weekend starview: cassini at saturn

Weekend starview continues with Cassini Mission by Chris Abbas. An excellent two minute video of footage captured by Cassini space probe. Nancy Atkinson and her Universe Today article are thanked for the link. It's a thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing video!

cassini flies just 76km above rhea surface on jan. 11

It's an exciting time for Cassini imaging team scientists as the spacecraft drops to just 47 miles above the surface of Rhea, Saturn's second largest moon, on January 11th!  "These will be by far the best images we've ever had of Rhea's surface - details down to just a few meters will become recognizable," said Thomas Roatsch, a team scientist at the German Aerospace Center Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin.  "New Images Indicate Tectonic Activity On Rhea ", a brief article at Space Daily, reveals sharp fractures on the Saturn moon's surface--an indication of tectonic activity.  Cassini will continue to chart the terrain of Saturn's moons until 2017.

mystery hexagon of saturn

In 1979, as Voyager 1 passed by Saturn, the satellite returned pictures of a hexagon on Saturn's North Pole.  The Cassini spacecraft confirmed, in 2006, the hexagon is still there! A brief You Tube video, "The Mystery Hexagon of Saturn" provides a fascinating look in less than two minutes. Discovery News provides a brief article and video, "Saturn's North Pole Hexagon Mystery Solved?", where a hexagon is achieved in laboratory conditions, supporting the notion this is indeed a natural phenomenon.