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News Saturn’s moon Iapetus is the Yin-Yang of the Solar System
Bright and Dark mountains on Iapetus
13 September 2007
Cassini scientists are poring through hundreds of images returned from the 10 September fly-by of Saturn's two-toned moon Iapetus.
The pictures show the moon's yin and yang - a white hemisphere resembling snow, and the other as black as tar. Images returned late Tuesday and early Wednesday show a surface that is heavily cratered, along with the mountain ridge that runs along the moon's equator. Many of the close-up observations focused on studying the strange 20-km high mountain ridge that gives the moon a walnut-shaped appearance.
"The images are really stunning," said Tilmann Denk, Cassini imaging scientist at the Free University in Berlin, Germany, who was responsible for the imaging observation planning. "Every new picture contained its own charm. I was most pleased about the images showing huge mountains rising over the horizon. I knew about this scenic viewing opportunity for more than seven years, and now the real images have suddenly materialised."
Frozen wastelands on IapetusThis fly-by was nearly 100 times closer to Iapetus than Cassini's 2004 fly-by, bringing the spacecraft to about 1640 km from the surface. The moon's irregular walnut shape, the mountain ridge that lies almost directly on the equator and Iapetus’ brightness contrast are among the key mysteries scientists are trying to solve. "There is never a dull moment on this mission," said Bob Mitchell, Cassini programme manager, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA. "We are very excited about the stunning images being returned. There is plenty here to keep many scientists busy for many years."
Iapetus' landscape"Our flight over the surface of Iapetus was like a non-stop free fall, down the rabbit hole, directly into Wonderland! Very few places in our solar system are more bizarre than the patchwork of pitch dark and snowy bright we have seen on this moon," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute, USA. The return of images and other data was delayed early Tuesday due to a galactic cosmic ray hit which put the spacecraft into the so-called safe mode. This occurred after the spacecraft had placed all of the fly-by data on its data recorders and during the first few minutes after it began sending the data home. The data flow resumed later that day and concluded on Wednesday. The spacecraft is operating normally and its instruments are expected to return to normal operations in a few days.
Mountains on Iapetus"Iapetus provides us with a window back in time, to the formation of the planets over four billion years ago. Since then its icy crust has been cold and stiff, preserving this ancient surface for our study," said Torrence Johnson, Cassini imaging team member at JPL. Cassini's multiple observations of Iapetus will help to characterise the chemical composition of the surface; look for evidence of a faint atmosphere or erupting gas plumes; and map the night-time temperature of the surface. These and other results will be analysed in the weeks to come.
Notes for editors:
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. JPL designed and assembled the Cassini orbiter. ESA developed the Huygens Titan probe, while ASI managed the development of the high-gain antenna and the other instruments of its participation. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, USA.
For more information:
Tilmann Denk, Planetary Sciences and Remote Sensing Department, Free University of Berlin
Email: Tilmann.Denk @ fu-berlin.de Jean-Pierre Lebreton, ESA Huygens Project Scientist
Email: Jean-Pierre.Lebreton @ esa.int
News Saturn’s moon Iapetus is the Yin-Yang of the Solar System
Bright and Dark mountains on Iapetus
13 September 2007
Cassini scientists are poring through hundreds of images returned from the 10 September fly-by of Saturn's two-toned moon Iapetus.
The pictures show the moon's yin and yang - a white hemisphere resembling snow, and the other as black as tar. Images returned late Tuesday and early Wednesday show a surface that is heavily cratered, along with the mountain ridge that runs along the moon's equator. Many of the close-up observations focused on studying the strange 20-km high mountain ridge that gives the moon a walnut-shaped appearance.
"The images are really stunning," said Tilmann Denk, Cassini imaging scientist at the Free University in Berlin, Germany, who was responsible for the imaging observation planning. "Every new picture contained its own charm. I was most pleased about the images showing huge mountains rising over the horizon. I knew about this scenic viewing opportunity for more than seven years, and now the real images have suddenly materialised."
Frozen wastelands on IapetusThis fly-by was nearly 100 times closer to Iapetus than Cassini's 2004 fly-by, bringing the spacecraft to about 1640 km from the surface. The moon's irregular walnut shape, the mountain ridge that lies almost directly on the equator and Iapetus’ brightness contrast are among the key mysteries scientists are trying to solve. "There is never a dull moment on this mission," said Bob Mitchell, Cassini programme manager, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA. "We are very excited about the stunning images being returned. There is plenty here to keep many scientists busy for many years."
Iapetus' landscape"Our flight over the surface of Iapetus was like a non-stop free fall, down the rabbit hole, directly into Wonderland! Very few places in our solar system are more bizarre than the patchwork of pitch dark and snowy bright we have seen on this moon," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute, USA. The return of images and other data was delayed early Tuesday due to a galactic cosmic ray hit which put the spacecraft into the so-called safe mode. This occurred after the spacecraft had placed all of the fly-by data on its data recorders and during the first few minutes after it began sending the data home. The data flow resumed later that day and concluded on Wednesday. The spacecraft is operating normally and its instruments are expected to return to normal operations in a few days.
Mountains on Iapetus"Iapetus provides us with a window back in time, to the formation of the planets over four billion years ago. Since then its icy crust has been cold and stiff, preserving this ancient surface for our study," said Torrence Johnson, Cassini imaging team member at JPL. Cassini's multiple observations of Iapetus will help to characterise the chemical composition of the surface; look for evidence of a faint atmosphere or erupting gas plumes; and map the night-time temperature of the surface. These and other results will be analysed in the weeks to come.
Notes for editors:
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. JPL designed and assembled the Cassini orbiter. ESA developed the Huygens Titan probe, while ASI managed the development of the high-gain antenna and the other instruments of its participation. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, USA.
For more information:
Tilmann Denk, Planetary Sciences and Remote Sensing Department, Free University of Berlin
Email: Tilmann.Denk @ fu-berlin.de Jean-Pierre Lebreton, ESA Huygens Project Scientist
Email: Jean-Pierre.Lebreton @ esa.int
News Saturn’s moon Iapetus is the Yin-Yang of the Solar System
Bright and Dark mountains on Iapetus
13 September 2007
Cassini scientists are poring through hundreds of images returned from the 10 September fly-by of Saturn's two-toned moon Iapetus.
The pictures show the moon's yin and yang - a white hemisphere resembling snow, and the other as black as tar. Images returned late Tuesday and early Wednesday show a surface that is heavily cratered, along with the mountain ridge that runs along the moon's equator. Many of the close-up observations focused on studying the strange 20-km high mountain ridge that gives the moon a walnut-shaped appearance.
"The images are really stunning," said Tilmann Denk, Cassini imaging scientist at the Free University in Berlin, Germany, who was responsible for the imaging observation planning. "Every new picture contained its own charm. I was most pleased about the images showing huge mountains rising over the horizon. I knew about this scenic viewing opportunity for more than seven years, and now the real images have suddenly materialised."
Frozen wastelands on IapetusThis fly-by was nearly 100 times closer to Iapetus than Cassini's 2004 fly-by, bringing the spacecraft to about 1640 km from the surface. The moon's irregular walnut shape, the mountain ridge that lies almost directly on the equator and Iapetus’ brightness contrast are among the key mysteries scientists are trying to solve. "There is never a dull moment on this mission," said Bob Mitchell, Cassini programme manager, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA. "We are very excited about the stunning images being returned. There is plenty here to keep many scientists busy for many years."
Iapetus' landscape"Our flight over the surface of Iapetus was like a non-stop free fall, down the rabbit hole, directly into Wonderland! Very few places in our solar system are more bizarre than the patchwork of pitch dark and snowy bright we have seen on this moon," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute, USA. The return of images and other data was delayed early Tuesday due to a galactic cosmic ray hit which put the spacecraft into the so-called safe mode. This occurred after the spacecraft had placed all of the fly-by data on its data recorders and during the first few minutes after it began sending the data home. The data flow resumed later that day and concluded on Wednesday. The spacecraft is operating normally and its instruments are expected to return to normal operations in a few days.
Mountains on Iapetus"Iapetus provides us with a window back in time, to the formation of the planets over four billion years ago. Since then its icy crust has been cold and stiff, preserving this ancient surface for our study," said Torrence Johnson, Cassini imaging team member at JPL. Cassini's multiple observations of Iapetus will help to characterise the chemical composition of the surface; look for evidence of a faint atmosphere or erupting gas plumes; and map the night-time temperature of the surface. These and other results will be analysed in the weeks to come.
Notes for editors:
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. JPL designed and assembled the Cassini orbiter. ESA developed the Huygens Titan probe, while ASI managed the development of the high-gain antenna and the other instruments of its participation. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, USA.
For more information:
Tilmann Denk, Planetary Sciences and Remote Sensing Department, Free University of Berlin
Email: Tilmann.Denk @ fu-berlin.de Jean-Pierre Lebreton, ESA Huygens Project Scientist
Email: Jean-Pierre.Lebreton @ esa.int
Space Daily reports next shuttle launch
Cape Canaveral, Florida (AFP) Aug 21, 2007
NASA looked cautiously to its next mission due in October after the US shuttle Endeavour returned safely to Earth Tuesday despite damage to its underside. "We are still pointing for October, we still have time," the space agency's launch director Mike Leinbach told reporters at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after the landing. "We'll see the time it takes to make the modification," he said, referring to changes needed after a piece of foam broke off Endeavour's external fuel tank on blast-off and struck its belly, leaving a small gash in a heat tile.
NASA officials breathed a sigh of relief at Endeavour's safe landing. The heat tile had held when Endeavour re-entered Earth's atmosphere, undergoing temperatures up to 1,500 degrees Celsius (2,730 Fahrenheit) as it jetted home.
"It looked almost like a pristine vehicle," Leinbach said.
"The tile did very well on re-entry," said NASA administrator Michael Griffin. "Almost everything about this tank is working very well," he added, but warned: "We have to move carefully."
The 13 day mission that ended with Tuesday's faultless landing saw the first teacher in space, lending an element of human warmth after a troubling few months for NASA which has been hit by a series of scandals.
"You have given a new meaning to higher education," joked astronaut Chris Ferguson, as he welcomed back the five-man, two-woman crew including astronaut Barbara Morgan, the first teacher in space.
The Endeavour sailed back to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, amid blue skies, overflying Costa Rica and Cuba before touching down in Florida at 12:32 pm (1632 GMT), using a parachute to help it slow down.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration had cut short the shuttle's mission to the International Space Station (ISS) by a day, fearing the mission control center in Houston, Texas, could be hit by Hurricane Dean, now pounding Mexico.
The US space agency decided against carrying out risky repairs to the shuttle's heat shield, calculating after three days of thermal and aerodynamic testing that it would hold up to the strains of re-entry to Earth.
Safety has been a big concern since 2003 when the shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry due to a damaged thermal protection system. All seven astronauts died and missions were put on hold for two and a half years.
Among the Endeavour's returning crew was Morgan, who at the start of the mission gave a 25-minute lesson in zero-gravity to Idaho school children.
Morgan, now 55, trained as understudy to fellow teacher Christa McAuliffe in the 1980s as the NASA hoped that sending a teacher into space would fire the imaginations of millions and keep up support for its shuttle program.
But McAuliffe never made it to space. The Challenger shuttle exploded shortly after take-off in 1986, killing all seven people on board.
During nine days at the station, the Endeavour crew and a US astronaut posted at the ISS, Clayton Anderson, made four spacewalks, installing a mechanical truss on the orbiting laboratory and fixing one of the gyroscopes that keeps it stable. They also delivered 2.7 tonnes of supplies.
The ISS is a key stepping stone for preparing manned missions to Mars. NASA plans at least 12 more shuttle missions to finish the 100-billion-dollar station by 2010.
Welcoming the Endeavour home, Griffin pointed to the success of the agency in assembling the space station, which is now almost 60 percent complete.
"This is one of the great accomplishments of mankind," he said.
Substantial additions are to be made to the laboratory in the next few months with new lab segments from Europe and Japan to be added.
It was NASA's second mission of the year, and came after a series of embarrassing scandals including an astronaut charged with plotting against a love rival and reports of others turning up drunk for flights.
NASA will not launch the next two shuttles planned in October and December until it has fixed the source of the foam problem, even if that means delaying the launches, shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said.
"We are still focused on the next mission," said Bill Gerstenmeyer, the agency's associate director for space operations. "We are going to analyse to make the right decision to address the problem."