Comments on: Looking up to Saturn

By: John Weiss

John Weiss — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 00:52:43 +0000

@Chet Twarog
Speaking as someone who was partially responsible for the wording of that: Sure, the wording could be cold and precise, but that’s boring and it fails to convey the majesty and the joy of space exploration. So I stand by “up”.

By: Matt B.

Matt B. — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 21:30:52 +0000

@4 Elwood Herring said – ‘How do we know Cassini is looking “up”? Since there’s no up or down in space, it could just as well be looking down, and the picture is upside-down.’

Well, since up and down are really defined in terms of gravity, Cassini was looking down, i.e. toward an object at lower gravitational potential.

By: Oscar Ferro

Oscar Ferro — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 13:53:31 +0000

Il Dio piccin’ della piccina terra
Ognor traligna ed erra,
E, a par di grillo
Saltellante, a caso
Spinge fra gli astri il naso,
Poi con tenace fatuità superba
Fa il suo trillo nell’erba.

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 07:05:03 +0000

Phil raises an interesting quandary: Is it possible to be both awed and awesome? Simultaneously the “awe-er” and “awe-ee”?

By: Chet Twarog

Chet Twarog — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 02:27:01 +0000

Agreed it is a fantastic view from Cassini but I would just gladly eliminate all the extraneous “ups and downs” anywhere: “The spacecraft was south of the rings looking north. The Sun is shining on the rings from this perspective.”
We don’t live on a flat wall map…it’s worth it, for me, to keep trying to point out poor semantics. Think spherically!

By: Grand Lunar

Grand Lunar — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 01:50:44 +0000

First saw this via a link from Carolyn Porco’s Twitter page.

VERY awesome to see.

By: Mark P

Mark P — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 20:57:09 +0000

Well, there is a definition of “up” relative to rotating objects. It’s a convention, but it’s there.

By: John Weiss

John Weiss — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 19:18:18 +0000

@Jeffrey
If you’re asking how big Earth would be in this camera at the same distance as Mimas is here, I believe that the answer is “about 96 pixels.” I’m just scribbling out an answer, though, so don’t take that as writ. It tracks, though: Saturn’s diameter here is about 1000 pixels and it’s about 10 times larger in linear scale than Earth is.

By: sevenof9fl

sevenof9fl — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 17:43:13 +0000

Proportionally, my understanding of the field Astronomy is about the size of Mimas as compared to Saturn. But that doesn’t mean reading about it doesn’t knock my socks off and I strive to understand the enormity of it all, from our small, hum-drum solar system to the most far-flung galaxies we can detect. As a species, we must always strive to learn more; but I am astonished and delighted with each new piece of information.

By: lepton

lepton — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 17:42:22 +0000

Since Mimas is above the ring in the picture, it is actually a little bit closer to Cassini than Saturn is. Indeed the size comparison is amazing.

This makes me appreciate our Moon even more, our earth has the proportionally biggest natural satellite of all planets.