View from Saturn by NASA's Cassini Spacecraft
by Ram Vasudev
Title
View from Saturn by NASA's Cassini Spacecraft
Artist
Ram Vasudev
Medium
Digital Art
Description
This is a digitally enhanced version of an image acquired by NASA's Cassini spacecraft while orbiting the planet Saturn on July 19, 2013. That day was special because it was the third time our home planet was photographed from the outer solar system (the first being by the spacecraft Voyager back in 1990 - you may remember Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot"). The day was special also because we, the inhabitants of Earth, knew in advance precisely when the photo would be taken from far, far away (did you smile or wave at Saturn?!). Cassini was 746,000 miles from Saturn when the photo was taken. For comparison, Saturn-to-Earth distance varies between 746 million and one billion miles. The photo is a stitched panorama (8184 pixels wide), made from many wide-angle images. The scene shown here is about 400,000 miles across. A large print (upto 7 feet wide) of this image would be a great wall art for your home, office or business.
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius about nine times that of Earth. It has a large gaseous atmosphere, with a relatively small solid core. While it is only one-eighth the average density of Earth, Saturn is just over 95 times more massive because of its larger volume. Its core is thought to be made up of iron, nickel and silicate rock, which is surrounded by a layer of metallic hydrogen (at very high pressures such as at Saturn, hydrogen is very highly compressed and behaves like a metal and is very highly conducting). Surrounding this layer is a layer of liquid hydrogen and liquid helium, and an outer gaseous layer. Saturn has a yellow hue as in this photo because of ammonia crystals in the upper atmosphere. It has prominent rings around it that are made up of mostly of ice particles with a smaller amount of rocky debris and dust. I have marked two of Saturn's rings (the E- and F- rings). It has sixty two moons, but only seven of them are clearly visible and marked in this photo.
This photo was taken when the Cassini spacecraft was behind Saturn, eclipsing the Sun. Saturn and the rings were thus back-lit by the sun. From this location, Cassini's cameras got this unique composition. In addition to Saturn's rings and moons, you can also see our Earth and our Moon, as well as Mars (faint red dot) and Venus - these appear small in this photo because of the distance. Saturn's moons marked in this photo are Enceladus, Tethys, Prometheus, Epimetheus, Pandora, Mimas and Janus. Of these, Encaladus is of special scientific interest because it is one the few objects in the outer Solar System that has liquid water and thus could be habitable (because liquid water is essential for supporting life as we know it).
Some of the Moons appear as bright dots because they are reflecting light from Saturn. They are quite small in the photo at the size shown here but are nicely seen in a full-size print. To see them here, zoom in on them by clicking your mouse on the individual moons. I have brightened these moons to increase their luminosity and visibility. The moons Prometheus, Mimas and Janus appear as black dots in this photo because we are looking at their night sides. I have darkened these moons in this image to enhance the contrast and their visibility. I have also significantly modified other aspects of the image to enhance the overall colors, beauty, balance luminosity, in order to provide you a breathtaking, high quality, fine art print through this website. The original NASA raw capture is in public domain.
Uploaded
January 12th, 2014
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