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Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ Cassini's ongoing mission and raw images _ Press Conference At 2005 Fall Agu Conference

Posted by: volcanopele Dec 6 2005, 07:06 PM

A press conference has been scheduled for noon PST for discoveries made by the Cassini at the various icy satellites of Saturn during the last few months. Since August 2, Cassini has flown within 70,000 km of Mimas, 1,500 km of Tethys, 500 km of Hyperion, Rhea, and Dione, and had reasonably close encounters with Iapetus and Enceladus (which yielded the definitive discovery of plumes over the south polar region).

Description from http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/2005agu_workshops.html :

News Conference: Cassini's Marathon Tour of Saturn's Icy Moons
Time: Tues. Dec. 6, 3 p.m. EST (12 p.m. PST)
Related Session:: P11B, P21F, P22A and P32A
For more information visit: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm
The remarkable Cassini mission has captured new views and information on young, old and oddball moons during the first year of a whirlwind tour of the Saturn system. Scientists will present the latest findings and images from Cassini, including breathtaking views and a deluge of data from these icy orbs during more than a dozen targeted flybys. Among the discoveries is the moon Enceladus has an atmosphere, which appears to be contributing particles to Saturn’s massive E-ring. Another discovery includes a long, narrow ridge that lies almost exactly on the equator of the moon Iapetus. In places, the ridge is approximately three times the height of Mount Everest.

Posted by: volcanopele Dec 6 2005, 07:20 PM

ISS images and movies for the press conference are on the Photojournal. Hopefully, other instruments will release data as well. We seem to be the only ones who show data from the other moons during the last few months:

Iapetus movie
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07766
This is a 14-frame movie showing the Iapetus encounter last month. I only used images that had pixel scales better than 5.15 km/pixel. This movie clearly shows the large, 575-km wide impact basin in NE Cassini Regio as well as a smaller one in North-central CR.

4-frame Enceladus Plume movie
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07762
This 4-frame movie shows the plumes seen on November 27 on Enceladus. You can see slight shifts in position along the limb as well as slight changes in plume intensity.

21-frame Rhea mosaic
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07763
Here's the giant Rhea mosaic. Very nice if I say so myself

6-image mosaic of Hyperion
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07761

Catch that Crater
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07764
High-resolution WAC view of the eastern rim of the 50-km wide ray crater on Rhea

Craters, Craters Everywhere
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07765
Oblique WAC view of a 90-km wide impact crater on Rhea

Color Variation on Hyperion
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07768
False color view of Meri crater and its surroundings on Hyperion

Season of Moons
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07767
Montage of Iapetus, Rhea, Enceladus, and Dione

Color Variation on Dione and Rhea
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07769
False-color view of Dione and Rhea