University of Arizona was integral to providing images from Cassini mission to Saturn
The Cassini spacecraft, which features a camera and instruments designed by University of Arizona scientists, hurtled into Saturn after a seven-year mission to analyze the planet and its moons. According to NASA, "On Sept. 15, 2017, the spacecraft will make its final approach to the giant planet Saturn. But this encounter will be like no other. This time, Cassini will dive into the planet’s atmosphere, sending science data for as long as its small thrusters can keep the spacecraft’s antenna pointed at Earth. Soon after, Cassini will burn up and disintegrate like a meteor."
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This false-color composite image, constructed from data obtained by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, shows Saturn’s rings and southern hemisphere. The composite image was made from 65 individual observations by Cassini’s visual and infrared mapping spectrometer in the near-infrared portion of the light spectrum on Nov. 1, 2008. The observations were each six minutes long.
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This recent artist's conception of the Cassini orbiter shows the Huygens probe, left, separating to enter the atmosphere of Titan, a moon of the planet Saturn, shown in the distance. Scientists said Tuesday, June 19, 2001, they will redesign the Cassini mission as the spacecraft hurtles toward Saturn to prevent losing data collected from the Huygens probe it will drop onto the planet's moon Titan in 2005. Mission planners will delay releasing the Huygens probe from Cassini until February 2005, during the spacecraft's third orbit of Saturn.
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This unprocessed image of Titan was taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft during the mission's final, distant flyby on Sept. 11, 2017.
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From Oct. 15, 2007: Cassini delivers this stunning vista showing small, battered Epimetheus and smog-enshrouded Titan, with Saturn's A and F rings stretching across the scene. The color information in the colorized view is completely artificial: it is derived from red, green and blue images taken at nearly the same time and phase angle as the clear filter image. This color information was overlaid onto the previously released clear filter view (see Stunning Vistas) in order to approximate the scene as it might appear to human eyes. The prominent dark region visible in the A ring is the Encke gap (325 kilometers, or 200 miles wide), in which the moon Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across) and several narrow ringlets reside. Moon-driven features which score the A ring can easily be seen to the left and right of the Encke gap.
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16 Cassini dsp2--An overflow crowd watches projections of the latest images of Saturn's moon, Titan during the open house at the Kuiper Space Sciences building Saturday night. The crowd was so large that the auditorium quickly overflowed, forcing people to stand on three stories to get a glimpse of a projector that was set up in the main hallway area for the crowd. Photo by David Sanders/Arizona Daily Star. Assign.#120528. Mandatory credit: no mags, no sales.
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This is one of the first raw, or unprocessed, images from the European Space Agency's Huygens probe as it descended to Saturn's moon Titan January 14, 2005 and released January 14, 2005. It was taken with the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer, one of two NASA instruments on the probe. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. BW ONLY QUALITY FROM SOURCE NO SALES REUTERS/ESA/NASA/University of Arizona/Handout JANUARY 15, 2005 A1 ESA-NASA photo via Reuters - Unprocessed photo of Titan's surface was taken by the UA's Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer.
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This false-color mosaic provided by NASA from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows the tail of Saturn's huge northern storm, top. The storm's 200-day active period also makes it the longest-lasting planet-encircling storm ever seen on Saturn. The previous record holder was an outburst sighted in 1903, which lingered for 150 days. The large disturbance imaged 21 years ago by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and comparable in size to the current storm lasted for only 55 days.
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In an undated in this false-color image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft and provided by NASA/JPL shows stunning views of a monster hurricane at Saturn's North Pole. The eye of the cyclone is an enormous 1,250 miles across. That's 20 times larger than the typical eye of a hurricane here on Earth. The hurricane is believed to have been there for years.This image is among the first sunlit views of Saturn's north pole captured by Cassini's imaging cameras.
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These images of Saturn's moon Phoebe, taken Friday, June 11, 2004, by the NASA spacecraft Cassini during its closest approach to the moon yet, about 1,285 miles (2,068 km), were released Saturday, June 12, 2004, by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. These images, with a high-resolution view on the right, show details that reveal a rugged, heavily cratered body, indicating that projectiles of varying sizes once pummeled Phoebe, and suggest an old surface.Cassini will study Saturn, its rings and 31 known moons during its four-year orbit.
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This Oct. 6, 2004 photo provided by NASA, taken by the Cassini Saturn Probe, shows the planet Saturn and its rings. One of the most evocative mysteries of the solar system, where Saturn got its stunning rings, may actually be a case of cosmic murder with an unnamed moon of Saturn, that disappeared about 4.5 billion years ago, as the potential victim. Suspicion has fallen on a disk of hydrogen gas, that surrounded Saturn when its dozens of moons were forming, but has now fled the scene. And the cause of death? A possible forced plunge into Saturn.
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In this natural color mosaic image provided by NASA on Tuesday Nov. 12, 2013, Saturn eclipses the Sun as seen by the Cassini spacecraft on July 19, 2013. This image spans about 404,880 miles (651,591 kilometers) across.
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A seven-year journey to the ringed planet Saturn begins with the liftoff of a Titan IVB/Centaur carrying the Cassini orbiter and its attached Huygens probe. Launch occurred at 4:43 a.m. EDT, October 15, 1997 from Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Station. After a 2.2-billion mile journey that will include two swing-bys of Venus and one of Earth to gain additional velocity, the two-storey tall spacecraft will arrive at Saturn in July 2004.
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Marty Tomasko the Principal Investigator of the UA built camera, takes off the dust cover of a duplicate camera on top of the UA Space Sciences building in 1998. The original camera is on it's way to Saturn aboard the Cassini spacecraft.
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The Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer is an instrument on the Huygens probe designed by Martin Tomasko, an astronomer at the University of Arizona. Its four cameras will capture the brightness of Titan s sky and send back panoramic photos of its surface. Also in the shoebox-sized instrument are two devices which will help measure the thickness of Titan s atmosphere.
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Chuck Cee (right) Senior Staff Engineer and Lisa McFarlane Post Doctorate Associate in Planetary Sciences work on the Spin System Computer for the a duplicate camera on top of the UA space sciences building in 1998. The UA built camera aboard the spacecraft Cassini is headed towards Saturn.
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Artists rendering of the Huygens probe from the Cassini spacecraft landing on Titan, one of the moons of Saturn.
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The Cassini Cruise Configuation
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This undated handout shows the space probe duo Cassini/Huygens in the cleanroom of Cape Caneveral space center. The European Huygens, center, gold coloured, and the US-american Cassini probe will be launched on Monday October 13, 1997, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, by a Titan rocket and are due to reach the planet Saturn by July 2004.
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Julie Webster, Flight Director reacts in the mission control room as Cassini spacecraft starts it's successful engine burn to enter Saturn's obit at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena Calif., Wednesday, June 30, 2004.
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NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers and technicians align the Upper-Equipment-Module of the Cassini spacecraft to the Thruster Unit at JPL in Pasadena, Calif., Friday, Sept. 20, 1996. The Cassini Spacecraft is scheduled to be launched from Cape Canaveral in October 1997 for a 15-year mission. Cassini's objective is a four-year, close-up study of the Saturnian system, including Saturn's atmosphere.
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Lyn Doose a planetary scientist, high-fives Katie Holso, a team member in 2005, after the Huygens probe landed on Saturn's moon Titan and began sending back data and images. It took the probe seven years to get to Titan, yet only two hours to send back info.
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UA Planetary Scientist, Carolyn Porco in her office in the UA Space Sciences building in 1997. She heads the team that placed the camera for the Cassini spacecraft mission.
