The maneuver will make Cassini the first craft to ever explore Saturn’s ring gap, making measurements of the mass of the planet’s rings, probing Saturn’s atmosphere and interior structure, and collecting spectacular imagery.įollow Stephen Clark on Twitter: Exploring the Ringed Planetįind out more about Saturn and its moons in this 196-page special edition from Astronomy Now.
Saturn moon atlas pancake series#
The spacecraft will swing by Saturn’s largest moon Titan, covered in rain-replenished lakes of liquid methane and ethane, on April 22 and use gravity to reshape its orbit and begin a series of passages between the planet’s cloud tops and innermost ring. 15 dive into Saturn’s atmosphere to avoid an inadvertent collision with one of the planet’s potentially habitable moons. Running low on fuel, Cassini is in the final months of its mission, heading for a crushing Sept. Scientists believe the equatorial ridges on Pan and Atlas may have formed as the moons collect grains of ice and dust from nearby rings.Ītlas was discovered in 1980 in imagery taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft during its encounter with Saturn, and it orbits around 85,500 miles (137,600 kilometres) from the planet, completing one lap every 14.4 hours. Like Pan, Atlas looks like a miniature version of Saturn, with a bulbous central body and a smooth ridge spanning its equator. The disc-shaped moon is about 19 miles (30 kilometres) across, slightly larger than the moon Pan, which is similar in appearance.Ĭassini took the closest-ever pictures of Pan during a flyby in early March, with its shape drawing comparisons to a walnut or ravioli. One of Saturn’s peculiar moons has received an up-close look from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which sent back the best-ever pictures of Atlas, an object shaped like a flying saucer orbiting just outside the planet’s rings.Ĭassini took the images of Atlas on April 12 as it passed within about 7,000 miles (11,000 kilometres) of the airless moon.Ītlas circles Saturn just outside the A ring, the outermost of the planet’s main, bright rings, according to NASA. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute He is identified as the Greek god Cronus.This unprocessed image of Saturn’s moon Atlas was taken on April 12, 2017, by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. described the images as the 'best-ever photos' of the moon, which resembles a 'flying saucer.' They were taken as the spacecraft came within about 7,000 miles of Atlas. Saturn was the Roman god of the harvest and the father of Jupiter. NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured photos of Atlas during its closest approach to Saturn's moon Tuesday.
The moons shape, contribute and also collect material from Saturn's rings and magnetosphere. Saturn's moons range in size from larger than the planet Mercury the giant moon Titan to as small as a sports arena. Atlas is just one of Saturn's 62 known moons, and it's also one of the smallest. Fifty-three moons are confirmed and named and another 29 moons are awaiting confirmation of discovery and official naming. One of these bodies looks like the "Death Star" spaceship from Star Wars: Mimas has a large crater that covers one-third of the small moon. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute Believe it or not, that tiny speck at the center of the red circle is a moon. This makes Saturn look like somebody is squeezing it. Because Saturn spins so fast, its middle bulges while its poles flatten out. Saturn looks like a ball that is being squished. If you could find a bathtub big enough to put Saturn in, it would float. Saturn's rings are made of ice and rock particles, some as big as a minivan.
Saturn's rings are 169,800 miles (273,000 km) across, but only 10 to 100 yards (9 to 90 meters) thick. Other information: Saturn is also called the "ringed planet." Although Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have ring systems, Saturn's is the largest. Escape velocity: To escape Saturn's gravity, you need to travel 79,400 miles (127,800 km) per hour, compared to 25,000 miles (40,200 km) per hour necessary to escape Earth's gravity.
Temperature: The average temperature on Saturn is ≣00° F (≡84° C).
0 kommentar(er)
