Cassini Holiday Movies Showcase Dance of Saturn's Moons
- From: baalke@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:28:22 +0000 (UTC)
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-204
Cassini Holiday Movies Showcase Dance of Saturn's Moons
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
December 23, 2009
Like sugar plum fairies in "The Nutcracker," the moons of Saturn
performed a celestial ballet before the eyes of NASA's Cassini
spacecraft. New movies frame the moons' silent dance against the
majestic sweep of the planet's rings and show as many as four moons
gliding around one another.
The new video can be found at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini,
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://ciclops.org.
To celebrate the holidays, the Cassini imaging team has created a video
collection of "mutual events," which occur when one moon passes in front
of another, as seen from the spacecraft. Imaging scientists use mutual
event observations to refine their understanding of the dynamics of
Saturn's moons. Digital image processing has enabled scientists to turn
these routine observations into breathtaking displays of celestial
motion. The original images were captured between Aug. 27 and Nov. 8, 2009.
In one scene that synthesizes 12 images taken over the span of 19
minutes, Rhea skates in front of Janus, as Mimas and Pandora slide
across the screen in the opposite direction. While the dance appears
leisurely on screen, Rhea actually orbits Saturn at a speed of about 8
kilometers per second (18,000 mph). The other moons are hurtling around
the planet even faster. Mimas averages about 14 kilometers per second
(31,000 mph), and Janus and Pandora travel at about 16 kilometers per
second (36,000 mph).
"As yet another year in Saturn orbit draws to a close, these wondrous
movies of an alien place clear across the solar system remind us how
fortunate we are to be engaged in this magnificent exploratory
expedition," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the
Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
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 mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in
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, Boulder, Colo.
View related videos
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/cassini20091223.html>
Jia-Rui C. Cook 818-354-0850
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
jia-rui.c.cook@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Joe Mason 720-974-5859
Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
media@xxxxxxxxxxx
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