Tag: Saturn

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Awesomeness Photoworthy Science & Technology

Our Favourite Space Images From 2013

Space is big. Really big. It would take a gargantuan trek of 21.24 billion kilometres for you to reach the outer edges of our solar system, and a further 435 sextillion (that’s 10 to the power of 21!) kilometres to reach the furthest region of the observable universe. There is so much to explore but what we’ve seen so far has been incredibly beautiful.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory keeps an extensive catalogue of cosmic images taken by the various spacecraft up in the heavens. Here’s a small selection of our favourites space images taken in 2013.

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Arty Awesomeness Cautionary Tales Science & Technology Video Clips

Our Home in Space

Created by German design studio, Kurzgesagt, this informative, minimalist animation takes us on a tour through the solar system, stopping off at each of the eights planets to provide a few factoids you may or may not know. The flat design and bright trendy colours belie a rather dark and inevitable truth…

[via FastCo]

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Arty Awesomeness Science & Technology Video Clips

Waltzing Around Saturn

Not having the best Monday? Boss telling you that you don’t know Uranus from your elbow? I know that feeling too.

Get away from it all (even if temporarily) by watching this most wonderful time-lapse video. The 2.5-tonne spacecraft Cassini–Huygens will be your chauffeur on this tour of the Saturn’s rings and icy moons, set to a dreamy classical piece by Shostakovich.

Around Saturn was put together by Fabio di Donato who pieced together more than 200,000 images taken by the Cassini as it whizzed around Saturn’s rings from 2004 to 2012.

[via io9]

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Arty Awesomeness Featured Photoworthy Science & Technology

In the Shadow of Saturn

You might not believe it, but this is an actual photograph reported to have been taken back in 2006 as the Cassini space probe sheltered in the shadow of Saturn. It was 2.2 million kilometers away from the gas giant when it took the photograph.

Astronomy Photo of the Day explains the image thus:

The robotic Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn drifted in giant planet’s shadow for about 12 hours in 2006 and looked back toward the eclipsed Sun. Cassini saw a view unlike any other.

First, the night side of Saturn is seen to be partly lit by light reflected from its own majestic ring system. Next, the rings themselves appear dark when silhouetted against Saturn, but quite bright when viewed away from Saturn, slightly scattering sunlight, in this exaggerated color image.

Hit the jump to see the full image.

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