You guys like Saturn, right? Here’s a whole gallery of Saturn GIFs, from rings to moons, captured by the Cassini spacecraft. They’re part modern art and part science. Next to the Voyager twins, I think Cassini might be the best satellite NASA ever launched. Certainly takes the best pictures. Tumblr’s own staceythinx  has an iPad app called Cassini HD that features even more photos, plus color, plus science. (GIFs by framesandflames)
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You guys like Saturn, right? Here’s a whole gallery of Saturn GIFs, from rings to moons, captured by the Cassini spacecraft. They’re part modern art and part science. Next to the Voyager twins, I think Cassini might be the best satellite NASA ever launched. Certainly takes the best pictures. Tumblr’s own staceythinx  has an iPad app called Cassini HD that features even more photos, plus color, plus science. (GIFs by framesandflames)
Zoom Info
You guys like Saturn, right? Here’s a whole gallery of Saturn GIFs, from rings to moons, captured by the Cassini spacecraft. They’re part modern art and part science. Next to the Voyager twins, I think Cassini might be the best satellite NASA ever launched. Certainly takes the best pictures. Tumblr’s own staceythinx  has an iPad app called Cassini HD that features even more photos, plus color, plus science. (GIFs by framesandflames)
Zoom Info
You guys like Saturn, right? Here’s a whole gallery of Saturn GIFs, from rings to moons, captured by the Cassini spacecraft. They’re part modern art and part science. Next to the Voyager twins, I think Cassini might be the best satellite NASA ever launched. Certainly takes the best pictures. Tumblr’s own staceythinx  has an iPad app called Cassini HD that features even more photos, plus color, plus science. (GIFs by framesandflames)
Zoom Info
You guys like Saturn, right? Here’s a whole gallery of Saturn GIFs, from rings to moons, captured by the Cassini spacecraft. They’re part modern art and part science. Next to the Voyager twins, I think Cassini might be the best satellite NASA ever launched. Certainly takes the best pictures. Tumblr’s own staceythinx  has an iPad app called Cassini HD that features even more photos, plus color, plus science. (GIFs by framesandflames)
Zoom Info
You guys like Saturn, right? Here’s a whole gallery of Saturn GIFs, from rings to moons, captured by the Cassini spacecraft. They’re part modern art and part science. Next to the Voyager twins, I think Cassini might be the best satellite NASA ever launched. Certainly takes the best pictures. Tumblr’s own staceythinx  has an iPad app called Cassini HD that features even more photos, plus color, plus science. (GIFs by framesandflames)
Zoom Info
You guys like Saturn, right? Here’s a whole gallery of Saturn GIFs, from rings to moons, captured by the Cassini spacecraft. They’re part modern art and part science. Next to the Voyager twins, I think Cassini might be the best satellite NASA ever launched. Certainly takes the best pictures. Tumblr’s own staceythinx  has an iPad app called Cassini HD that features even more photos, plus color, plus science. (GIFs by framesandflames)
Zoom Info

You guys like Saturn, right? Here’s a whole gallery of Saturn GIFs, from rings to moons, captured by the Cassini spacecraft. They’re part modern art and part science.

Next to the Voyager twins, I think Cassini might be the best satellite NASA ever launched. Certainly takes the best pictures. Tumblr’s own staceythinx  has an iPad app called Cassini HD that features even more photos, plus color, plus science.

(GIFs by framesandflames)

If You’re Gonna Spew, Spew Into This … Saturn’s moon (one of 62 confirmed!) Enceladus spewing water vapor from its south pole. The spout is nearly the width of the moon! Some of its geyser spews can reach all the way to the mother planet, making it the only moon to directly affect its planet’s weather. Just a reminder that water, although essential to life, is certainly not limited to Earth.More on Enceladus at io9. Here’s a couple diagrams of Saturn’s ring system and moons via Wikipedia (click here to embiggen the bottom one and learn all about Saturn’s moons):
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If You’re Gonna Spew, Spew Into This …

Saturn’s moon (one of 62 confirmed!) Enceladus spewing water vapor from its south pole. The spout is nearly the width of the moon! Some of its geyser spews can reach all the way to the mother planet, making it the only moon to directly affect its planet’s weather. Just a reminder that water, although essential to life, is certainly not limited to Earth.

More on Enceladus at io9.

Here’s a couple diagrams of Saturn’s ring system and moons via Wikipedia (click here to embiggen the bottom one and learn all about Saturn’s moons):

Eclipsing the Rings In 2007, Pete Lawrence was in position to get the shot of a lifetime. Saturn passed just behind the edge of our Moon. Unlike an eclipse (the shadow puppet show of astronomy), when one celestial body passes in front of another, it is called an “occultation”. Over the period of a few hours, this is what he saw through his telescope. See it extra-big here. This is a real image, only modified to enhance the dimness of Saturn against the Moon. Wow. (via APOD, tip o’ the rings to Destin from Smarter Every Day for the link)
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Eclipsing the Rings

In 2007, Pete Lawrence was in position to get the shot of a lifetime. Saturn passed just behind the edge of our Moon. Unlike an eclipse (the shadow puppet show of astronomy), when one celestial body passes in front of another, it is called an “occultation”. Over the period of a few hours, this is what he saw through his telescope. See it extra-big here.

This is a real image, only modified to enhance the dimness of Saturn against the Moon. Wow.

(via APOD, tip o’ the rings to Destin from Smarter Every Day for the link)

Source: apod.nasa.gov

kidsneedscience: Today is the 45th anniversary of the first Saturn V test flight.  The naming history is complicated, so a quote from NASA’s history page:   Evolution of nomenclature for the Saturn family of launch vehicles was one of the most complex of all NASA-associated names. On 15 August 1958 the Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) approved initial work on a multistage launch vehicle with clustered engines in a 6.7-million-newton-thrust (1.5-million-pound-thrust) first stage. Conceived by designers at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA), the vehicle was unofficially known as “Juno V.” (Juno III and Juno IV were concepts for space vehicles to follow Juno II but were not built.) 1 In October 1958 Dr. Wernher von Braun, the Director of ABMA’s Development Operations Division, proposed the Juno V be renamed Saturn and on 3 February 1959 ARPA officially approved the name change. The name Saturn was significant for three reasons: the planet Saturn appeared brighter than a first-magnitude star, so the association of this name with such a powerful new booster seemed appropriate; Saturn was the next planet after Jupiter, so the progression was analogous to ABMA’s progression from missile and space systems called “Jupiter”; and Saturn was the name of an ancient Roman god, so the name was in keeping with the U.S. military’s custom of naming missiles after mythological gods and heroes. Image of all Saturn V launches courtesy of NASA, image in the public domain. It’s nice that we have the NASA history office to remind us of this, since after decades of ignoring the business of creating rockets to carry men outside of near-Earth orbit, we couldn’t build a Saturn V if we had to. Let’s change that attitude.
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kidsneedscience:

Today is the 45th anniversary of the first Saturn V test flight.  The naming history is complicated, so a quote from NASA’s history page:  

Evolution of nomenclature for the Saturn family of launch vehicles was one of the most complex of all NASA-associated names. On 15 August 1958 the Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) approved initial work on a multistage launch vehicle with clustered engines in a 6.7-million-newton-thrust (1.5-million-pound-thrust) first stage. Conceived by designers at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA), the vehicle was unofficially known as “Juno V.” (Juno III and Juno IV were concepts for space vehicles to follow Juno II but were not built.) 1

In October 1958 Dr. Wernher von Braun, the Director of ABMA’s Development Operations Division, proposed the Juno V be renamed Saturn and on 3 February 1959 ARPA officially approved the name change. The name Saturn was significant for three reasons: the planet Saturn appeared brighter than a first-magnitude star, so the association of this name with such a powerful new booster seemed appropriate; Saturn was the next planet after Jupiter, so the progression was analogous to ABMA’s progression from missile and space systems called “Jupiter”; and Saturn was the name of an ancient Roman god, so the name was in keeping with the U.S. military’s custom of naming missiles after mythological gods and heroes.

Image of all Saturn V launches courtesy of NASA, image in the public domain.

It’s nice that we have the NASA history office to remind us of this, since after decades of ignoring the business of creating rockets to carry men outside of near-Earth orbit, we couldn’t build a Saturn V if we had to.

Let’s change that attitude.

staceythinx: While selecting images to include in our Cassini HD app I came across some great gifs. Unfortunately, I couldn’t include them in the app, so I’ll be posting them here instead.  Saturn’s moon Mimas will never not look exactly like the Death Star, especially when it’s moving.
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staceythinx: While selecting images to include in our Cassini HD app I came across some great gifs. Unfortunately, I couldn’t include them in the app, so I’ll be posting them here instead.  Saturn’s moon Mimas will never not look exactly like the Death Star, especially when it’s moving.
Zoom Info
staceythinx: While selecting images to include in our Cassini HD app I came across some great gifs. Unfortunately, I couldn’t include them in the app, so I’ll be posting them here instead.  Saturn’s moon Mimas will never not look exactly like the Death Star, especially when it’s moving.
Zoom Info

staceythinx:

While selecting images to include in our Cassini HD app I came across some great gifs. Unfortunately, I couldn’t include them in the app, so I’ll be posting them here instead. 

Saturn’s moon Mimas will never not look exactly like the Death Star, especially when it’s moving.