A cool look at some of Saturn's moons

Matthew

Matthew

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Cassini took this photo of 5 of Saturn's moons lined up:

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA14573

PIA14573_modest.jpg
 
Obviously fake because you don't see any stars in the background.

And the alien autopsies were real.

:rofl:

(Way cool picture)

:stirpot:
 
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Real or fake, it's splendid. Thanks for sharing.
 
Pretty good for a plutonium powered robot that's been flying around for 15 years. Most complex thing ever sent into space, its done everything from sample the atmosphere of Titan to test the theory of general relativity. When NASA is successful, boy they do a good job.

cassini_1.png
 
The interesting bit is that after seeing enough of the Cassini pictures, that one is kind of ho-hum routine. Every picture it takes stops you in your tracks. No amount of fakery and creativity can compare to the reality of what that thing sees.

Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Obviously fake because you don't see any stars in the background.
Click to expand...

:lol: I always like to hit the conspiracy types with "well, the entire Universe is fake during the day because you can't see stars then either." They tend to get so upset over that then go catatonic when asking them to explain why the moon and sun both pop in and out of existence every day.
 
steingar said:
Pretty good for a plutonium powered robot that's been flying around for 15 years. Most complex thing ever sent into space, its done everything from sample the atmosphere of Titan to test the theory of general relativity. When NASA is successful, boy they do a good job.

cassini_1.png
Click to expand...

Indeed, they do. They either strike out or hit it out of the park. And this one got hit a long way.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Obviously fake because you don't see any stars in the background.

And the alien autopsies were real.

:rofl:

(Way cool picture)
Click to expand...

Yes, that is an awesome picture. Saturn and its primary moons make for dramatic viewing even with a modest telescope, but this image is spectacular.


You're probably kidding about the stars, but I am pretty sure that due to the very small patch of sky shown (as seen from Cassini's position at the time) and the fact that everything shown in the photo would be much, much brighter than even the brightest stars visible from there, the stars just wouldn't show up in the photo. I've viewed Saturn with my scope, a much larger field of view for sure, and rarely saw any stars at all beyond it.

This must have something to do with why the night sky does not appear completely packed with bright objects, even though there are millions of stars and even millions of galaxies out there in the known universe... and there's very little preventing their light from reaching us ( a little gas here and there, and some isolated gravitational effects).
Even under the very best conditions, to the naked eye, from Earth, only about six thousand stars are visible... although I don't think that includes the view of the nearest limb of our spiral galaxy (the "Milky Way").
 
rottydaddy said:
everything shown in the photo would be much, much brighter than even the brightest stars visible from there, the stars just wouldn't show up in the photo.
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Yea, the exposure needed to get the reasonably bright, large, close objects to show up not completely washed out will not pick up very small faint objects like star.
 
rottydaddy said:
You're probably kidding about the stars, but I am pretty sure that due to the very small patch of sky shown (as seen from Cassini's position at the time) and the fact that everything shown in the photo would be much, much brighter than even the brightest stars visible from there, the stars just wouldn't show up in the photo. I've viewed Saturn with my scope, a much larger field of view for sure, and rarely saw any stars at all beyond it.
Click to expand...

My explanation for those with no comprehension of how light works:
Put a single candle and an extremely bright flashlight on the table outside at night.
The candle is bright. The flashlight blinds you. Candle = dim planet. Flashlight = bright star.
Put the flashlight about half a mile away aimed at your face. It's quite easy to look at without getting blinded even though the flashlight is still putting out the same amount of light.
Here's the clever bit: Put the candle 6 inches in front of your eye and try to see the flashlight that's directly behind it in the distance. Candle = extremely bright and flashlight is completely gone even though it's still on and pointed at your face.
 
EdFred said:
Of course it's fake. A real one would be cloaked and you would be unable to see it. Just like the one in Golden Gate Park.
Click to expand...

Actually, the one in Golden Gate Park was a Bird of Prey, while the one pictured here is a Battle Cruiser.

I really need to get out more often.
 
rottydaddy said:
You're probably kidding about the stars,
Click to expand...

That's the amazing thing about the internet. Some people are so wacked, and post such stupid stuff in all seriousness, that no matter how outragous a statement I make, some reasonable person is never quite sure that I am actually kidding.

You had to include the disclamer "probably".:rofl:
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Why did I ever decide to work for an auto company? This stuff is awesome.
Click to expand...

Yea. No kidding.

I should have done something like sticking with radio controlled cars and came up with a far better group of friends that I use to have.

I mean seriously, with the right friends you can convince a lot of other people to foot the bill and let you rat race them around on Mars...and when you get one stuck in the sand or it breaks down, you slap another one together and fire it off into much more fun terrain.

Occupation: "Professional noose around neck every day boring stressed out no sense of humor or imagination self indulgent paper pusher blah blah." Ick. :loco: It would be much more fun to put "Radio control car driver - Mars." on your resume. :goofy:
 
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