Tag: the-planet

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft sent photos of Saturn’s north pole

As Cassini winds down its 20-year mission to Saturn, the spacecraft will maneuver into a series of weeklong orbits, allowing it to get a closer look at the planet’s famous rings as it flies by. Although there are still a few days before Cassini grazes Saturn’s rings, its cameras have already sent back some initial shots of some interesting features near the planet’s northern hemisphere. The images below, for example, show the same view of a hexagonal-shaped jetstream over the planet’s north pole , as seen from about 400, 000 miles above the planet and through four different spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of light ranging from violet to infrared. (The curved lines you see beyond the edge of the planet are the rings, of course.) Although the images Cassini sends back are relatively small — just 256 by 256 pixels square in their original format — NASA calculated that each pixel represents about 95 miles of space and each side of the jetstream is about as wide as Earth itself. Cassini will pass by the outer edges of the planet’s rings on December 11 and it should start sending back images of the rings themselves a few days later. After that, Cassini will continue circling Saturn until April 22, when it will get a closer look at the moon Titan and another orbital adjustment in the process. That final orbit will swing the spacecraft back between the planet and its rings 22 more times before it finally takes a dive into the atmosphere and loses signal around September 15, 2017.

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NASA’s Cassini spacecraft sent photos of Saturn’s north pole

Juno sends back an unfamiliar view of Jupiter’s north pole

When someone mentions the planet Jupiter, you probably think of the image we’re all familiar with: that one with a view of its equator, bands and the Great Red Spot. That’s why the photos above and below the fold might look like an alien world, when in reality, they’re snapshots of the gas giant from a different angle. NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured the planet’s north polar region on cam two hours before its closest approach in late August. It was 120, 000 miles away when the JunoCam took these pics, but it got as close as 2, 600 miles above Jupiter’s surface. The last time we caught a glimpse of the gas giant’s polar region was back in 1974 when the Pioneer 11 probe passed by. Besides sending back new images of the planet, Juno has also beamed back radio emissions associated with its dramatic auroras . NASA had to shift the emissions’ audio rendition to a lower register since they’re way above the range our ears can hear. The whole thing still sounds shrill, but if you want to hear Jupiter’s auroras sing , hit play on the video below. Source: NASA (1) , (2)

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Juno sends back an unfamiliar view of Jupiter’s north pole