Space is neato

3go: jetgreguar: adimals: spaceplasma: NASA Probe Gets Close...

Wed, 08 May 2013 17:32:29 -0400

The spinning vortex of Saturn's north polar storm (false-color image)

False-color image of Saturn's north pole.

jetgreguar:

adimals:

spaceplasma:

NASA Probe Gets Close Views of Large Saturn Hurricane

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has provided scientists the first close-up, visible-light views of a behemoth hurricane swirling around Saturn’s north pole.

In high-resolution pictures and video, scientists see the hurricane’s eye is about 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) wide, 20 times larger than the average hurricane eye on Earth. Thin, bright clouds at the outer edge of the hurricane are traveling 330 mph(150 meters per second). The hurricane swirls inside a large, mysterious, six-sided weather pattern known as the hexagon.

“We did a double take when we saw this vortex because it looks so much like a hurricane on Earth,” said Andrew Ingersoll, a Cassini imaging team member at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “But there it is at Saturn, on a much larger scale, and it is somehow getting by on the small amounts of water vapor in Saturn’s hydrogen atmosphere.”

Scientists will be studying the hurricane to gain insight into hurricanes on Earth, which feed off warm ocean water. Although there is no body of water close to these clouds high in Saturn’s atmosphere, learning how these Saturnian storms use water vapor could tell scientists more about how terrestrial hurricanes are generated and sustained.

Both a terrestrial hurricane and Saturn’s north polar vortex have a central eye with no clouds or very low clouds. Other similar features include high clouds forming an eye wall, other high clouds spiraling around the eye, and a counter-clockwise spin in the northern hemisphere.

A major difference between the hurricanes is that the one on Saturn is much bigger than its counterparts on Earth and spins surprisingly fast. At Saturn, the wind in the eye wall blows more than four times faster than hurricane-force winds on Earth. Unlike terrestrial hurricanes, which tend to move, the Saturnian hurricane is locked onto the planet’s north pole. On Earth, hurricanes tend to drift northward because of the forces acting on the fast swirls of wind as the planet rotates. The one on Saturn does not drift and is already as far north as it can be.

“The polar hurricane has nowhere else to go, and that’s likely why it’s stuck at the pole,” said Kunio Sayanagi, a Cassini imaging team associate at Hampton University in Hampton, Va.

Scientists believe the massive storm has been churning for years. When Cassini arrived in the Saturn system in 2004, Saturn’s north pole was dark because the planet was in the middle of its north polar winter. During that time, the Cassini spacecraft’s composite infrared spectrometer and visual and infrared mapping spectrometer detected a great vortex, but a visible-light view had to wait for the passing of the equinox in August 2009. Only then did sunlight begin flooding Saturn’s northern hemisphere. The view required a change in the angle of Cassini’s orbits around Saturn so the spacecraft could see the poles.

“Such a stunning and mesmerizing view of the hurricane-like storm at the north pole is only possible because Cassini is on a sportier course, with orbits tilted to loop the spacecraft above and below Saturn’s equatorial plane,” said Scott Edgington, Cassini deputy project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “You cannot see the polar regions very well from an equatorial orbit. Observing the planet from different vantage points reveals more about the cloud layers that cover the entirety of the planet.”

Cassini changes its orbital inclination for such an observing campaign only once every few years. Because the spacecraft uses flybys of Saturn’s moon Titan to change the angle of its orbit, the inclined trajectories require attentive oversight from navigators. The path requires careful planning years in advance and sticking very precisely to the planned itinerary to ensure enough propellant is available for the spacecraft to reach future planned orbits and encounters.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

SPACE IS FUCKING COOL

this is so incredible

THIRD IMPACT

embryo-face: thesevenhavethephonebox: nevver: Starry Night...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:17:47 -0400

embryo-face:

thesevenhavethephonebox:

nevver:

Starry Night using Hubble’s images

THE CLEVERNESS OF THIS TOOK A MINUTE TO REGISTER OMG

oh.

ohhh.

silkskull: Awesome! Totally keeping the boys up late for this.

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:22:01 -0400

silkskull:

Awesome!

Totally keeping the boys up late for this.

did-you-kno: Source

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 12:45:18 -0500

did-you-kno:

Source

Photo

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 18:02:12 -0500

chuckle-voodoos: grizzlyhills: distraction: clueplur: teachme...

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:14:05 -0500

chuckle-voodoos:

grizzlyhills:

distraction:

clueplur:

teachmehowtoglovie:

dewogong:

The collision between the Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy.

welp, looks like we pretty fucked.

facts about this: 1. it isn’t going to happen for a while

2. we are actually going to survive this and the sky will look amazing that night, scientist have predicted

Photo

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:44:25 -0500

lamescapes: Duo Tone Night Sky

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 01:01:45 -0500

lamescapes:

Duo Tone Night Sky

Jupiter and its moons Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, and the...

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 22:06:59 -0500

Jupiter and its moons Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, and the Earth’s moon all caught in the same photo.

greypudding: Lunar phase cycle.

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 09:30:44 -0500

greypudding:

Lunar phase cycle.

weareallstarstuff: Mystic Nebula

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 20:18:32 -0500

weareallstarstuff:

Mystic Nebula

gokuma: da-free: In the Chelyabinsk region in Russia has...

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 12:29:52 -0500

gokuma:

da-free:

In the Chelyabinsk region in Russia has fallen meteorite

В суровом Челябинске идет дождь из метеоритов

holy shit

Photo

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 12:07:20 -0500

crookedindifference: Supernova Remnant W49B

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 20:29:58 -0500

crookedindifference:

Supernova Remnant W49B

Photo

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 19:54:25 -0500

Photo

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:41:06 -0500

capturedphotos: 8 Minutes of the Earth’s Rotation How I wish...

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 09:30:36 -0500

capturedphotos:

8 Minutes of the Earth’s Rotation

How I wish our planet’s movement was this apparent while staring at the night sky. It could probably make a lot more people realize just how tiny we are compared to this vast unexplored galaxy above our heads.

This is a stack of 70 pictures with a 5 second exposure each at ISO 3200 and f/2.2.

Photographed by: Paolo Nacpil

Photo

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 23:36:29 -0500

serendipitousramblings: zawoesi: Oh hey, not a big deal, but...

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 22:52:11 -0500

serendipitousramblings:

zawoesi:

Oh hey, not a big deal, but the hubble took a picture of a star that’s nearing supernova status

DUUDE

colchrishadfield: Full Moon rising. So near, and yet…

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 15:35:50 -0500

colchrishadfield:

Full Moon rising. So near, and yet…