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Solar System
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CAPSLOCKSTUCK
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Massive hugs for the pdf links
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M1.9 flare
In October 2015, a deluge of rain flooded desert valleys in the U.S. Southwest.
Saturn's frigid moon Titan has some characteristics that are oddly similar to Earth, but still slightly alien. It has clouds, rain and lakes (made of methane and ethane), a solid surface (made of water ice), and vast dune fields (filled with hydrocarbon sands).
The dark, H-shaped area seen here contains two of the dune-filled regions, Fensal (in the north) and Aztlan (to the south).
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Scientists leading the Cassini-Huygen's mission to Saturn and its moons have released new pictures which show vast dunes of shifting hydrocarbon sand on Titan's surface.
Professor Philippe Paillou, a planetologist at the University of Bordeaux, and his colleagues compared images of the hydrocarbon dunes with sand dunes in the Namib Desert in Namibia and the Great Sand Sea in western Egypt.
Writing in a paper published on the open source website arxiv.org, the team said: 'It appears that we can discriminate between two types of dunes - bare interdunes as in Egypt and sand-covered interdunes as in Namibia, and between two types of mega-yardangs - young yardangs as in Iran and older ones as in Chad.
'We applied our understanding of the radar scattering to the analysis of Cassini Radar T8 acquisitions over the Belet Sand Sea on Titan, and show that the linear dunes encountered there are likely to be of both Egyptian and Namibian type.
'We also show that the radar-bright linear features observed in Cassini Radar T64 and T83 acquisitions are very likely to be mega-yardangs, possible remnants of ancient lake basins at mid-latitude, formed when Titans climate was different.'
Titan, which has a diameter of 3,200 miles (5,150km), is the solar system's second largest moon and is larger than the planet Mercury.
It receives just one per cent of the sunlight that Earth does, however, meaning temperatures on the surface are an average of −290 °F (-179 °C).
Its atmosphere is known to comprise mainly of nitrogen and methane while the surface is made from frozen water that has turned into rock hard ice in the frigid tempeartures.
Titan is being revealed as a harsh and inhospitable place but despite having a toxic atmosphere of methane and nitrogen and freezing temperatures, it is also remarkably Earth-like
A dark H-shaped region around Titan's equator (pictured) has been shown to contain enormous dunes made of frozen methane sand, which scientists say are the remains of enormous methane lakes that have since evaporated. It suggests the distant moon was once a much colder place and has undergone climate change
The dark, H-shaped area seen around Titan's equator (pictured) contains two dune filled regions - Fensal in the north and Aztlan to the south. Researchers have used the Cassini spacecraft to study in in greater detail and compared it to dunes found in deserts on Earth.
French researchers compared Titan's dunes with four different types of sand dunes found in the Great Sand Sea in Egypt (a), the Namib Desert in Namibia (b) the mega-yardangs of the Lut Desert in Iran (c) and the Borkou Desert in Chad (d). The dunes on Saturn's moon were more similar to the first two
Images of Titan's surface sent back by the Cassini spacecraft have revealed large areas around the equator of the moon that are covered in linear dunes that are thousands of miles long (pictured)
TITAN: EARTH'S TOXIC TWIN?
Aside from Earth, Titan is the only place in the solar system known to have rivers, rainfall and seas - and possibly even waterfalls.
Of course, in the case of Titan these are liquid methane rather than water on Earth.
Regular Earth-water, H2O, would be frozen solid on Titan where the surface temperature is -180°C (-292°F).
With its thick atmosphere and organic-rich chemistry, Titan resembles a frozen version of Earth several billion years ago, before life began pumping oxygen into our atmosphere.
Because Titan is smaller than Earth, its gravity does not hold onto its gaseous envelope as tightly, so the atmosphere extends 370 miles (595km) into space.
As on Earth, the climate is driven mostly by changes in the amount of sunlight that comes with the seasons, although the seasons on Titan are about seven Earth years long.
With Titan's low gravity and dense atmosphere, methane raindrops could grow twice as large as Earth's raindrops.
As well as this, they would fall more slowly, drifting down like snowflakes.
Saturn's moon has also been found to be have a 'polar wind' in its atmosphere mimicking a process on our planet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon)
Professor Philippe Paillou, a planetologist at the University of Bordeaux, and his colleagues compared images of the hydrocarbon dunes with sand dunes in the Namib Desert in Namibia and the Great Sand Sea in western Egypt.
Writing in a paper published on the open source website arxiv.org, the team said: 'It appears that we can discriminate between two types of dunes - bare interdunes as in Egypt and sand-covered interdunes as in Namibia, and between two types of mega-yardangs - young yardangs as in Iran and older ones as in Chad.
'We applied our understanding of the radar scattering to the analysis of Cassini Radar T8 acquisitions over the Belet Sand Sea on Titan, and show that the linear dunes encountered there are likely to be of both Egyptian and Namibian type.
'We also show that the radar-bright linear features observed in Cassini Radar T64 and T83 acquisitions are very likely to be mega-yardangs, possible remnants of ancient lake basins at mid-latitude, formed when Titans climate was different.'
Titan, which has a diameter of 3,200 miles (5,150km), is the solar system's second largest moon and is larger than the planet Mercury.
It receives just one per cent of the sunlight that Earth does, however, meaning temperatures on the surface are an average of −290 °F (-179 °C).
Its atmosphere is known to comprise mainly of nitrogen and methane while the surface is made from frozen water that has turned into rock hard ice in the frigid tempeartures.
Titan is being revealed as a harsh and inhospitable place but despite having a toxic atmosphere of methane and nitrogen and freezing temperatures, it is also remarkably Earth-like
A dark H-shaped region around Titan's equator (pictured) has been shown to contain enormous dunes made of frozen methane sand, which scientists say are the remains of enormous methane lakes that have since evaporated. It suggests the distant moon was once a much colder place and has undergone climate change
The dark, H-shaped area seen around Titan's equator (pictured) contains two dune filled regions - Fensal in the north and Aztlan to the south. Researchers have used the Cassini spacecraft to study in in greater detail and compared it to dunes found in deserts on Earth.
French researchers compared Titan's dunes with four different types of sand dunes found in the Great Sand Sea in Egypt (a), the Namib Desert in Namibia (b) the mega-yardangs of the Lut Desert in Iran (c) and the Borkou Desert in Chad (d). The dunes on Saturn's moon were more similar to the first two
Images of Titan's surface sent back by the Cassini spacecraft have revealed large areas around the equator of the moon that are covered in linear dunes that are thousands of miles long (pictured)
TITAN: EARTH'S TOXIC TWIN?
Aside from Earth, Titan is the only place in the solar system known to have rivers, rainfall and seas - and possibly even waterfalls.
Of course, in the case of Titan these are liquid methane rather than water on Earth.
Regular Earth-water, H2O, would be frozen solid on Titan where the surface temperature is -180°C (-292°F).
With its thick atmosphere and organic-rich chemistry, Titan resembles a frozen version of Earth several billion years ago, before life began pumping oxygen into our atmosphere.
Because Titan is smaller than Earth, its gravity does not hold onto its gaseous envelope as tightly, so the atmosphere extends 370 miles (595km) into space.
As on Earth, the climate is driven mostly by changes in the amount of sunlight that comes with the seasons, although the seasons on Titan are about seven Earth years long.
With Titan's low gravity and dense atmosphere, methane raindrops could grow twice as large as Earth's raindrops.
As well as this, they would fall more slowly, drifting down like snowflakes.
Saturn's moon has also been found to be have a 'polar wind' in its atmosphere mimicking a process on our planet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon)
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Enceladus facts
Although Epimetheus appears to be lurking above the rings here, it's actually just an illusion resulting from the viewing angle. In reality, Epimetheus and the rings both orbit in Saturn's equatorial plane.
Inner moons and rings orbit very near the equatorial plane of each of the four giant planets in our solar system, but more distant moons can have orbits wildly out of the equatorial plane. It has been theorized that the highly inclined orbits of the outer, distant moons are remnants of the random directions from which they approached the planets they orbit.
The Venus's atmosphere is the densest of all the terrestrial planets, and is composed almost entirely of carbon dioxide. The planet is also wrapped in a thick layer of cloud made mostly of sulphuric acid. This combination of greenhouse gas and perennial cloud layer led to an enormous greenhouse warming, leaving Venus’ surface extremely hot (> 450ºC) and hidden from our eyes.
Although winds on the planet's surface move very slowly, at a few km/h, the atmospheric density at this altitude is so great that they exert greater force than much faster winds would on Earth.
Winds at the 65 km-high cloud-tops, however, are a different story altogether. The higher-altitude winds whizz around at up to 400 km/h, some 60 times faster than the rotation of the planet itself. This causes some especially dynamic and fast-moving effects in the planet's upper atmosphere, one of the most prominent being its ‘polar vortices’.
The polar vortices arise because there is more sunlight at lower latitudes. As gas at low latitudes heats it rises, and moves towards the poles, where cooler air sinks. The air converging on the pole accelerates sideways and spirals downwards, like water swirling around a plug hole.
In the center of the polar vortex, sinking air pushes the clouds lower down by several kilometers, to altitudes where the atmospheric temperature is higher. The central ‘eye of the vortex’ can therefore be clearly seen by mapping thermal-infrared light, which shows the cloud-top temperature: the clouds at the core of the vortex are at a higher temperature, indicated by yellow tones, than the surrounding region, and therefore stand out clearly in these images.
Although Epimetheus appears to be lurking above the rings here, it's actually just an illusion resulting from the viewing angle. In reality, Epimetheus and the rings both orbit in Saturn's equatorial plane.
Inner moons and rings orbit very near the equatorial plane of each of the four giant planets in our solar system, but more distant moons can have orbits wildly out of the equatorial plane. It has been theorized that the highly inclined orbits of the outer, distant moons are remnants of the random directions from which they approached the planets they orbit.
The Venus's atmosphere is the densest of all the terrestrial planets, and is composed almost entirely of carbon dioxide. The planet is also wrapped in a thick layer of cloud made mostly of sulphuric acid. This combination of greenhouse gas and perennial cloud layer led to an enormous greenhouse warming, leaving Venus’ surface extremely hot (> 450ºC) and hidden from our eyes.
Although winds on the planet's surface move very slowly, at a few km/h, the atmospheric density at this altitude is so great that they exert greater force than much faster winds would on Earth.
Winds at the 65 km-high cloud-tops, however, are a different story altogether. The higher-altitude winds whizz around at up to 400 km/h, some 60 times faster than the rotation of the planet itself. This causes some especially dynamic and fast-moving effects in the planet's upper atmosphere, one of the most prominent being its ‘polar vortices’.
The polar vortices arise because there is more sunlight at lower latitudes. As gas at low latitudes heats it rises, and moves towards the poles, where cooler air sinks. The air converging on the pole accelerates sideways and spirals downwards, like water swirling around a plug hole.
In the center of the polar vortex, sinking air pushes the clouds lower down by several kilometers, to altitudes where the atmospheric temperature is higher. The central ‘eye of the vortex’ can therefore be clearly seen by mapping thermal-infrared light, which shows the cloud-top temperature: the clouds at the core of the vortex are at a higher temperature, indicated by yellow tones, than the surrounding region, and therefore stand out clearly in these images.
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Mercury receives a meteoroid shower from Comet Encke
Comet Encke has the shortest period of any comet, returning to perihelion every 3.3 years at a distance of 48 million km from the Sun. Its orbit is stable enough so, over millennia, a dense dust stream would have formed. The dust, rather than shift away from the comet's orbit, simply spreads along it, forming a stream that encounters Mercury exactly when the comet does. A subtle interaction between the dust grains and sunlight called Poynting-Robertson drag exerts an extra, though tiny, force on the grains which, over long periods of time, could amount to a significant change in the orbit.
******
NASA's Cassini Finds Monstrous Ice Cloud in Titan's South Polar Region
Cassini's camera had already imaged an impressive cloud hovering over Titan's south pole at an altitude of ~ 300 km. However, that cloud, first seen in 2012, turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg. A much more massive ice cloud system has now been found lower in the stratosphere, peaking at an altitude of ~ 200 km.
Titan's polar clouds form higher in the atmosphere. Circulation in the atmosphere transports gases from the pole in the warm hemisphere to the pole in the cold hemisphere. At the cold pole, the warm air sinks, almost like water draining out of a bathtub, in a process known as subsidence.
The sinking gases – a mixture of smog-like hydrocarbons and nitrogen-bearing chemicals called nitriles – encounter colder and colder temperatures on the way down. Different gases will condense at different temperatures, resulting in a layering of clouds over a range of altitudes.
This 2012 close-up offers an early snapshot of the changes taking place at Titan's south pole. Cassini's camera spotted this impressive cloud hovering at an altitude of ~ 300 kilometers. Cassini's thermal infrared instrument has now detected a massive ice cloud below it. The new cloud was found in the lower stratosphere, where temperatures are even colder. The ice particles are made up of a variety of compounds containing hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen.
“The opportunity to see the early stages of winter on Titan is very exciting,” said Robert Samuelson, a Goddard researcher working with Anderson. “Everything we are finding at the south pole tells us that the onset of southern winter is much more severe than the late stages of Titan's northern winter.”
Comet Encke has the shortest period of any comet, returning to perihelion every 3.3 years at a distance of 48 million km from the Sun. Its orbit is stable enough so, over millennia, a dense dust stream would have formed. The dust, rather than shift away from the comet's orbit, simply spreads along it, forming a stream that encounters Mercury exactly when the comet does. A subtle interaction between the dust grains and sunlight called Poynting-Robertson drag exerts an extra, though tiny, force on the grains which, over long periods of time, could amount to a significant change in the orbit.
******
NASA's Cassini Finds Monstrous Ice Cloud in Titan's South Polar Region
Cassini's camera had already imaged an impressive cloud hovering over Titan's south pole at an altitude of ~ 300 km. However, that cloud, first seen in 2012, turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg. A much more massive ice cloud system has now been found lower in the stratosphere, peaking at an altitude of ~ 200 km.
Titan's polar clouds form higher in the atmosphere. Circulation in the atmosphere transports gases from the pole in the warm hemisphere to the pole in the cold hemisphere. At the cold pole, the warm air sinks, almost like water draining out of a bathtub, in a process known as subsidence.
The sinking gases – a mixture of smog-like hydrocarbons and nitrogen-bearing chemicals called nitriles – encounter colder and colder temperatures on the way down. Different gases will condense at different temperatures, resulting in a layering of clouds over a range of altitudes.
This 2012 close-up offers an early snapshot of the changes taking place at Titan's south pole. Cassini's camera spotted this impressive cloud hovering at an altitude of ~ 300 kilometers. Cassini's thermal infrared instrument has now detected a massive ice cloud below it. The new cloud was found in the lower stratosphere, where temperatures are even colder. The ice particles are made up of a variety of compounds containing hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen.
“The opportunity to see the early stages of winter on Titan is very exciting,” said Robert Samuelson, a Goddard researcher working with Anderson. “Everything we are finding at the south pole tells us that the onset of southern winter is much more severe than the late stages of Titan's northern winter.”
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I listen to SomaFM NASA Misson Control on TuneIn Radio going to sleep
Indeed ! Huge Thank You to all the contribution's to these awesome threads !
Now then
......where did that sun tornado get off to 
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The main-belt asteroid Griseldis was probably hit by another object last March.
Observations taken with Subaru Telescope showed that the main-belt asteroid Griseldis had “an extended feature,” which is astronomer-speak for a tail. However, unlike the tails of comets, which flow in the direction opposite from the sun due to the solar wind, the extension on Griseldis was not in the antisolar direction, and the extension proved to be a short-lived phenomenon.
A piece of space junk named WT1190F is going to hit Earth on Nov. 13th. It will burn up in the atmosphere off the coast of Sri Lanka, with some debris possibly reaching the water's surface. According to the ESA, "its mass is not sufficient to cause any threat to the area, but the show will still be spectacular, since for a few seconds the object will become quite bright in the noon sky."
A dark filament of magnetism in the sun's southern hemisphere has curled upon itself to form a circle of gargantuan proportions. The circumference of the ring is almost a million km.
UMD-led Team Maps Gas Emissions from Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
The group focused on gases produced by the breakdown of water molecules (H2O) and hydrogen cyanide molecules (HCN). Both reactions are caused by UV radiation from the sun, and the gases produced by these reactions give off light at characteristic wavelengths that can help researchers identify where and when the specific gases are produced.
When water (H2O) is broken down, it produces molecular hydrogen (H2) and a single oxygen atom. This oxygen remains in an excited state, which allows it to directly emit a photon instead of waiting to absorb a photon from the sun. This means that this excited oxygen can be used as a proxy to track the location and amount of water.
The team was also surprised by the signature from cyanide gas (CN), produced as a byproduct of the breakdown of hydrogen cyanide (HCN). In early Earth-based observations, cyanide could be seen emitting light thousands of kilometers away from 67P's nucleus. However, when viewed up close as the comet approached the sun, the light emitted by cyanide fragments dropped off very sharply within about 10 km.
This indicates that, as with oxygen formed by the breakdown of water, cyanide also emits light immediately after it is formed. As an interesting historical note, cyanide emission is very bright and was the first molecular emission identified in comets. This led to panicked news headlines in 1910, when both Halley's comet and the Daylight comet visited Earth. We now know that cyanide concentrations in comets are too low to be of any concern.
dorsetknob
"YOUR RMA REQUEST IS CON-REFUSED"
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- Dorset where else eh? >>> Thats ENGLAND<<<
New Dwarf Planet In Our Solar System May Be The Farthest One Yet
A newly found object may set a new record for the most distant dwarf planet in the solar system.
The object, called V774104, lies about nine and a half billion miles from the sun, or two to three times farther away than Pluto. V774104 is a little less than half Pluto's size, and like Pluto it may move closer toward or farther away from the sun during its orbit
Object V774104 was discovered in late October, 2015, and is one of the most distant objects ever detected. It appears to be about half the size of Pluto, but with an orbit two to three times larger than Pluto's.
Credit: Scott Sheppard, Chad Trujillo and Dave Tholen: Subaru Telescope
Full Story and relevent credits here
http://www.space.com/31100-most-distant-dwarf-planet-found.html
A newly found object may set a new record for the most distant dwarf planet in the solar system.
The object, called V774104, lies about nine and a half billion miles from the sun, or two to three times farther away than Pluto. V774104 is a little less than half Pluto's size, and like Pluto it may move closer toward or farther away from the sun during its orbit
Object V774104 was discovered in late October, 2015, and is one of the most distant objects ever detected. It appears to be about half the size of Pluto, but with an orbit two to three times larger than Pluto's.
Credit: Scott Sheppard, Chad Trujillo and Dave Tholen: Subaru Telescope
Full Story and relevent credits here
http://www.space.com/31100-most-distant-dwarf-planet-found.html
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A new study in the journal Science suggests that water-soaked grains of dust present early in the Solar System are the source of Earth's water.
Researchers have long been uncertain whether water was present at the formation of Earth, or if it arrived later, perhaps carried by comets or meteorites.
Now, a team of scientists has found that rocks from Baffin Island in Canada contain evidence that Earth's water was a part of our planet from the beginning.
Scientists can learn about the origins of water on a planet by studying the water's deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) ratio. Different factors, like tectonic mixing, can affect this ratio over time. Only areas deep within Earth that have not been affected by these processes are likely to preserve Earth's initial D/H ratio.
The Baffin Island rocks were collected back in 1985, and scientists have had a lot of time to analyze them in the intervening years. As a result of their efforts, we know that they contain a component from Earth's deep mantle.
Deep lava flows that churned up basalt from the mantle to the surface of Baffin Island provided the team with relatively unaltered samples. On their way to the surface, these rocks were never affected by sedimentary input from crustal rocks.
Analysis of the basalt's D/H ratio revealed lower amounts of deuterium than found in previous studies, providing a new baseline for Earth's original D/H signature.
“We found that the water had very little deuterium, which strongly suggests that it was not carried to Earth after it had formed and cooled,” Dr Hallis said.
“Instead, water molecules were likely carried on the dust that existed in a disk around our Sun before the planets formed. Over time this water-rich dust was slowly drawn together to form our planet.”
Researchers have long been uncertain whether water was present at the formation of Earth, or if it arrived later, perhaps carried by comets or meteorites.
Now, a team of scientists has found that rocks from Baffin Island in Canada contain evidence that Earth's water was a part of our planet from the beginning.
Scientists can learn about the origins of water on a planet by studying the water's deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) ratio. Different factors, like tectonic mixing, can affect this ratio over time. Only areas deep within Earth that have not been affected by these processes are likely to preserve Earth's initial D/H ratio.
The Baffin Island rocks were collected back in 1985, and scientists have had a lot of time to analyze them in the intervening years. As a result of their efforts, we know that they contain a component from Earth's deep mantle.
Deep lava flows that churned up basalt from the mantle to the surface of Baffin Island provided the team with relatively unaltered samples. On their way to the surface, these rocks were never affected by sedimentary input from crustal rocks.
Analysis of the basalt's D/H ratio revealed lower amounts of deuterium than found in previous studies, providing a new baseline for Earth's original D/H signature.
“We found that the water had very little deuterium, which strongly suggests that it was not carried to Earth after it had formed and cooled,” Dr Hallis said.
“Instead, water molecules were likely carried on the dust that existed in a disk around our Sun before the planets formed. Over time this water-rich dust was slowly drawn together to form our planet.”
dorsetknob
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I expect that there was water in the formation of our planet and it was cooked off in the planets semi molten early phase this water that was outgassesd as steam and water vapor was again gravitational drawn back to the surface its also a scientific premise that the earth water supply was ""Topped up with Cometry ice and water""
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Mars
Comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina)
At the time of the transit, the ISS was 400 km from Earth and almost 400 thousand km from the Moon. So it still has a ways to go. One day, perhaps, those distances will be reversed, and the lunar transits we see today will be a preview of things to come.
Nov. 19, 1969, Apollo 12 Lunar Module Intrepid
Pffft ... Moon is yours, Aqua!
Comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina)
At the time of the transit, the ISS was 400 km from Earth and almost 400 thousand km from the Moon. So it still has a ways to go. One day, perhaps, those distances will be reversed, and the lunar transits we see today will be a preview of things to come.
Nov. 19, 1969, Apollo 12 Lunar Module Intrepid
Pffft ... Moon is yours, Aqua!
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Superpositions.......
Titan Beyond Saturn's Rings
In April 2006, Cassini captured Saturn's A and F rings stretching in front of cloud-shrouded Titan. Near the rings and appearing just above Titan was Epimetheus, a moon which orbits just outside the F ring. The dark space in the A ring is called the Encke Gap, although several thin knotted ringlets and even the small moon Pan orbit there.
Titan Beyond Saturn's Rings
In April 2006, Cassini captured Saturn's A and F rings stretching in front of cloud-shrouded Titan. Near the rings and appearing just above Titan was Epimetheus, a moon which orbits just outside the F ring. The dark space in the A ring is called the Encke Gap, although several thin knotted ringlets and even the small moon Pan orbit there.
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Saturn's Prometheus moon has been captured in glorious detail in one of the highest resolution images ever taken of it by the Cassini probe.
The spacecraft took the image of the moon's surface during a flyby on 6 December.
The shot shows the side of Prometheus that sits opposite Saturn, facing north and upwards.
Flyby on 6 December 2015
The moon measures just 84 miles (136km) wide and 53 miles (86km) in diameter. ( Even Wales is bigger than that)
However, some of Prometheus' distinctive craters reach 12 miles (19km) in diameter. (roughly from here to Carmarthen)
By comparison, the diameter of our moon is 2,159 miles (3,474 km.)
Prometheus is located within Saturn's narrow ring F, which is in fact visible in the upper section of the picture.
Some astronomers think Prometheus acts as F's 'shepherd satellite', keeping the ring confined on its current trajectory.
When it captured its craterous face in visible light, Nasa's Cassini probe was 23,000 miles (37,000 kilometers) above the satellite.
During the fly-by, the probe also used its narrow-angle camera to take new pictures of Saturn's inner moon Epimetheus, which has a more standard round-looking shape.
Titan........Saturns largest moon. Recently.
Cassini will have carried out 27 different science investigation when it flies to its ultimate demise into Saturn's atmosphere in 2017.
The spacecraft took the image of the moon's surface during a flyby on 6 December.
The shot shows the side of Prometheus that sits opposite Saturn, facing north and upwards.
Flyby on 6 December 2015
The moon measures just 84 miles (136km) wide and 53 miles (86km) in diameter. ( Even Wales is bigger than that)
However, some of Prometheus' distinctive craters reach 12 miles (19km) in diameter. (roughly from here to Carmarthen)
By comparison, the diameter of our moon is 2,159 miles (3,474 km.)
Prometheus is located within Saturn's narrow ring F, which is in fact visible in the upper section of the picture.
Some astronomers think Prometheus acts as F's 'shepherd satellite', keeping the ring confined on its current trajectory.
When it captured its craterous face in visible light, Nasa's Cassini probe was 23,000 miles (37,000 kilometers) above the satellite.
During the fly-by, the probe also used its narrow-angle camera to take new pictures of Saturn's inner moon Epimetheus, which has a more standard round-looking shape.
Titan........Saturns largest moon. Recently.
Cassini will have carried out 27 different science investigation when it flies to its ultimate demise into Saturn's atmosphere in 2017.
CAPSLOCKSTUCK
Spaced Out Lunar Tick
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2013
- Messages
- 8,578 (2.11/day)
- Location
- llaregguB...WALES
| System Name | Party On |
|---|---|
| Processor | Xeon w 3520 |
| Motherboard | DFI Lanparty |
| Cooling | Big tower thing |
| Memory | 6 gb Ballistix Tracer |
| Video Card(s) | HD 7970 |
| Case | a plank of wood |
| Audio Device(s) | seperate amp and 6 big speakers |
| Power Supply | Corsair |
| Mouse | cheap |
| Keyboard | under going restoration |
Santas' early warning system is predictable as ever -------10 days of panic buying to left to go....... 
The Geminid meteor shower, which peaks from 13 to 15 December, is expected to bring up to 120 meteors shooting across the heavens every hour.
The meteors appear to originate from a 'radiant' point in the constellation of Gemini, which is why they have been given the name Geminids.
This year, the moon will not be present in the sky during the period of maximum activity, making viewing conditions better than usual.
Meteors are best seen without a telescope and are safe to watch with the naked eye.
The Geminid shower is less well known than those at other times of year, probably because, in the UK at least, the weather in December is less reliable.
Forecasters are predicting clear skies in southern parts of the United States, including Texas and southern California.
Sadly in the north and over much of the UK the visibilty is expected to be poor.
Geminid meteors travel fairly slowly, at around 22 miles (35 km) per second.
They are bright and have a yellowish hue, making them distinct and easy to spot.
According to the International Meteor Organisation, which coordinates meteor observations, the Geminids meteor shower will peak at around 6pm GMT on 14 December, and the greatest activity is spread over a period lasting a day or more.
The best time to view the Geminids in the US will be around 2am EST on December 13, according to Accuweather.
In recent years, the shower has also become more intense, because the gravitational influence of Jupiter and Saturn shifted a denser debris stream to be closer to the Earth.
WHAT ARE GEMINIDS?
Geminids are pieces of debris from an object called 3200 Phaethon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3200_Phaethon
Long thought to be an asteroid, Phaethon is now classified as an extinct comet.
Phaethon imaged on December 25, 2010, with the 37 cm F14 Cassegrain telescope
Nasa says it's essentially a rocky skeleton of a comet that lost its ice after too many close encounters with the sun.
Earth runs into a stream of debris from 3200 Phaethon every year in mid-December, causing meteors to fly from the constellation Gemini.
Geminids can be seen from December 4 to 16 every year, peaking on the 12 to 14 December.
They travel at 22 miles (35km) a second.
When the Geminids first appeared in the early 19th century, shortly before the US Civil War, the shower was weak and attracted little attention. There was no hint that it would ever become a major display.
The Geminid meteor shower, which peaks from 13 to 15 December, is expected to bring up to 120 meteors shooting across the heavens every hour.
The meteors appear to originate from a 'radiant' point in the constellation of Gemini, which is why they have been given the name Geminids.
This year, the moon will not be present in the sky during the period of maximum activity, making viewing conditions better than usual.
Meteors are best seen without a telescope and are safe to watch with the naked eye.
The Geminid shower is less well known than those at other times of year, probably because, in the UK at least, the weather in December is less reliable.
Forecasters are predicting clear skies in southern parts of the United States, including Texas and southern California.
Sadly in the north and over much of the UK the visibilty is expected to be poor.
Geminid meteors travel fairly slowly, at around 22 miles (35 km) per second.
They are bright and have a yellowish hue, making them distinct and easy to spot.
According to the International Meteor Organisation, which coordinates meteor observations, the Geminids meteor shower will peak at around 6pm GMT on 14 December, and the greatest activity is spread over a period lasting a day or more.
The best time to view the Geminids in the US will be around 2am EST on December 13, according to Accuweather.
In recent years, the shower has also become more intense, because the gravitational influence of Jupiter and Saturn shifted a denser debris stream to be closer to the Earth.
WHAT ARE GEMINIDS?
Geminids are pieces of debris from an object called 3200 Phaethon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3200_Phaethon
Long thought to be an asteroid, Phaethon is now classified as an extinct comet.
Phaethon imaged on December 25, 2010, with the 37 cm F14 Cassegrain telescope
Nasa says it's essentially a rocky skeleton of a comet that lost its ice after too many close encounters with the sun.
Earth runs into a stream of debris from 3200 Phaethon every year in mid-December, causing meteors to fly from the constellation Gemini.
Geminids can be seen from December 4 to 16 every year, peaking on the 12 to 14 December.
They travel at 22 miles (35km) a second.
When the Geminids first appeared in the early 19th century, shortly before the US Civil War, the shower was weak and attracted little attention. There was no hint that it would ever become a major display.
