I love the detail in the cover image, showing white #DNA strands and #molecules erupting from #Enceladus’ #cryovolcanoes ❄️🌋
#SpacePhysics #Astrobiology #Neuroscience #Saturn #cassinihuygens #cassini
Today, on my way to the kitchen at the institute, I passed the current issue of "Labor Journal" (Lab Journal). Its cover story is about #astrobiology on #IcyMoons. Found it a bit funny to see this topic again here. I worked on icy moons back when I was still in #SpacePhysics. Now, in #Neuroscience, the loop seems to close after all 😅
#LaborJournal #enceladus #ganymede #jupiter #saturn #SolarSystem
Ultraviolet Enceladus
Looking beyond Saturn's south pole, this was the Cassini spacecraft's view of the distant, icy moon Enceladus on July 28, 2004. The planet itself shows few obvious features at these ultraviolet wavelengths, due to scattering of light by molecules of the gases high in the atmosphere. Enceladus is 499 kilome...
More: https://images.nasa.gov/details/PIA06483
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
#enceladus #cassini #cassinihuygens #astrodon #astronomy #astrophotography #astrophysics
Enceladus Roll
This graphic illustrates the interior of Saturn moon Enceladus. It shows warm, low-density material rising to the surface from within, in its icy shell yellow and/or its rocky core red
More: https://images.nasa.gov/details/PIA08500
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
#enceladus #cassini #cassinihuygens #astrodon #astronomy #astrophotography #astrophysics
A Snowball in Space
Saturn's moon Enceladus, covered in snow and ice, resembles a perfectly packed snowball in this image from NASA's Cassini mission. Cassini has imaged Enceladus many times throughout its mission, discovering a fractured surface and the now-famous geysers that erupt icy particles and water vapor from f...
More: https://images.nasa.gov/details/PIA17182
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
#enceladus #cassini #cassinihuygens #astrodon #astronomy #astrophotography #astrophysics
Enceladus is essentially the solar system's ultimate mirror. Because those giant geysers constantly spray fresh, ultra-pure water ice all over its surface, it reflects about 99% of the sunlight that hits it. It's like a planet-sized, freshly polished ski resort.
@astropic
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It transforms a beautiful but vague snapshot into a highly precise, readable map of a cryovolcano in action!
@astropic
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Preventing Data "Washout"
If Cassini had taken an exposure long enough to make those faint outer plumes visible to a standard camera, the brightly lit crescent of Enceladus itself would have turned into a giant, blown-out blinding white smear, destroying all the data near the surface. False-color processing allows scientists to look at the brightest areas and the dimmest areas at the exact same time without losing details to glare or shadow
@astropic
3/
The hot magenta and bright pink zones right at the moon's crescent edge show the absolute highest density—the specific fractures (called "tiger stripes") where the sub-surface ocean is violently venting the most material.
As the colors transition out into red, green, and blue, the material is thinning out and spreading into space.
Dr Yann H. CHEMIN
Fabrizio Musacchio
astropic
earthling