Sweet pictures of Saturn from Boston.com - Cassini probe retrospective

[Queasy]

Text - Saturn backlit by the sun and the Janus/Titan pics are my favorites.

 

[Renob]

Very cool pics!!!

 

[Juno]

so awesome

 

[ViviTheMage]

very cool

 

[Jeff7]

Enceladus
and
Iapetus
are two of my favorites.

Far side of Iapetus, and a close-up, taken from 2,400 miles above the surface. Mountains, 6 miles high. Here's one face of the moon, entirely lit by sunlight. The white parts are said to be as bright as fresh snow, and the dark parts as black as asphalt. And here is a good shot of the odd equatorial ridge, nearly 8 miles high.


Enceladus' interesting feature is its icy jets coming from huge cracks in its southern hemisphere. On another board I sometimes visit, early speculation was that this effect was just some artifact, owed to the exposure, camera angle, and pixel bleed. As is visible in the first picture, the southern hemisphere is almost devoid of craters, thanks to all the activity down there constantly renewing the surface.
Enhanced image of the jets, and a chemical analysis of the components.


It's crazy that its primary mission is nearly over already. I so clearly remember looking forward to its launch back in 1997, and the long wait until it would finally arrive.

And let's see if I can find them quick.....

Here we go, backlit Saturn

and

a 126-image composite.

 

[JohnCU]

amazing

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Originally posted by: Renob
Very cool pics!!!

That is all.

 

[Fenixgoon]

hopefully these pics will generate some more funding for nasa

 

[scott916]

It's almost difficult to suspend disbelief. I took an astronomy class once where the prof brought his bad ass telescopes and we saw the rings of saturn... it's an amazingly humbling feeling.

 

[IGBT]

..amazing pic's. lots of evidence of chaos.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Here we go, backlit Saturn

My new desktop background.

 

[Captante]

Nice!