cassini flew within 4,330 miles (6,968 kilometers) of Helene's surface. It was the second closest approach to Helene of the entire mission.
Cassini passed from Helene's night side to the moon's sunlit side. It also captured images of the Saturn-facing side of the moon in sunlight, a region that was only illuminated by sunlight reflected off Saturn the last time Cassini was close, in March 2010. This flyby will enable scientists to finish creating a global map of Helene, so they can better understand the history of impacts to the moon and gully-like features seen on previous flybys.
The closest Helene encounter of the mission took place on March 10, 2010, when Cassini flew within 1,131 miles (1,820 kilometers) of the moon.
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 Science Mission Directorate, Washington. 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 in Boulder, Colo.
I find the lack of craters very intriguing. It appears some process, perhaps glaciation, has reworked the surface of the moon.
(http://www.pacificparanormal.com/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=3444.0;attach=1890)
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini.
Wow. That is amazing. It almost doesn't look real. At least what we know to be real that's here on our own planet. Thank you for posting this, Brian. Again....you are our One Stop Astronomy Shop!
nICE ! ;)
Very interesting.
Still waiting for the aliens....
Quote from: Debra, PPI Consultant on June 20, 2011, 07:48:35 PM
Very interesting.
Still waiting for the aliens....
Oh, they are out there. Trust me, they are out there.
Quote from: PPI Tracy on June 20, 2011, 10:26:06 PM
Quote from: Debra, PPI Consultant on June 20, 2011, 07:48:35 PM
Very interesting.
Still waiting for the aliens....
Oh, they are out there. Trust me, they are out there.
They're just very, very far away. Something tells me that's a good thing. :)
Yeah, sometimes I wonder, Brian.....about both.
Quote from: PPI Tracy on June 21, 2011, 12:08:18 PM
Yeah, sometimes I wonder, Brian.....about both.
I do too. But when I look at human history, I'm convinced that the vast distances between star systems is a blessing rather than a curse. Look what people like us did to indigenous cultures during the great exploration phase of our history. The Spaniards destroyed civilizations like the Maya, Inca and Aztecs, and burned their libraries. Here in California, the Spaniards enslaved the indigenous people and "converted" them to christianity. They even waged biological warfare by intentionally infecting them with small pox. We should keep these examples in mind when we contemplate contact with extraterrestrial civilizations.
http://www.youtube.com/v/akek6cFRZfY