Mimas

While I work on my blog post about debris flow, I thought I’d put an awesome image of one of Saturn’s moons, Mimas. This image was taken by none other than the supremely talented Cassini team over at JPL. Visible in this image is the impact crater, Herschel. Coming in at 130 km across and 10 km deep, it’s one of the more prominent craters in the Solar System. In fact, that great font of knowledge, Wikipedia, even suggests that if “there were a crater of the same scale on Earth, it would be wider than Canada”. Herschel may not be the largest impact crater, (that honor goes to the North Polar Basin on Mars), but for it’s size in proportion to the parent body, it’s no slouch either.  And if you haven’t done so yet, I highly recommend visiting the raw images on the Cassini website. Sometimes you can find some really great pictures that don’t always make it into the popular science sites.

Cause I can’t get enough of Saturn

The Cassini mission really is like crack for me. I love digging through the raw images and seeing what comes up. It can be a bit of mixed back sometimes, but I enjoy the hunt of looking through all the unprocessed images and see what Cassini is churning out. This one of Enceladus may not be as dramatic as the one with the plumes, but I think the crescent shape adds a different flavor to my favorite moon.

Lord of the Rings

I know the title is a bit cliche when talking about Saturn, but it’s so appropriate. This is a raw image from the Cassini Mission that was taken just today. It’s not the most spectacular of images produced, but it’s beautiful none-the-less. These are the sorts of images that make me excited about science and space science in particular. When humans aren’t bickering with each other and work towards a common goal (science related or not) we are capable of great things. In short, this image makes me optimistic for the future and what humanity can truly accomplish.