Comments on: A fresh breath of Saturn

By: richard

richard — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:43:14 +0000

I have two questions that probably someone here can answer.

1) Given that the rings are so thin in height, is there really a visible line of shadow on Saturn when the rings are 90 degress to the incoming sunlight? I always see a shadow line in pictures, and I am wondering if that is because the pictures are not at the exact moment of 90 degreeness (or some word like that).

2) The shadow of Enceladus appears a little stretched in the picture above. Is that most likely because it is to the front left and almost tangent to the cloud surface of Saturn?

Thanks for any answers.

By: bouch

bouch — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:21:54 +0000

I really like the effect of the rings darkening as they get “closer”, to the point that the look darker in front Saturn than they do behind it. Stunning…

By: eigenvector

eigenvector — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:00:59 +0000

Correction: the shadow is of Enceladus, diameter 504 km. The question is still the same.

By: eigenvector

eigenvector — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:54:21 +0000

Curiously, the shadow of the rings is tangent to the shadow of Mimas. In comparison the shadow of Mimas seems to be 3 (?) times as wide as the thickness of the ring shadow, but the rings are a few tens of meters thick and Mimas’ diameter is slightly less than 400 km., a ten to the fourth power ratio, not 3x. So what gives?

By: COTLC: Carl Sagan Sings Beautifully; the Forevertron Machines of Baraboo, Wisconsin and Bill Maher’s Endorsement of Quackery, Woo and Pseudoscience | ICED BORSCHT

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:18:27 +0000

[...] Phil Plait points us in the direction of a stunning photo of Saturn… [...]

By: Equinoccio en Saturno « [Px]

Equinoccio en Saturno « [Px] — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 02:00:51 +0000

[...] CICLOPS [Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations] Categorías:Ciencia, Fotografía Digital Etiquetas:Ciencia, Espacio, Fotografía Digital, NASA Comentarios (0) Trackbacks (0) Deja un comentario Trackbacks [...]

By: Torbjörn Larsson, OM

Torbjörn Larsson, OM — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:55:36 +0000

Funny, I don’t find that saturnine at all.

OOooomm…

[No, I don't meditate. Waste of time, research says 15 min sleep and dream activation will give the same effect and rest the body and increase lifetime. Without the woo doo. Win-win-major-win-and-win.

But I don't think Phil would appreciate if my reaction was:

ZZzzzzz...]