Enceladus August 11, 2008 encounter, Close-up observations of plume vents |
Enceladus August 11, 2008 encounter, Close-up observations of plume vents |
Aug 3 2008, 06:54 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 934 Joined: 4-September 06 From: Boston Member No.: 1102 |
Just 8 days until the next Enceladus encounter.
CICLOPS Rev 80 Looking Ahead will appear here soon. Cassini Enceladus 080EN Mission Description is here now. We get to fly through the south polar jets again. -Floyd [edit] Soon = somtime before encounter -------------------- |
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Aug 3 2008, 07:28 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Admin Posts: 4763 Joined: 15-March 05 From: Glendale, AZ Member No.: 197 |
Yikes they are really going to be diving trough those ice plumes. Makes me wonder if a post encounter view of Saturn might look something like this:
-------------------- If Occam had heard my theory, things would be very different now.
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Aug 3 2008, 11:20 PM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1465 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Columbus OH USA Member No.: 13 |
Yikes they are really going to be diving trough those ice plumes. I just made an animation of the encounter (60MB MPG file, right-click on image below to download): It's from the point of view if the ISS narrow-angle camera, using pointing & position info from the SPICE kernels--pretty frenetic panning around at times! For a lot of the approach the camera looks to be pointing out into space--maybe towards where the plumes are located? -------------------- |
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Aug 4 2008, 12:35 AM
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#4
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8785 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Let me be the first to say both "OOO!!!" and "AHHH!"....damn cool!!!!
Doug will probably dislike your chosen background music, but he'll get over it... Really beautiful work, man; absolutely inspiring. Thank you for sharing it with us! -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Aug 4 2008, 09:15 AM
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#5
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Member Group: Members Posts: 655 Joined: 22-January 06 Member No.: 655 |
Joe that's an inspirational piece of work! - many thanks for sharing it with us.
Am I right in concluding that the sequence planners may have allowed for some saturnshine exposures on the outbound leg? I think the camera pointing into space is a consequence of other instruments being 'prime' during the very closest approach, in order to get other data on the plumes themselves. Can't wait for the results on this one. |
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Aug 4 2008, 11:16 AM
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#6
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1465 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Columbus OH USA Member No.: 13 |
Joe that's an inspirational piece of work! - many thanks for sharing it with us. My pleasure... and thanks to Cassini for timely updating of the SPICE navigation data, allowing such looks into the future. QUOTE Am I right in concluding that the sequence planners may have allowed for some saturnshine exposures on the outbound leg? I think the camera pointing into space is a consequence of other instruments being 'prime' during the very closest approach, in order to get other data on the plumes themselves. Can't wait for the results on this one. Don't know about specific plans. The team does publish such info sometimes in their "science plan" SPICE files, but the current plan, S42, ends on August 11 (hours before the Enceladus flyby ) and the next plan, S43, hasn't been posted yet. Usually there's a several day gap between the end of one plan and the posting of the next. Maybe the links Floyd gave in the first post will tell some more, when updated. -------------------- |
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Aug 4 2008, 11:56 AM
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#7
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Member Group: Members Posts: 127 Joined: 18-July 05 Member No.: 438 |
I think the camera pointing into space is a consequence of other instruments being 'prime' ... That may well be true, but I suspect it may also be related to the rapid motion of Enceladus across the sky as seen from Cassini during such a low altitude encounter... the spacecraft can't turn quickly enough to track the surface during the entire encounter, so before closest approach, the attitude is set ready to image the south pole, with the remote sensing instruments pointing north. The south pole is then in the field of view as soon as possible, yielding the highest resolution images. |
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Aug 4 2008, 12:27 PM
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#8
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Member Group: Members Posts: 753 Joined: 23-October 04 From: Greensboro, NC USA Member No.: 103 |
I imagine they also want to avoid exposing the camera to a high-speed encounter with particles in the plumes.
-------------------- Jonathan Ward
Manning the LCC at http://www.apollolaunchcontrol.com |
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Aug 4 2008, 06:02 PM
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#9
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 45 Joined: 30-November 05 Member No.: 592 |
Enceladus is in eclipse from 224-21:42 to 225-00:08 --- T
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Aug 5 2008, 01:36 PM
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#10
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1465 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Columbus OH USA Member No.: 13 |
Enceladus is in eclipse from 224-21:42 to 225-00:08 --- T Note to self: figure out how to model eclipses sometime. Saturn's oblateness makes it even harder than otherwise. -------------------- |
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Aug 5 2008, 04:32 PM
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#11
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1276 Joined: 25-November 04 Member No.: 114 |
Is there any chance for Saturn Shine imaging during this encounter?
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Aug 5 2008, 07:08 PM
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#12
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3242 Joined: 11-February 04 From: Tucson, AZ Member No.: 23 |
There is some chance. But keep in mind that the sub-solar point is pretty close to the sub-Saturn point during the encounter, so areas illuminated by Saturn would also be illuminated by the Sun.
During the eclipse, well, you'd be seeing the same areas we would be seeing immediately before the eclipse starts, at good resolution, in sunlight. -------------------- &@^^!% Jim! I'm a geologist, not a physicist!
The Gish Bar Times - A Blog all about Jupiter's Moon Io |
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Aug 6 2008, 12:00 AM
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#13
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Member Group: Members Posts: 934 Joined: 4-September 06 From: Boston Member No.: 1102 |
Link to map of Enceladus encounters on Emily's What's up in the solar system for week of August 4
-------------------- |
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Aug 6 2008, 12:35 AM
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#14
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1465 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Columbus OH USA Member No.: 13 |
Looking at the planned ISS pointing during the encounter in more detail, it looks like there is a long dwell time on the Cairo tiger stripe, vent 'E':
Any particular reason to concentrate on that one? One interesting thing is that it's exactly on the day/night terminator at the time of the observation (the green square shows the NAC view): -------------------- |
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Aug 6 2008, 01:07 AM
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#15
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8785 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Any particular reason to concentrate on that one? Might've answered your own question in your post. Bet they're looking for some high-phase optical plume pics. -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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