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What would it look like to watch Daphnis fly past?
Maybe something like THIS:
Daphnis by Erik Svensson (All rights reserved)
What a great combination: Daphnis (my favorite moon) and an artist’s interpretation of what it might look like to see it whiz past as it travels around Saturn inside the Keeler Gap, sending up waves in the rings as it goes! The image is by Erik Svensson, who came across my recent article on Universe Today and was reminded of an illustration he’d made a year ago.
After contacting me about it, I felt Erik’s work definitely belonged in the article as well as here on Lights in the Dark!
Read the article on Daphnis here, and see more of Erik’s work here.
Research Reveals Rain Shadows from Saturn’s Rings
Saturn’s rings send a rain of water particles into its atmosphere, scientists find
A rain of ionized water molecules falls into Saturn’s upper atmosphere from its rings, researchers from England’s University of Leicester have found. Using images from NASA’s Voyager spacecraft and more recent near-infrared observations from the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, it has been found that dark bands seen across Saturn are actually the “rain shadows” of particles from the rings interacting with the planet’s atmosphere, effectively cooling it and reducing heat emissions in those areas.
“Saturn is the first planet to show significant interaction between its atmosphere and ring system,” said James O’Donoghue, the paper’s lead author and a postgraduate researcher at Leicester. “The main effect of ring rain is that it acts to ‘quench’ the ionosphere of Saturn. In other words, this rain severely reduces the electron densities in regions in which it falls.”
Europa Has Water and H2O Too
Reprocessed Galileo image of Europa by Ted Stryk (NASA/JPL/Ted Stryk)
According to research by NASA astronomers using the next-generation optics of the 10-meter Keck II telescope, Jupiter’s ice-encrusted moon Europa has hydrogen peroxide (aka H2O2) across much of the surface of its leading hemisphere, a compound that could potentially provide energy for life if it has found its way into the moon’s subsurface ocean.
“Europa has the liquid water and elements, and we think that compounds like peroxide might be an important part of the energy requirement,” said JPL scientist Kevin Hand, the paper’s lead author. “The availability of oxidants like peroxide on Earth was a critical part of the rise of complex, multicellular life.”
The Colors of Saturn’s Northern Skies
Color-composite of Cassini images acquired on 27 Feb. 2013 (NASA/JPL/SSI/J. Major)
Bored by blue? Saturn’s skies sure do have a lot more colors, as seen here in a color-somposite made from raw Cassini images acquired on Feb. 27, 2013.
With spring progressing on Saturn’s northern hemisphere (a season that takes 7 1/2 Earth years to pass!) the upper latitudes gradually receive more sunlight and thus more solar energy, warming the planet’s atmosphere and driving the upper-level winds and storms.
Vote to Name Pluto’s Moons!
“Would ya give these guys names already?”
I’ve written about this a couple of times before and put up polls here on Lights in the Dark, but now it’s actually semi-official: you can vote on the names for Pluto’s newest moons!
(Looks like they may have taken some of our earlier suggestions too!)
A Martian Panorama
Panorama of MSL Mastcam images captures on Dec. 23, 2012
It may look like a scene from the US southwest but it’s actually somewhere much, much farther away… 206.3 million miles away, to be exact — it’s a view from the Curiosity rover looking toward the center of Gale Crater, where the informally-named Mount Sharp rises up 3.4 miles from the crater floor.
Cassini’s Christmas Gift: a Peek at Prometheus
Potato-shaped Prometheus on one of its countless trips around Saturn
Captured on Christmas Day, this is a raw image from Cassini showing Saturn’s F ring buckling inwards at two places due to the gravitational tug of its inner shepherd moon, Prometheus, seen at center.
As the irregularly-shaped moon approaches the ring material in its looping orbit around Saturn it draws material from the ring in towards itself, warping and stretching the fine icy ring particles into waving streamers that eventually settle back into place. It’s a very visual demonstration of gravity at work!
At its widest Prometheus is about 92 miles (148 km) across but only 42 miles (68 km) in width. It orbits Saturn once every 14.7 hours.
Raw image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
