Cassini's Grand Finale

Jon

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Feb 22, 2002
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To help visualize the dramatic final chapter in Cassini's remarkable story, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory produced this short film that features beautiful computer-generated animation, thoughtful narration and a rousing score. Producers at JPL worked with filmmaker Erik Wernquist, known for his 2014 short film "Wanderers," to create a stirring finale video befitting one of NASA's most successful missions of exploration.

Wernquist's signature animation style uses real images from space missions as a starting point, which gives the resulting animations an uncanny authenticity. In addition, the vistas he creates have an uncommonly powerful sense of scale that conveys the vastness of the planetary locales NASA spacecraft have visited.
https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/3016/making-cassinis-grand-finale/
 

OreBama

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Sep 26, 2005
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Thanks for posting that, Jon. I wish the NSF had more stuff that is uplifting, awe-inspiring, and binds us all closer together. I know it's cliche, but when one looks at the solar system, our galaxy, or entire universe all of our troubles on Earth seem so very small and insignificant.
 

MattinBama

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Jul 31, 2007
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Thanks for posting that, Jon. I wish the NSF had more stuff that is uplifting, awe-inspiring, and binds us all closer together. I know it's cliche, but when one looks at the solar system, our galaxy, or entire universe all of our troubles on Earth seem so very small and insignificant.
Shut up you libtard cuck conservative loser. ;) And don't forget that seebell is a big weenie.

I do agree with this sentiment.
 

Jon

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Feb 22, 2002
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Update: Success!

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-spacecraft-dives-between-saturn-and-its-rings

NASA's Cassini spacecraft is back in contact with Earth after its successful first-ever dive through the narrow gap between the planet Saturn and its rings on April 26, 2017. The spacecraft is in the process of beaming back science and engineering data collected during its passage, via NASA's Deep Space Network Goldstone Complex in California's Mojave Desert. The DSN acquired Cassini's signal at 11:56 p.m. PDT on April 26, 2017 (2:56 a.m. EDT on April 27) and data began flowing at 12:01 a.m. PDT (3:01 a.m. EDT) on April 27.

"In the grandest tradition of exploration, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has once again blazed a trail, showing us new wonders and demonstrating where our curiosity can take us if we dare," said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

As it dove through the gap, Cassini came within about 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers) of Saturn's cloud tops (where the air pressure is 1 bar -- comparable to the atmospheric pressure of Earth at sea level) and within about 200 miles (300 kilometers) of the innermost visible edge of the rings.

While mission managers were confident Cassini would pass through the gap successfully, they took extra precautions with this first dive, as the region had never been explored.
 

Tidewater

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Mar 15, 2003
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Thanks for the update. I'm traveling and wondered what had happened.
JPL said that, due to the increased possibility of running into some space debris when orbiting inside Saturn's closest ring,* they had oriented Casini's dish forward (i.e. in the direction of travel and away from Earth) to help shield the satellite. Then they were going to have to wait for the satellite to re-orient the dish so it could "phone home." Glad Casini made it and called JPL to report as much.
I just went and checked, Saturn is between 87 and 71 light-minutes from Earth (depending on the orbits of the two).



* It does not have to be a big piece of debris if it is traveling at 70,000 mph to cause a lot of damage.
 

Jon

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Feb 22, 2002
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some pics are trickling in

http://www.blastr.com/2017-4-28/cassinis-first-deep-dive-above-saturns-clouds




The image at the top of this post shows a circular hurricane precisely at Saturn’s north pole, a storm about 2000 kilometers across! Wind speeds inside it have been clocked at 300 kph. The picture is a "natural color" combination of three images taken using blue, green, and red filters; the blue color in the storm is real! That's due to scattering of sunlight, the same reason the Earth's sky is blue. The image was put together by my friend and astronomer Sophia Nasr, who graciously let me use it here on the blog. She used a tutorial written by another astronomer (well, planetary scientist) friend of mine, Emily Lakdawalla of The Planetary Society.
 

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