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New Cassini images show 'Northern Lights' of Saturn UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO NEWS RELEASE Posted: August 4, 2005
Taken with the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph aboard the Cassini orbiter, the two UV images, invisible to the human eye, are the first from the Cassini-Huygens mission to capture the entire "oval" of the auroral emissions at Saturn's south pole. They also show similar emissions at Saturn's north pole, according to CU-Boulder Professor Larry Esposito, principal investigator of the UVIS instrument built at CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, and Professor Wayne Pryor of Central Arizona College, a UVIS team member and former CU graduate student. In the false-color images, blue represents aurora emissions from hydrogen gas excited by electron bombardment, while red-orange represents reflected sunlight. The images show that the aurora lights at the polar regions respond rapidly to changes in the solar wind, said the researchers. Previous images have been taken closer to the equator, making it difficult to see the polar regions. Major changes in the emissions inside the Saturn south-pole aurora are evident by comparing the two images, which were taken about one hour apart, they said. The brightest spot in the left aurora fades, and a bright spot appears in the middle of the aurora in the second image. Made by slowly scanning the UVIS instrument across the planet, the images also contain more than 2,000 wavelengths of spectral information within each picture element. Researchers will use the wavelength information to study Saturn's auroras, gases, and hazes and their changing distributions. The UVIS observation team includes researchers from CU-Boulder, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Central Arizona College and the University of Southern California. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini- Huygens mission for NASA's Space Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. |
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This extended movie shows Steve Robinson riding the station's robot arm, moving within reach of Discovery's underside and successfully pulling out the first protruding tile gap filler. (6min 45sec file)
This extended movie shows Steve Robinson successfully pulling out the second protruding tile gap filler. (9min 23sec file)
The External Stowage Platform-2 designed to hold spares and replacement equipment for the space station is attached to the Quest airlock module's outer hull during the spacewalk. (6min 29sec file)
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Noguchi deploys the MISSE-5 package, revealing a host of material samples to the space environment for extended exposure. (3min 43sec file)
Noguchi's helmet-mounted camera provides a stunning view atop the P6 truss showing Discovery to his right and the Russian segment of the space station on his left. (2min 31sec file)
This behind the scenes footage was recorded inside Houston's space station flight control room during the third Discovery spacewalk. (8min 45sec file)
NASA's next voyage to the Red Planet is introduced by project managers and scientists in this news conference from 1 p.m. EDT on Thursday, July 21. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will launch in August on a mission to provide the sharpest images ever taken of Earth's neighboring planet. (34min 10sec file)