October 2004 Top Stories
»» Prometheus and its Flock of Ring Particles
[Friday, October 01, 2004] In its own way, the shepherd moon Prometheus is one of the lords of Saturn's rings. The little moon maintains the inner edge of Saturn's thin, knotted F ring, while its slightly smaller cohort Pandora guards the ring's outer edge.
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»» Cassini Significant Events for 09/23/04 - 09/29/04
[Friday, October 01, 2004] On-board activities this week included the continuation of Ultraviolet
Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) mosaics of Saturn's magnetosphere and solar wind
measurements by the Magnetospheric and Plasma Science instruments.
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»» Saturnian Hurricane
[Friday, October 08, 2004] This close-up view shows lots of atmospheric detail, including a dark storm and wisps of clouds. The dark spot is noticeably lighter around its perimeter than in its interior.
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»» Light and Dark Bands
[Friday, October 08, 2004] Saturn's southern hemisphere boasts a great deal of fine detail in the turbulent boundaries between the atmospheric bands in this Cassini image. Note the faint bright spot in the band north of the dark polar region.
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»» Cassini Significant Events for 09/30/04 - 10/06/04
[Saturday, October 09, 2004] This week performed an updated version of the Attitude Control Subsystem flight software was performed. ACS version A8.7.1 prepares Cassini for Huygens Probe release on December 24, 2004 and the remainder of tour operations.
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»» Scientists prepare for space probe's plunge into Titan's atmosphere
[Thursday, October 14, 2004] On Jan. 14, 2005, the Huygens probe will plow into the orange
atmosphere of Saturn's moon, Titan, becoming the first spacecraft to
attempt to land on a moon in our solar system since the Soviet Union's
Luna 24 touched down on Earth's moon in 1976.
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»» NASA Cassini Significant Events for 10/07/04 - 10/13/04
[Saturday, October 16, 2004] The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone
tracking station on Wednesday, October 13. On-board activities this week featured more varied Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) observations than in previous weeks.
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»» NASA Announces Cassini Titan Flyby Coverage
[Tuesday, October 19, 2004] Titan will be examined up close by the Cassini spacecraft next Tuesday. Cassini will
fly by Titan at 1,200 kilometers (745 miles). Cassini's radar will also be used for the first time to image Titan.
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»» The Sounds of Titan
[Friday, October 22, 2004] The sound of alien thunder, the patter of methane rain and the crunch (or splash) of a landing, all might be heard as Huygens descends to the surface of Titan on 14 January 2005.
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»» Day and Night on Hyperion
[Friday, October 22, 2004] As it approached Saturn near the end of its second orbit, Cassini caught this view of the small, irregularly shaped moon Hyperion (266 kilometers, or 165 miles, across). The moon's long axis is nearly horizontal in this view.
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»» Saturn's South Pole in Ultraviolet
[Friday, October 22, 2004] Wavy bands in Saturn's high atmosphere lazily circle the south polar region in this Cassini image, taken through a filter sensitive to ultraviolet light.
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»» Rough Around the Edges
[Friday, October 22, 2004] This turbulent boundary between two latitudinal bands in Saturn's atmosphere curls repeatedly along its edge in this Cassini image. This pattern is an example of a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.
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»» Cassini Titan Flyby Mission Description
[Friday, October 22, 2004] Cassini's first flyby of Titan occurs on October 26, 2004 at 15:30 UTC (8:30 am PDT). Cassini's closest approach to Titan is at an altitude of 1200 km (746 miles) above the surface at a speed of 6.1 kilometers per second (14,000 mph).
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»» Cassini Significant Events for 10/14/04 - 10/19/04
[Friday, October 22, 2004] October 15th marked the 7-year anniversary of the launch of the Cassini
spacecraft and Huygens Probe in 1997. The
Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating
normally.
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»» Cassini Closes in on Titan
[Sunday, October 24, 2004] This Cassini image was taken on October 23, 2004 and received on Earth October 24, 2004. The camera was pointing toward Titan at approximately 1,544,962 kilometers away, and the image was taken using the CL1 and CB3 filters.
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»» First Close Encounter of Saturn's Hazy Moon Titan
[Monday, October 25, 2004] Titan, the only known moon with an atmosphere, is ready for its close-up on Oct. 26. This visit by Cassinimay settle intense speculation about whether this moon of Saturn harbors oceans of liquid methane and ethane beneath its coat of clouds.
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»» First Close-up Images of Titan's Surface
[Tuesday, October 26, 2004] The Cassini spacecraft which flew by Titan earlier today has started to return has started to return detailed images of Titan and its surface. These are the best images of Titan we have ever seen.
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»» Cassini-Huygens Mission Status Report - October 26 2004
[Tuesday, October 26, 2004] The Cassini spacecraft beamed back information and pictures tonight after successfully skimming the hazy atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan.
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»» Titan in False Color
[Wednesday, October 27, 2004] This image shows Titan in ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths. It was taken by Cassini's imaging science subsystem on Oct. 26, 2004, and is constructed from four images acquired through different color filters.
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»» Hugyens' Landing Site
[Wednesday, October 27, 2004] Shown here are two images of the expected landing site of Cassini's Huygens probe which will seperate from the Cassini spacecraft on December 24. It will then take 22 days before Huygens begins its descent through Titan's atmosphere landing on January 15.
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»» NASA Cassini's Radar Shows Titan's Young Active Surface
[Friday, October 29, 2004] The first radar images of Saturn's moon Titan show a very complex geological surface that may be relatively young. Previously, Titan's surface was hidden behind a veil of thick haze.
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»» Cassini Significant Events for 10/20/04 - 10/27/04
[Friday, October 29, 2004] It has been a very exciting week for Cassini Program team members. The big
news is of course the Titan-a flyby that occurred on Tuesday, October 26. A
number of events led up to this extremely successful flyby.
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»» NASA Cassini Image: Tethys
[Friday, October 29, 2004] This image was taken on October 28, 2004 and received on Earth October 29, 2004. The camera was pointing toward Tethys at approximately 253,453 kilometers away.
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»» NASA Cassini Image: Dione
[Friday, October 29, 2004] This image was taken on October 27, 2004 and received on Earth October 28, 2004. The camera was pointing toward Dione at approximately 1,169,424 kilometers away
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»» NASA Cassini Image: Titan's Tantalizing Streaks
[Friday, October 29, 2004] This wide-angle image captured by Cassini's imaging science subsystem shows streaks of surface material in the equatorial region of Titan. It was acquired through a near-infrared filter, which is sensitive to methane.
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»» NASA Cassini Image: Surface Streaks on Titan
[Friday, October 29, 2004] This medium-resolution view shows some of the surface streaks of Titan's equatorial terrain. The streaks are oriented roughly east to west; however, some streaks curve to the north and others curve to the south.
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»» NASA Cassini Image: Diversity on Titan
[Friday, October 29, 2004] This radar image of the surface of Saturn's moon Titan was acquired on October 26, 2004, when the Cassini spacecraft flew approximately 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) above the surface and acquired radar data for the first time.
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»» NASA Cassini Image: Two Views of Titan's Haze
[Friday, October 29, 2004] These images show two views of Titan's planet-wide stratospheric haze just before (left) and after (right) Cassini's first close encounter with the shrouded moon.
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»» NASA Cassini Image: F Ring (and Satellite?)
[Sunday, October 31, 2004] This image was taken on October 29, 2004. The camera was pointing toward Saturn's rings at approximately 790,933 kilometers away.
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