When the time is appropriate, the lander-ascender combination will separate from the orbiter-returner combination, implement a soft landing on the near side of the moon, and carry out automatic sampling as planned.
Archiv: moons (space objects) / Monde
Kosmisches Spektakel: Leuchtender Sonnenring am Himmel
Von der arabischen Halbinsel bis zum Nordpazifik haben viele Menschen ein seltenes und besonders spektakuläres Himmelsereignis erlebt: die ringförmige Sonnenfinsternis.
Saturn is the solar system‘s ‚moon king,‘ with 20 more spotted
The discovery was announced this week by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center.
20 neue Monde um Saturn entdeckt
hre weite Entfernung und retrograde Bewegung geben den Astronomen Anlass zur Vermutung, dass Saturn in der Frühzeit des Sonnensystems wie unsere Sonne von einer Staubscheibe umgeben war, in der diese neuentdeckten Monde entstanden sind.
Cassini Tastes Organic Material at Saturn‘s Geyser Moon
(26.03.2008)
The Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer saw a much higher density of volatile gases, water vapor, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, as well as organic materials, some 20 times denser than expected. This dramatic increase in density was evident as the spacecraft flew over the area of the plumes.
Low-mass nitrogen-, oxygen-bearing, and aromatic compounds in Enceladean ice grains
Previous analyses inferred three different spectral types of Enceladean ice grains (Postberg et al. 2008, 2009a): Type 1 represents grains of almost pure water ice, Type 2 shows features consistent with grains containing significant amounts of organic material, and Type 3 is indicative of salt-rich water ice grains.
Organic compounds have been found on Saturn‘s moon Enceladus
Before NASA‘s Cassini mission studied Saturn and its moons for 13 years, beginning in 2004, Enceladus held many secrets. Cassini revealed that there was a global ocean between the moon‘s icy crust and its rocky core.
Although the Cassini mission ended in a blaze of glory when it disintegrated in Saturn‘s atmosphere, surprises from the data it collected will be released for years to come.
Jupiter’s moon sprays water vapors 200km into air
The chemical vapors in the atmosphere, identified by Hubble’s sensitive filters, point to two huge plumes of water occasionally erupting on the South Pole. These eruptions are thought to eject the vapors, which reach such dazzling heights that they are seen from the moon’s orbit.