Awesome image of Saturn's Rings and Two Moons

[YosemiteSam]

In this image taken by the Cassini spacecraft Saturn's moons Enceladus (front) and Tethys (back) line up almost perfectly for Cassini's cameras. Also visible is a part of Saturn's ring system (https://goo.gl/4t2E5g).

The image was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.3 million miles (2.1 million kilometers) from Enceladus. Image scale on Enceladus is 7 miles (12 kilometers) per pixel. Tethys was at a distance of 1.6 million miles (2.6 million kilometers) with a pixel scale of 10 miles (16 kilometers) per pixel.

More information here:
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA18349

Enceladus

Enceladus has a diameter of 504 kilometers (313 miles) and is orbiting Saturn every 1.4 Earth days at a distance of 238,037 km (147,909 miles). It was discovered August 28, 1789 by William Herschel. More information here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enceladus

Tethys

Tethys has a diameter of 1,062 kilometers (660 miles) and is orbiting Saturn every 1.9 Earth days at a distance of 294,619 km (183,068 miles). It was discovered in 1684 by Giovanni Domenico Cassini. More information here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tethys_(moon)

More on the Cassini spacecraft:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini–Huygens

Image credit: PIA18349: Bull's-eye Moons NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute http://goo.gl/73W4DL


https://lh5.***BROKEN***/-31YysKOEBHE/Vm77zt8KPTI/AAAAAAAAbe8/huhisRHlRiw/w980-h709-no/PIA18349.jpg

 

[Shunpike]

Sam

I think you should turn this thread into awesome images from Space thread. I know you have access to tons of beautiful pictures, why not post 4-5 every day for us to appreciate the cosmos we live in?

 

[YosemiteSam]

Sam

I think you should turn this thread into awesome images from Space thread. I know you have access to tons of beautiful pictures, why not post 4-5 every day for us to appreciate the cosmos we live in?

This is a close up of the Flame Nebula (lower right) and Horsehead Nebula. They exist in the Constellation of Orion.

Here is the entire Orion Constellation where the Horsehead and Flame exist (look near the middle of the image) along with the Orion Nebula (M42), M78 (Reflection Nebula) and Barnard's Loop. (the big red cloud) The star Betelgeuse and Rigel exist in this constellation also. Betelgeuse is a Red Giant star. If it were in place of our Sun, the Earth would exist inside the Star. That's how large it is. It's thought that Belegiuse may have already went Super Nova, but due to how far away it is (about 1,400 light years), we haven't detected the explosion yet.

How's that @Shunpike? Good start?

 

[Shunpike]

How's that @Shunpike? Good start?

Sir, yes sir

 

[AzorAhai]

In this image taken by the Cassini spacecraft Saturn's moons Enceladus (front) and Tethys (back) line up almost perfectly for Cassini's cameras. Also visible is a part of Saturn's ring system (https://goo.gl/4t2E5g).

The image was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.3 million miles (2.1 million kilometers) from Enceladus. Image scale on Enceladus is 7 miles (12 kilometers) per pixel. Tethys was at a distance of 1.6 million miles (2.6 million kilometers) with a pixel scale of 10 miles (16 kilometers) per pixel.

More information here:
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA18349

Enceladus

Enceladus has a diameter of 504 kilometers (313 miles) and is orbiting Saturn every 1.4 Earth days at a distance of 238,037 km (147,909 miles). It was discovered August 28, 1789 by William Herschel. More information here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enceladus

Tethys

Tethys has a diameter of 1,062 kilometers (660 miles) and is orbiting Saturn every 1.9 Earth days at a distance of 294,619 km (183,068 miles). It was discovered in 1684 by Giovanni Domenico Cassini. More information here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tethys_(moon)

More on the Cassini spacecraft:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini–Huygens

Image credit: PIA18349: Bull's-eye Moons NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute http://goo.gl/73W4DL


https://lh5.***BROKEN***/-31YysKOEBHE/Vm77zt8KPTI/AAAAAAAAbe8/huhisRHlRiw/w980-h709-no/PIA18349.jpg

You post a lot of awesome stuff in the off topic zone, but man do you have a lot of hobbies. How do you find time in the day for guitars, astrology, video games and any others you have?

 

[YosemiteSam]

You post a lot of awesome stuff in the off topic zone, but man do you have a lot of hobbies. How do you find time in the day for guitars, astrology, video games and any others you have?

First, I must correct you. I'm into Astronomy, not Astrology. Big difference!

Well, finding time for enjoyment has become easier since I'm no longer married. Though I haven't been practicing Astronomy or Astrophotography much at all this year. Part of that is because I moved from 20 minutes from the Observatory to 45 minutes each way. That hampers my willingness to go.

My hobbies are mostly cyclical. So i'm usually only practicing a one or two hobbies at any given time during the year. Currently, the hobbies I'm practicing are guitar and wine. I really only play games when I'm hanging out with a buddy of mine I grew up with. We play Star Wars Battlefront. Usually maybe once a week. (mostly on Friday nights)

Besides sports, (Go Stars!) I think my only other big hobby is Chess, though I'm not great at it. I just love the game.

Oh yeah, I also binge watch Star Trek.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Explanation: Earth's annual Geminid meteor shower did not disappoint, peaking before dawn on December 14 as our fair planet plowed through dust from active asteroid 3200 Phaethon. Captured in this southern hemisphere nightscape the meteors stream away from the shower's radiant in Gemini. To create the image, many individual frames recording meteor streaks were taken over period of 5 hours. In the final composite they were selected and registered against the starry sky above the twin 6.5 meter Magellan telescopes of Carnegie Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. Rigel in Orion, and Sirius shine brightly as the Milky Way stretches toward the zenith. Near Castor and Pollux the twin stars of Gemini, the meteor shower's radiant is low, close to the horizon. The radiant effect is due to perspective as the parallel meteor tracks appear to converge in the distance. Gemini's meteors enter Earth's atmosphere traveling at about 22 kilometers per second.

 

[YosemiteSam]

This is several images stitched into an animation of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenk taken from the Rosetta Spacecraft. The rays you see coming off of it that look like dust or light is exactly that. The comet's tail.

 

[DallasEast]

Sam I Am takes us where no one has gone BEFORE! <insert Alexander Courage's show theme here>

 

[Shunpike]

Sam

Planets please and maybe moons like Titan or Enceledus. Especially the most beautiful ones. Saturn Saturn Saturn. Then maybe Venus from the inside.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Sam

Planets please and maybe moons like Titan or Enceledus. Especially the most beautiful ones. Saturn Saturn Saturn. Then maybe Venus from the inside.

Enceledus was in the very first picture I posted.

Here is Jupiter with it's largest moon Ganymede.

Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is the largest satellite in the solar system. Larger than Mercury and Pluto, and only slightly smaller than Mars, it would easily be classified as a planet if were orbiting the sun rather than Jupiter. Ganymede’s mean radius is 1,635 miles (2,631.2 km). Due to its size, Ganymede can be viewed with the naked eye. Although Ganymede is larger than Mercury it only has half its mass, classifying it as low density. Daytime temperatures on the surface average -171F to -297F, and night temperatures drop to -193C. (-315.4F)

Galileo called this moon Jupiter III. When the numerical naming system was abandoned in the mid-1800s, the moon was named after Ganymede, a Trojan prince in Greek mythology. Zeus, a counterpart of Jupiter in Roman mythology, carried Ganymede, who had taken the form of an eagle, to Olympus, where he became a cupbearer to the Olympian gods and one of Zeus’ lovers.

Ganymede has a thin oxygen atmosphere too thin to support life. It is the only satellite in the solar system to have a magnetosphere. Typically found in planets, including Earth and Jupiter, a magnetosphere is a comet-shaped region in which charged particles are trapped or deflected. Ganymede’s magnetosphere is entirely embedded within the magnetosphere of Jupiter.

 

[YosemiteSam]

....and because I wasn't originally going to post a planetary image, but because Shunpike asked...

 

[Seven]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge, Sam.

The pics are incredible. I love this stuff.

Makes you realize how absolutely minute we really are..............sheesh.

 

[Doc50]

Good stuff, Sam.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Explanation: NGC 4631 is a spiral galaxy found only 25 million light-years away, toward the well-trained northern constellation Canes Venatici. Seen ege-on, the galaxy is similar in size to the Milky Way. Its distorted wedge shape suggests to some a cosmic herring and to others its popular moniker, The Whale Galaxy. The large galaxy's small, remarkably bright elliptical companion NGC 4627 lies just above its dusty yellowish core, but also identifiable are recently discovered, faint dwarf galaxies within the halo of NGC 4631. In fact, the faint extended features below (and above) NGC 4631 are now recognized as tidal star streams. The star streams are remnants of a dwarf satellite galaxy disrupted by repeated encounters with the Whale that began about 3.5 billion years ago. Even in nearby galaxies, the presence of tidal star streams is predicted by cosmological models of galaxy formation, including the formation of our own Milky Way.

 

[YosemiteSam]

This detailed picture of the Helix Nebula shows a fine web of filaments, like the spokes of a bicycle, embedded in the colorful red and blue gas ring around this dying star. The Helix Nebula is one of the nearest planetary nebulae to Earth, only 650 light years away.

A planetary nebula is a ring-shaped nebula formed by an expanding shell of gas around an aging star. In this picture, the center dot is the star that formed the Helix Nebula by blowing off it's outer shell as it's reaching the end of it's life.

Kind of looks like the Eye of Sauron.

 

[Duane]

I've loved astronomy since I watched the original Cosmos program on PBS in 1980.

Anyone else who's interested in getting a good basic understanding of space can check out Phil Plait's CrashCourse in Astronomy on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtPAJr1ysd5yGIyiSFuh0mIL

 

[YosemiteSam]

How about a great picture of our own planet with a Hurricane and the Sun in the same images?!?!??! This is actually my background on my work PC. (a much larger version of it anyhow)

 

[YosemiteSam]

This Galaxy is NGC 3190

This is a spiral galaxy is in the Constellation Leo. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. It is estimated at around 80 million light years away.

Some of you filthy Apple freaks might recognize this Galaxy as Apple used a blue tinted image of NGC 3190 as their desktop image for their release of OS X Mountain Lion.

https://lh3.***BROKEN***/-i8l_eZOt9lE/Vn6lRyDsbFI/AAAAAAAA2-Y/1GANexOlTis/w534-h854-no/26.12.15%2B%25D0%25B3.%2B-%2B1

 

[Shunpike]

This Galaxy is NGC 3190

This is a spiral galaxy is in the Constellation Leo. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. It is estimated at around 80 million light years away.

Some of you filthy Apple freaks might recognize this Galaxy as Apple used a blue tinted image of NGC 3190 as their desktop image for their release of OS X Mountain Lion.

https://lh3.***BROKEN***/-i8l_eZOt9lE/Vn6lRyDsbFI/AAAAAAAA2-Y/1GANexOlTis/w534-h854-no/26.12.15%2B%25D0%25B3.%2B-%2B1

Apple rocks. Awesome picture Sam. Thanks.