Natural Saturn On The Cassini Cruise
Explanation:
What could you see
approaching Saturn aboard
an interplanetary cruise ship?
Your view would likely resemble
this subtly shaded image of the gorgeous ringed gas giant.
Processed by the
Hubble Heritage project, the picture intentionally
avoids overemphasizing color contrasts and presents a
natural looking Saturn
with cloud bands,
storms,
nearly edge-on rings, and the small round shadow
of the moon Enceladus near the center of the planet's disk.
Of course, seats were not available on
the only ship currently enroute - the Cassini spacecraft,
launched in 1997 and
scheduled to arrive at Saturn in the year 2004.
After an extended cruise to a world 1,400 million kilometers
from the Sun,
Cassini will tour
the Saturnian system,
conducting a remote, robotic exploration
with software and instruments
designed by
denizens of planet Earth.
But where is
Cassini now?
Still about 980 million kilometers from Saturn, last
Sunday the spacecraft flew by
asteroid 2685 Masursky.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
