saturn

Three planets, zodiacal light and Milky Way

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Submitted by Desert Gypsy on

Earthsky.org- 10/18/13, Deborah Byrd

Milky Way on left, and faint zodiacal light on right, with planets Venus, Saturn and Mercury in front of the light. Photo taken at Mount Bromo in Indonesia on September 28, 2013 by Justin Ng. Click here to see more photos by Justin Ng.

Milky Way on left, and faint zodiacal light on right, with planets Venus, Saturn and Mercury in front of the light. Photo taken at Mount Bromo in Indonesia on September 28, 2013 by Justin Ng

At one glance, one may think that this image is photoshopped or it’s a composite because it’s simply impossible to see Milky Way galaxy at dusk. But what you’re really seeing here is a single exposure shot of a rare phenomenon, known as zodiacal light (a.k.a. “false dusk”), that I have captured during my recent trip to Mount Bromo in the Southern Hemisphere. Zodiacal light is best seen during spring and autumn, and I chose to visit Mt Bromo a few days after [the Southern Hemisphere's autumnal equinox] as I hoped to capture the zodiacal light along with the 3 planets, 3 volcanoes and a Milky Way galaxy.

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Cassini Sees Saturn Storm's Explosive Power

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Nasa,gov - 9/3/13

Two Looks at the Turbulent Saturn Storm

A monster storm that erupted on Saturn in late 2010 - as large as any storm ever observed on the ringed planet -- has already impressed researchers with its intensity and long-lived turbulence. A new paper in the journal Icarus reveals another facet of the storm's explosive power: its ability to churn up water ice from great depths. This finding, derived from near-infrared measurements by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, is the first detection at Saturn of water ice. The water originates from deep in Saturn's atmosphere.

"The new finding from Cassini shows that Saturn can dredge up material from more than 100 miles [160 kilometers]," said Kevin Baines, a co-author of the paper who works at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "It demonstrates in a very real sense that typically demure-looking Saturn can be just as explosive or even more so than typically stormy Jupiter." Water ice, which originates from deep in the atmosphere of gas giants, doesn't appear to be lofted as high at Jupiter.

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Eyes on the Sky: Aug 5 thru Aug 11: Perseid Meteor Showers

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Eyesonthesky.com, 8/5/13

 

Published on Aug 4, 2013

www.eyesonthesky.com The Perseid meteor shower is one of the best ones to see all year, because it occurs during warm weather. So later this week, go outside to observe this event as Earth plows into the debris field left over from the comet Swift-Tuttle. Learn where, when and how to best spot the Perseids. See what's up in the night sky every week with "Eyes on the Sky" videos, astronomy made easy.

Waxing moon near ringed planet Saturn on May 22

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Submitted by Desert Gypsy on

earthsky.org - 5/22/13, Deborah Byrd

 

The waxing gibbous moon is near the ringed planet Saturn on May 22

 

You’ll find the bright moon near the planet Saturn on the evening of May 22, 2013, and the star Spica to the west (right) of the moon and Saturn. Although both Saturn and Spica shine brightly, they’ll be harder than usual to see tonight because of the lunar glare. Can you see them? Binoculars might help, if you have them.

The moon is in a waxing gibbous phase. It’s getting big in the sky, and will turn full on the night of May 24/25. In the Northern hemisphere, we often call this particular full moon the Flower Moon, Rose Moon or Strawberry Moon. The full moon will barely clip the Earth’s penumbral shadow, but this eclipse will be so shallow and faint that’ll be virtually impossible to observe.

Full Flower Moon shines from dusk till dawn on May 24/25

Drive a spike to Spica – and find Saturn – in May 2013

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Submitted by Desert Gypsy on

earthsky.org- 5/20/13

 

10may02_430

 

Drive a spike to the star Spica – and the planet Saturn – on these May 2013 evenings.

Although you’ll always find the star Spica in the same place in the sky on May evenings every year, Saturn’s proximity to Spica is special to this year. At present, Saturn shines in front of the constellation Virgo, just west of the Libra/Virgo border. On this date in 2014, Saturn will in the middle of the constellation Libra.

 

Link: Earthsky.org

See it! Ringed planet Saturn still at its best

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Submitted by Desert Gypsy on

Earthsky.org, 5/18/13- Deborah Byrd

 

 

 

The best time to see the planet Saturn in 2013 is now! Saturn will be out nearly all night for most of May. Why is Saturn so good to view this month? The reason is that we passed between Saturn and the sun in late April. At that time, Saturn was opposite the sun as seen from Earth. Now Earth has moved on slightly in its orbit, so that Saturn appears in our eastern sky as soon as darkness falls.

 

Link: Earthsky.org

Close-up views of large hurricane on Saturn

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Submitted by Desert Gypsy on

Earthsky.org- 4/29/13

 

The Rose

 

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.”

 

SATURN'S RINGS SURGE IN BRIGHTNESS

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Submitted by Desert Gypsy on

Spaceweather.com - 4/29/13

 

 

"The rings are very bright due to the Seeliger Effect," says Go. Also known as the "opposition effect," the Seeliger effect has been observed on the Moon, Earth and Mars. It happens when sunlit objects (such as the icy particles that make up Saturn's rings) hide their own shadows. A process called coherent backscattering may also contribute to the extra luminosity.

 

Link: Spaceweather.com

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