what is the effect of saturn planets moon in august 2009?”
Saturn Surprises Spur Cassini Mission Reprise By Jeremy Hsu Staff Writer posted: 07 July 2008 12:24 am ET Saturn’s rings and moons turned out wilder than any scientist could have imagined, but unknowns remain as the Cassini spacecraft concludes its primary mission and embarks on a new one. “One of the greatest surprises about Cassini’s science results is that some of the most extreme predictions have turned out to be correct,” said Bob Pappalardo, a geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., who recently signed on as Cassini project scientist. Findings from the four-year primary mission include liquid lakes on Saturn’s moon Titan, icy plumes spouting from the moon Enceladus, and gigantic storms that make Saturn seem like Jupiter. Pappalardo and other scientists look forward to Saturn serving up even more surprises during the extended, two-year Cassini tour that began June 30 — and perhaps some answers as well. Mysteries remain The rings of Saturn got a true clos
As Saturn approaches its August 2009 equinox, the planet’s moons cast shadows onto the rings. Two background stars are visible in the image. Mimas is not shown. This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 62 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 7, 2009. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (684,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 101 degrees. Image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
