Watch Two Dark Moons Sneak Into Cassini's Shots [shared from Weave for Windows Phone]
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Raw image of Saturn with two moons acquired by Cassini on March 11, 2014 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)
On March 11, NASA's Cassini spacecraft was acquiring some images of Saturn's back-lit limb when two of its moons decided to make an entrance. Like stage hands in a darkened theatre the moons quickly passed across the scene, moving between Saturn and the spacecraft and, because of exposure time and spacecraft motion, getting a bit blurred in the process.
In the image above the silhouette of one moon can be seen at bottom right — Mimas, perhaps — while another's crescent can be made out at upper left… possibly Enceladus. Very cool!
Watch an animation of the moons below:
Two of Saturn's moons drift into the scene on March 11, 2014 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI. Animation by Jason Major.)
Two of Saturn's moons drift into the scene on March 11, 2014 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI. Animation by Jason Major.)
While I admit I'm not 100% sure which moons these are, based on their apparent shapes, positions, and relative sizes I'd make my guess that these are 318-mile (511-km) -wide Enceladus and the 246-mile (395-km) -wide Mimas.
http://www.universetoday.com/110338/watch-two-dark-moons-sneak-into-cassinis-shots/
Εστάλη από το Windows Phone μου
Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday on Twitter
Raw image of Saturn with two moons acquired by Cassini on March 11, 2014 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)
On March 11, NASA's Cassini spacecraft was acquiring some images of Saturn's back-lit limb when two of its moons decided to make an entrance. Like stage hands in a darkened theatre the moons quickly passed across the scene, moving between Saturn and the spacecraft and, because of exposure time and spacecraft motion, getting a bit blurred in the process.
In the image above the silhouette of one moon can be seen at bottom right — Mimas, perhaps — while another's crescent can be made out at upper left… possibly Enceladus. Very cool!
Watch an animation of the moons below:
Two of Saturn's moons drift into the scene on March 11, 2014 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI. Animation by Jason Major.)
Two of Saturn's moons drift into the scene on March 11, 2014 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI. Animation by Jason Major.)
While I admit I'm not 100% sure which moons these are, based on their apparent shapes, positions, and relative sizes I'd make my guess that these are 318-mile (511-km) -wide Enceladus and the 246-mile (395-km) -wide Mimas.
http://www.universetoday.com/110338/watch-two-dark-moons-sneak-into-cassinis-shots/
Εστάλη από το Windows Phone μου
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