June 12 2007 Icy Moons (rev 46) |
June 12 2007 Icy Moons (rev 46) |
Jun 6 2007, 07:35 AM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1887 Joined: 20-November 04 From: Iowa Member No.: 110 |
Rev 46 description available at CICLOPS
http://ciclops.org/view.php?id=3245 Some highlights: Cassini will observe Mimas, the innermost of the mid-sized icy satellites of Saturn June 12, Cassini makes one of its closest passes of the small, inner satellite Atlas, at a distance of only 38,000 km (24,000 mi). With an average diameter of only 31 km (19 mi), Atlas is one of the smallest moons of Saturn. Atlas will only appear to be 120 pixels across (at the equator). However, these images may still provide important clues about the formation of one of the most distinguishing aspects of the tiny satellite: its equatorial bulge. The bulge is thought to have been created by material from Saturn’s A ring being deposited preferentially along the equator of the satellite. A number of observations are dedicated to observing some of Saturn's small moons, in order to refine scientists' estimates of their orbital paths. These sequences include observations of some of Saturn's outer satellites, such as Paaliaq, Hati, and S/2004 S13 I've seen a few of these small outer moons listed recently on the raw image page. They search tool only shows them from the last few orbits. Is this something new they are doing or have they been previously listed as Sky? |
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Jun 15 2007, 07:26 AM
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The Poet Dude Group: Moderator Posts: 5551 Joined: 15-March 04 From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK Member No.: 60 |
ON ATLAS’ SHOULDERS…
To their visor-shielded eyes as they approach me - their gaze constantly drawn away by Saturn’s swirled-syrup clouds and icy, jewelled rings – I’ll seem a thing bizarre; a saucer-shaped albino freak drifting meekly through the dark, peeking at the planet’s pastel-painted face from the safety of ring-shadows wide enough to swallow worlds… But when Sol rises from behind - then blazes above – my peaks they will see me as I really am: proud and noble Atlas, a Titan’s tortured son, born of ice and dust, a hoarfrost-crusted starstone left weary beyond words from carrying the sky upon hunched shoulders of ancient rock and boulders, draped by layers of ring-snow folded over and over and over… Finally, after a nervous landing they will stand on me, turn their visors to the sky - but see only black: Saturn’s sulking, bulging bulk an ink stain on the star-sewn cloth of night, an Ultreyan abyss in the sky spotted here and there by flashbulb lightning sparks against the darkness; fluttering auroral flames playing round its poles while his rings, a razor-thin blade of flaming, brittle light, slice him clean in two – - until finally bright Sol appears, spears of light stabbing out from behind Saturn’s great curved limb for a heartbeat before the star itself explodes into view. A nuclear fireball of purest white, God’s floodlight shining on my landscape! No escape now from the Truth: they stand upon a tiny world, an ice grain whirling round a whale, pale and frail against its side… Look, they’ll cry – snow! and staring at the sky will see a billion firefly specks drifting through the high vault of the heavens; playful faeries flitting in the light of Saturn’s sudden dawn, each flickering flake a refugee fleeing from the planet’s rings; too-small-to-fall-in-anything-but-silence things that on their own are nothing, but over aeons have gathered round me like a skirt of dirty lace. And golluming over me, belly-sliding over the crumping snow they'll know, and feel it in their brittle bones that gravity is but a memory here, out where the air is thick with flakes of Saturn's Death Star'd moon... -------------------- |
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