Cassini Significant Events 05/23/2012 - 05/29/2012

 

The most recent spacecraft tracking and telemetry data were collected on May 30 by the Deep Space Network's 34 meter Station 15 at Goldstone, California. Aside from the Ultrastable Oscillator (see the Jan. 5, 2012 Significant Events), the Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health with all its subsystems operating normally. Information on the present position of the Cassini spacecraft may be found on the "Present Position" page at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/presentposition/.

 

Cassini began a year-long phase, starting with the Titan flyby on May 22, during which Titan flybys will continue to increase the spacecraft's orbital inclination. Periapses will continue coming about as close to Saturn as the broad E ring. This plan is designed to provide opportunities for ring occultation experiments by Radio Science and the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS), as well as optical remote sensing observations of the rings.

 

The Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) performed three observations in the ongoing Satellite Orbit Campaign this week, measuring positions of small satellites to improve knowledge of their orbits. ISS, the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS), and the Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) performed two observations in the Titan monitoring campaign.

 

Negotiations to schedule Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas to support Cassini's S74 sequence, which goes active June 18, are proving difficult due to contentions related to Mars Science Laboratory's requirements for support during atmospheric entry, descent, landing, and initial surface operations early this August.

 

 

Wednesday, May 23 (DOY 144)

 

The Navigation Team took five images for optical navigation purposes.

 

ISS, CIRS, UVIS and VIMS performed a joint observation of the faint D and G rings at low phase angle.

 

 

Thursday, May 24 (DOY 145)

 

The Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) performed a 5 hour measurement of interstellar dust.

 

Using the Automated Sequence Processor, the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer team sent commands that reconfigured their ion beam spectrometer settings to adapt the instrument to current environmental conditions.

 

ISS and VIMS telemetry processing halted because of erroneously set flags in data from the DSN regarding earth-receive times. A labor-intensive workaround was devised so that processing can continue while this ground-based anomaly is resolved. The Instrument Operations team initiated Incident-Surprise-Anomaly report (ISA) #52211 to document the problem.

 

 

Friday, May 25 (DOY 146)

 

ISS observed the star Vega for 15 hours to perform a photometric calibration.

 

 

Saturday, May 26 (DOY 147)

 

CDA performed a 13.5 hour interstellar dust observation.

 

 

Sunday, May 27 (DOY 148)

 

Station 25, one of the DSN's 34 meter diameter antennas at Goldstone, California, participated in an Operations Readiness Test (ORT) preparing for the Radio Science ring and atmosphere occultation experiment on June 4.

 

The Magnetometer Team performed an instrument calibration by rolling the spacecraft about its Z-axis during DSN communications with the high-gain antenna pointed to Earth.

 

 

Monday, May 28 (DOY 149)

 

Cassini passed apoapsis at about 2.3 million kilometers from Saturn, having slowed to 5,771 kilometers per hour relative to the planet.

 

CDA took advantage of the spacecraft's distance from Saturn to perform another 13.5 hour interstellar dust observation.

 

An image titled "Splitting Titan" was featured on the Cassini website, illustrating seasonal atmospheric changes in Titan's northern and southern hemispheres. The image may be seen at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/imagedetails/index.cfm?imageId=4536 .

 

 

Tuesday, May 29 (DOY 150)

 

ISS spent 11 hours observing the irregular moon Ymir. The tiny dark body is in a retrograde orbit 23 million kilometers from Saturn.

 

Station 25 participated in another Radio Science ORT preparing for the June 4 experiment.

 

Orbit Trim Maneuver 324, a 21.4 second maneuver using the main engine, was performed just before midnight, targeting to the Titan encounter on June 7. It provided a delta-V of 3.71 m/s.

 

 HR

June. 07, 2012

The RADAR instrument onboard Cassini will play the lead role in this
flyby. During closest approach, Cassini will map a sparsely covered area
on Titan's Northwest quadrant using various Radar techniques designed to
enhance results.

On the way out, Radar will conduct altimetry studies near the moon's
equator, including the bright Adiri region.

A few other instruments will be active on the way out: the imaging
science subsystem (ISS), the composite infrared spectrometer (CIRS) and
the ultraviolet imaging spectrograph (UVIS) will collect low-phase-angle
observations of Adiri and the region where intensive surface changes
were observed in Fall 2010.

For the magnetometer (MAG), Titan-84 is another low altitude north polar
flyby in the post noon sector of Saturn's magnetosphere. With closest
approach slightly in the dayside ionosphere, Cassini will be able to
study the diffusion of the external magnetic field at low altitudes and
high solar zenith angles. The imaging science subsystem will monitor
Titan for an extra day after the Titan encounter to track clouds.

Titan Flyby at a Glance

Titan Flyby
June 7, 2012 [SCET]

Altitude
596 miles (959 kilometers)

Speed
13,000 mph (5.8 km/sec)

 

 

Ray Bradbury, author of such science fiction classics as 'Fahrenheit 451' and 'The Martian Chronicles,' has died at 91

 

HR

 

 

.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory
June 06, 2012

Cassini Mission Status Report

PASADENA, Calif. - The Cassini plasma spectrometer instrument (CAPS)
aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft was turned off between Friday, June 1
and Saturday, June 2, when a circuit breaker tripped off after the
instrument experienced some unexpected voltage shifts.

Engineers are currently investigating this issue, which they believe is
due to short circuits in the instrument. In June 2011, the instrument
was turned off because of similar problems, but was switched on again in
March 2012 once investigators determined that tin plating on electronic
components had grown "whiskers" large enough to contact another
conducting surface and carry electrical current, resulting in a voltage
shift. At that time, it was believed that these "whiskers" were not
capable of carrying sufficient current to cause any damage, and the
voltage shifts didn't have any effect on normal spacecraft operations
because the power subsystem is designed to operate in the presence of
such shifts.

More details about whiskers on the CAPS instrument can be found here:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-078 .

The cause is still under investigation, but engineers will be looking
into this issue over the next few months.

Cassini launched in 1997 and has been exploring the Saturn system since
2004. The project completed its original prime mission in 2008 and has
been extended twice. Cassini is now in its solstice mission, which will
enable scientists to observe seasonal change in the Saturn system
through the northern summer solstice."

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the
European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate,
Washington.

 

 

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-159


For more information about the Cassini mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .

 

 

Cassini passed through periapsis just outside the orbit of Mimas going 69,739 kilometers per hour relative to Saturn.

UVIS led an egress solar occultation observation as the Sun rose, by virtue of spacecraft motion, through Saturn's upper atmosphere.

Thanks to the IVP update commanded on Friday, CIRS found Mimas well centered in its field of view and made observations of the small moon to better define its thermally anomalous "pacman" feature. The other ORS instruments observed in ride-along mode. The unusual surface feature is illustrated here: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/imagedetails/index.cfm?imageId=3919

VIMS made a ring composition lit-face study. Finally, ISS performed part two of the propeller survey.

Yesterday and again today, the Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem team executed reaction-wheel bias maneuvers.

The S74 sequence Instrument Expanded Block commands were processed and approved for uplink starting on Thursday.

A web page detailing the upcoming Titan T84 encounter was posted here:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/flybys/titan20120607/

News release: 2012-172                                                                     June 13, 2012 Cassini Sees Tropical Lakes on Saturn Moon The full version of this story with accompanying images is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-172&cid=release_2012-172   PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's Cassini spacecraft has spied long-standing methane lakes, or puddles, in the "tropics" of Saturn's moon Titan. One of the tropical lakes appears to be about half the size of Utah's Great Salt Lake, with a depth of at least 3 feet (1 meter). The result, which is a new analysis of Cassini data, is unexpected because models had assumed the long-standing bodies of liquid would only exist at the poles. The findings appear in this week's issue of the journal Nature. Where could the liquid for these lakes come from? "A likely supplier is an underground aquifer," said Caitlin Griffith, the paper's lead author and a Cassini team associate at the University of Arizona, Tucson. "In essence, Titan may have oases." Understanding how lakes or wetlands form on Titan helps scientists learn about the moon's weather. Like Earth's hydrological cycle, Titan has a "methane" cycle, with methane rather than water circulating. In Titan's atmosphere, ultraviolet light breaks apart methane, initiating a chain of complicated organic chemical reactions. But existing models haven't been able to account for the abundant supply of methane. "An aquifer could explain one of the puzzling questions about the existence of methane, which is continually depleted," Griffith said. "Methane is a progenitor of Titan's organic chemistry, which likely produces interesting molecules like amino acids, the building blocks of life." Global circulation models of Titan have theorized that liquid methane in the moon's equatorial region evaporates and is carried by wind to the north and south poles, where cooler temperatures cause methane to condense. When it falls to the surface, it forms the polar lakes. On Earth, water is similarly transported by the circulation, yet the oceans also transport water, thereby countering the atmospheric effects. The latest results come from Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer, which detected the dark areas in the tropical region known as Shangri-La, near the spot where the European Space Agency's Huygens probe landed in 2005. When Huygens landed, the heat of the probe's lamp vaporized some methane from the ground, indicating it had landed in a damp area. Areas appear dark to the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer when liquid ethane or methane are present. Some regions could be shallow, ankle-deep puddles. Cassini's radar mapper has seen lakes in the polar region, but hasn't detected any lakes at low latitudes. The tropical lakes detected by the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer have remained since 2004. Only once has rain been detected falling and evaporating in the equatorial regions, and only during the recent expected rainy season. Scientists therefore deduce the lakes could not be substantively replenished by rain. "We had thought that Titan simply had extensive dunes at the equator and lakes at the poles, but now we know that Titan is more complex than we previously thought," said Linda Spilker, the Cassini project scientist based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Cassini still has multiple opportunities to fly by this moon going forward, so we can't wait to see how the details of this story fill out." The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .

 

Image: Saturn's Rings and Ring Shadows

• Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Posted Friday, June 22, 2012

The home page of Google today has a Universal Turing Machine puzzle/game on it to commemorate Alan Turing's birthday. If you have no idea what that is, I'm not gonna explain it - but you can google it!

 

 

HR

 

 

.

News feature: 2012-186                                                                    June 25, 2012 Cassini Shows Why Jet Streams Cross-Cut Saturn The full version of this story with accompanying images is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-186&cid=release_2012-186 Turbulent jet streams, regions where winds blow faster than in other places, churn east and west across Saturn. Scientists have been trying to understand for years the mechanism that drives these wavy structures in Saturn’s atmosphere and the source from which the jets derive their energy. In a new study appearing in the June edition of the journal Icarus, scientists used images collected over several years by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft to discover that the heat from within the planet powers the jet streams. Condensation of water from Saturn’s internal heating led to temperature differences in the atmosphere. The temperature differences created eddies, or disturbances that move air back and forth at the same latitude, and those eddies, in turn, accelerated the jet streams like rotating gears driving a conveyor belt. A competing theory had assumed that the energy for the temperature differences came from the sun. That is how it works in the Earth's atmosphere. “We know the atmospheres of planets such as Saturn and Jupiter can get their energy from only two places: the sun or the internal heating. The challenge has been coming up with ways to use the data so that we can tell the difference,” said Tony Del Genio of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, N.Y., the lead author of the paper and a member of the Cassini imaging team. The new study was possible in part because Cassini has been in orbit around Saturn long enough to obtain the large number of observations required to see subtle patterns emerge from the day-to-day variations in weather. “Understanding what drives the meteorology on Saturn, and in general on gaseous planets, has been one of our cardinal goals since the inception of the Cassini mission,” said Carolyn Porco, imaging team lead, based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. “It is very gratifying to see that we're finally coming to understand those atmospheric processes that make Earth similar to, and also different from, other planets.” Rather than having a thin atmosphere and solid-and-liquid surface like Earth, Saturn is a gas giant whose deep atmosphere is layered with multiple cloud decks at high altitudes. A series of jet streams slice across the face of Saturn visible to the human eye and also at altitudes detectable to the near-infrared filters of Cassini’s cameras. While most blow eastward, some blow westward. Jet streams occur on Saturn in places where the temperature varies significantly from one latitude to another. Thanks to the filters on Cassini’s cameras, which can see near-infrared light reflected to space, scientists now have observed the Saturn jet stream process for the first time at two different, low altitudes. One filtered view shows the upper part of the troposphere, a high layer of the atmosphere where Cassini sees thick, high-altitude hazes and where heating by the sun is strong. Views through another filter capture images deeper down, at the tops of ammonia ice clouds, where solar heating is weak but closer to where weather originates. This is where water condenses and makes clouds and rain. In the new study, which is a follow-up to results published in 2007, the authors used automated cloud tracking software to analyze the movements and speeds of clouds seen in hundreds of Cassini images from 2005 through 2012. "With our improved tracking algorithm, we've been able to extract nearly 120,000 wind vectors from 560 images, giving us an unprecedented picture of Saturn's wind flow at two independent altitudes on a global scale," said co-author and imaging team associate John Barbara, also at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The team’s findings provide an observational test for existing models that scientists use to study the mechanisms that power the jet streams. By seeing for the first time how these eddies accelerate the jet streams at two different altitudes, scientists found the eddies were weak at the higher altitudes where previous researchers had found that most of the sun’s heating occurs. The eddies were stronger deeper in the atmosphere. Thus, the authors could discount heating from the sun and infer instead that the internal heat of the planet is ultimately driving the acceleration of the jet streams, not the sun. The mechanism that best matched the observations would involve internal heat from the planet stirring up water vapor from Saturn’s interior. That water vapor condenses in some places as air rises and releases heat as it makes clouds and rain. This heat provides the energy to create the eddies that drive the jet streams. The condensation of water was not actually observed; most of that process occurs at lower altitudes not visible to Cassini. But the condensation in mid-latitude storms does happen on both Saturn and Earth. Storms on Earth – the low- and high-pressure centers on weather maps – are driven mainly by the sun’s heating and do not mainly occur because of the condensation of water, Del Genio said. On Saturn, the condensation heating is the main driver of the storms, and the sun’s heating is not important. Images of one of the strongest jet streams and a figure from the paper can be found at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini , http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://ciclops.org . The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

 

NASA'S CASSINI FINDS PROBABLE SUBSURFACE OCEAN ON SATURN MOON

WASHINGTON -- Data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft have revealed
Saturn's moon Titan likely harbors a layer of liquid water under its
ice shell.

Researchers saw a large amount of squeezing and stretching as the moon
orbited Saturn. They deduced that if Titan were composed entirely of
stiff rock, the gravitational attraction of Saturn would cause
bulges, or solid "tides," on the moon only 3 feet (1 meter) in
height. Spacecraft data show Saturn creates solid tides approximately
30 feet (10 meters) in height, which suggests Titan is not made
entirely of solid rocky material. The finding appears in today's
edition of the journal Science.

"Cassini's detection of large tides on Titan leads to the almost
inescapable conclusion that there is a hidden ocean at depth," said
Luciano Less, the paper's lead author and a Cassini team member at
the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. "The search for water is an
important goal in solar system exploration, and now we've spotted
another place where it is abundant."

Titan takes only 16 days to orbit Saturn, and scientists were able to
study the moon's shape at different parts of its orbit. Because Titan
is not spherical but slightly elongated like a football, its long
axis grew when it was closer to Saturn. Eight days later, when Titan
was farther from Saturn, it became less elongated and more nearly
round. Cassini measured the gravitational effect of that squeeze and
pull.

Scientists were not sure Cassini would be able to detect the bulges
caused by Saturn's pull on Titan. By studying six close flybys of
Titan from Feb. 27, 2006, to Feb. 18, 2011, researchers were able to
determine the moon's internal structure by measuring variations in
the gravitational pull of Titan using data returned to NASA's Deep
Space Network (DSN).

"We were making ultrasensitive measurements, and thankfully Cassini
and the DSN were able to maintain a very stable link," said Sami
Asmar, a Cassini team member at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "The tides on Titan pulled up by Saturn
aren't huge compared to the pull the biggest planet, Jupiter, has on
some of its moons. But, short of being able to drill on Titan's
surface, the gravity measurements provide the best data we have of
Titan's internal structure."

An ocean layer does not have to be huge or deep to create these tides.
A liquid layer between the external, deformable shell and a solid
mantle would enable Titan to bulge and compress as it orbits Saturn.
Because Titan's surface is mostly made of water ice, which is
abundant in moons of the outer solar system, scientists infer Titan's
ocean is likely mostly liquid water.

On Earth, tides result from the gravitational attraction of the moon
and sun pulling on our surface oceans. In the open oceans, those can
be as high as two feet (60 centimeters). While water is easier to
move, the gravitational pulling by the sun and moon also causes
Earth's crust to bulge in solid tides of about 20 inches (50
centimeters).

The presence of a subsurface layer of liquid water at Titan is not
itself an indicator for life. Scientists think life is more likely to
arise when liquid water is in contact with rock, and these
measurements cannot tell whether the ocean bottom is made up of rock
or ice. The results have a bigger implication for the mystery of
methane replenishment on Titan.

"The presence of a liquid water layer in Titan is important because we
want to understand how methane is stored in Titan's interior and how
it may outgas to the surface," said Jonathan Lunine, a Cassini team
member at Cornell University. "This is important because everything
that is unique about Titan derives from the presence of abundant
methane, yet the methane in the atmosphere is unstable and will be
destroyed on geologically short timescales."

A liquid water ocean, "salted" with ammonia, could produce buoyant
ammonia-water liquids that bubble up through the crust and liberate
methane from the ice. Such an ocean could serve also as a deep
reservoir for storing methane.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the
European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The mission is
managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
DSN, also managed by JPL, is an international network of antennas
that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions and radio and radar
astronomy observations for the exploration of the solar system and
the universe. The network also supports selected Earth-orbiting
missions. Cassini's radio science team is based at Wellesley College
in Massachusetts.

For more information about the mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/cassini

Cassini Significant Events 06/20/2012 - 06/26/2012

 

The most recent spacecraft tracking and telemetry data were collected on June 27 by the Deep Space Network's70 meter Station 63 at Madrid, Spain. Aside from the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer, which is off, and the Ultrastable Oscillator (see the January 5, 2012 Significant Events), the Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health with all subsystems functioning normally. Information on the present position of the Cassini spacecraft may be found on the "Present Position" page at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/presentposition/.

 

Senior JPL management and Division 33 (Communications, Tracking, and Radar) gave the Cassini Flight Team the go-ahead for powering on Deep Space Transponder B, the spacecraft's redundant radio receiver, on July 4 to troubleshoot the apparently anomalous Ultrastable Oscillator.

 

Negotiations to schedule Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas to support Cassini's next background sequence, S75, are proving to be difficult. Since the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer instrument (CAPS) is powered off, CAPS-earmarked data volume in the Solid State Recorders is being used to help absorb DSN station allocation cuts.

 

Wednesday, June 20 (DOY 172)

 

The Magnetometer performed an 8 hour calibration while rotating the spacecraft about its X-axis. An animation of this pitching maneuver may be seen here: http://1.usa.gov/IEJlc1

Orbit Trim Maneuver 325, the Titan 85 approach maneuver, was executed today using the main engine. The 58 second burn provided a delta-V of about 10 meters per second.

 

Thursday, June 21 (DOY 173)

 

The Cosmic Dust Analyzer performed a 15 hour interstellar dust observation.

 

Friday, June 22 (DOY 174)

 

The Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) and the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) began a 37 hour observation of the irregular moon Ymir. This is a tiny dark object in a retrograde orbit 23 million kilometers from Saturn.

 

Saturday, June 23 (DOY 175)

 

A live update to Cassini's Inertial Vector Propagator was uplinked to provide updated instrument pointing commands for next week's observations of Titan, Tethys, and Saturn.

 

Sunday, June 24 (DOY 176)

 

ISS observed the sunlit face of the rings for 19 hours at high phase in order to create a movie, searching for periodicities in the spokes. A discussion of ring "spokes" accompanies this image: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/imagedetails/index.cfm?imageId=3893

 

Monday, June 25 (DOY 177)

 

ISS performed another observation in the Satellite Orbit Campaign. ISS, the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS), and UVIS then observed the F ring for 15.5 hours to create a low resolution movie.

The Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer made three short Saturn Storm Watch observations while other instruments had control of spacecraft pointing.

A feature titled "Cassini Shows Why Jet Streams Cross-cut Saturn" was published today. It may be seen here: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassinifeatures/feature20120625/

 

Tuesday, June 26 (DOY 178)

 

ISS made a 14.8 hour observation of Titan from a distance of 740,000 kilometers as part of a long range monitoring campaign.

 

 

HR

5 Questions for the Higgs Boson Particle

An Exclusive Interview

NEW YORK – The Higgs boson particle has been everywhere these days – on TV, in newspapers and magazines, courtside at the NBA Finals with Kanye West.  We caught up with him as he took a breather for the 4th of July, at his home in East Hampton.

Q: First of all – and I have to ask this – “God particle?”  Really?  Who started that?

A: I have gotten so much shit for that!  (laughs)  I don't know where that started.  Probably TMZ or somewhere!  Look, if people want to call me that because they like what I do… well, I'm humbled.  It’s cool to know that what you do makes people happy.  I love my fans.  But God particle?  I don't think so!  I can't even get my iPhone to sync. (laughs)

Q: Speaking of what you do… what do you do, exactly?

A: Probably what I'm best known for, for better or worse, is making atomic particles have mass.  But I don't want to be pigeonholed as that, because I don't want to put limits on what I plan to do in the future.  Like, right now I'm doing a lot of things that don't involve atomic particles or mass or anything like that.  For example, my menswear line.  It’s a joint venture between me and Hugo Boss.  It’s going to be called either Higgs Boss or Hugo Boson.  Or we may go a whole different way and call it H. Biggy.  My branding team is into it right now.  I haven't been this excited about something I've been involved in since I created the universe.  Also, there's gonna be a fragrance.

Q: There’s been a lot written about tension in your relationship with Peter Higgs, one of the scientists who discovered you.  Any truth to the rumors?

A. Peter and I are both very passionate about what we do, and when you put a passionate human being and a passionate subatomic particle together there’s bound to be friction.  We fight like brothers sometimes, but it’s only because we care so deeply about what we're doing and we want to make it perfect.  But as far as what happened in the club last week, no, I did not throw a bottle at his head.

Q: Okay, be honest, and no false modesty here: is there anything the Higgs boson can't do?

A: Honest answer?  I want to be considered the Michael Jordan of subatomic particles.  By that I mean, Michael Jordan might not have been the most physically gifted player in the history of the NBA, but nobody worked harder at his game than he did.  That’s what I'm all about.  Whether it’s giving mass to matter, breaking electroweak symmetry or explaining the origin of the universe and whatnot, I believe I can do it all.

Q: Could you have kept Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise together?

A: Shit no! (laughs)

 (The Borowitz Report)

 

 

HR

Jet Propulsion Laboratory
July 09, 2012

It's been nearly two years since NASA's Cassini spacecraft has had views
like these of Saturn's glorious rings. These views are possible again
because Cassini has changed the angle at which it orbits Saturn and
regularly passes above and below Saturn's equatorial plane. Steeply
inclined orbits around the Saturn system also allow scientists to get
better views of the poles and atmosphere of Saturn and its moons.

Cassini's recent return of ring images has started to pay off. A group
of scientists has restarted the team's studies of propeller-shaped gaps.
These gaps are cleared out by objects that are smaller than known moons
but larger than typical ring particles. Cassini scientists haven't seen
propellers in two years. Matt Tiscareno, a Cassini imaging team
associate at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., and colleagues have been
following these objects for several years. Because some of the
propellers are exactly where models predicted they would be, scientists
believe they are seeing some old friends again.

Scientists are eagerly waiting for the other data that will come from
this change in perspective. What's the secret to getting Cassini to
orbit at such high angles? Cassini's lead navigator, Duane Roth,
explains in a JPL blog post:

http://blogs.jpl.nasa.gov/2012/07/a-different-slant/.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-199

 

The Titanian Seasons Turn, Turn, Turn
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
July 10, 2012

PASADENA, Calif. - Images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft show a
concentration of high-altitude haze and a vortex materializing at the
south pole of Saturn's moon Titan, signs that the seasons are turning on
Saturn's largest moon. "The structure inside the vortex is reminiscent
of the open cellular convection that is often seen over Earth's oceans,"
said Tony Del Genio, a Cassini team member at NASA's Goddard Institute
for Space Studies, N.Y. "But unlike on Earth, where such layers are just
above the surface, this one is at very high altitude, maybe a response
of Titan's stratosphere to seasonal cooling as southern winter
approaches. But so soon in the game, we're not sure."

Cassini first saw a "hood" of high-altitude haze and a vortex, which is
a mass of swirling gas around the pole in the moon's atmosphere, at
Titan's north pole when the spacecraft first arrived in the Saturn
system in 2004. At the time, it was northern winter. Multiple
instruments have been keeping an eye on the Titan atmosphere above the
south pole for signs of the coming southern winter.

While the northern hood has remained, the circulation in the upper
atmosphere has been moving from the illuminated north pole to the
cooling south pole. This movement appears to be causing downwellings
over the south pole and the formation of high-altitude haze and a vortex.

Cassini's visible light cameras saw the first signs of hazes starting to
concentrate over Titan's south pole in March, and the spacecraft's
visual and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIMS) obtained false-color
images on May 22 and June 7.

"VIMS has seen a concentration of aerosols forming about 200 miles [300
kilometers] above the surface of Titan's south pole," said Christophe
Sotin, a VIMS team member at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
Calif. "We've never seen aerosols here at this level before, so we know
this is something new."

During a June 27 distant flyby, Cassini's imaging cameras captured a
crow's-eye view of the south polar vortex in visible light. These new
images show this detached, high-altitude haze layer in stunning new detail.

"Future observations of this feature will provide good tests of
dynamical models of the Titan circulation, chemistry, cloud and aerosol
processes in the upper atmosphere," said Bob West, deputy imaging team
lead at JPL. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of
NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's
Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two
onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The
imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-200

 

 

 

 

 

Winter Is Coming on Titan

• Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Posted Thursday, July 12, 2012

 

False-color images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft show the development of a hood of high-altitude haze - which appears orange in this image -- forming over the south pole of Saturn's moon Titan. These images were obtained on May 22 and June 7, 2012 by the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer in infrared wavelengths. Scientists assigned the colors red, green and blue to wavelengths mostly sensitive to the stratosphere, troposphere, and surface components, respectively.

The newly discovered feature appears several hundred miles (kilometers) above the surface. When Cassini arrived at Saturn, it saw a hood of clouds and haze over Titan's north pole, which was experiencing winter. The south pole was basically clear, except for sporadic methane clouds. The seasons have been changing and the circulation in the upper atmosphere goes now from the illuminated north pole to the cooling south pole, causing downwellings over the south pole and formation of the hood.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/LPGNantes Full-Res: PIA15609

 

HR

Cassini Significant Events 07/04/2012 - 07/10/2012

 

The most recent spacecraft tracking and telemetry data were collected on July 10 by the Deep Space Network's 70 meter Station 43 at Canberra, Australia. Aside from the Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CAPS), which is off, and the Ultrastable Oscillator (see the Jan. 5, 2012 Significant Events), the Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health with all its subsystems functioning normally. Information on the present position of the Cassini spacecraft may be found on the "Present Position" page at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/presentposition/.

 

This week the Cassini flight team and the Deep Space Network (DSN) coordinated closely to conduct a definitive engineering test on the spacecraft which confirmed that the Ultra Stable Oscillator (USO) is inoperative, rather than other in-line telecommunications subsystem components. This will have no effect on engineering operations, but will impose some degradation on the accuracy of Radio Science occultation experiments.

 

With Cassini's orbits now inclined about 21 degrees with respect to Saturn's equatorial plane, not only are ring observations possible, but the polar regions of Saturn and its satellites are again in view. This geometry led to the news releases linked below.

 

 

Wednesday, July 4 (DOY 186)

 

Yesterday, a Cassini ground-system database issue halted Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) and Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) product generation from the downlinked data. Flight team members restored the processes before the holiday and no data were lost.

 

Cassini's S-band transmitter came on today, the result of a timed command sent last week. Realtime commands were then uplinked to power on Deep Space Transponder (DST)-B for the first time in flight. Manipulating the DSN uplink frequency from the ground provided a chance for DST-B to operate from a USO reference, had it been operable, without having to turn off DST-A. DST-B appeared healthy, but there was no evidence of a USO-based signal. The spacecraft was then re-configured for normal operations.

 

ISS, VIMS and the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) monitored Titan from a distance of 3.2 million kilometers, then the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) and VIMS began a 35 hour observation of Saturn's south polar auroral oval while the planet rotated three and a half times.

 

 

Thursday, July 5 (DOY 187)

 

Round-trip light-time with Cassini, as close to "realtime" as we can get, is 2 hours 38 minutes and increasing as Earth moves farther from Saturn.

 

Since Approach Science began in January, 2004, there have been 272,652 ISS images and 142,355 VIMS cubes acquired, downlinked, and processed.

 

 

Friday, July 6 (DOY 188)

 

ISS, CIRS and VIMS monitored Titan from 2.9 million kilometers, then UVIS and VIMS began another long duration Saturn aurora observation.

 

 

Saturday, July 7 (DOY 189)

 

The Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem team performed a Reaction Wheel Assembly (RWA) bias maneuver while being tracked by the DSN. Thrusters stabilized the spacecraft attitude so the RWA speeds could be adjusted. An RWA bias maneuver was also performed during the busy 4th of July holiday while off Earth-point and not being tracked.

 

 

Sunday, July 8 (DOY 190)

 

UVIS and VIMS began another long aurora observation.

 

 

Monday, July 9 (DOY 191)

 

The feature "Saturn's Rings are Back" was made available here: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassinifeatures/feature20120709/ .

 

A member of the Cassini Navigation team published a blog entry called, "A Different Slant: Cassini Has a Special View of Saturn These Days - How Did It Get There?" It can be seen here: http://blogs.jpl.nasa.gov/2012/07/a-different-slant/ .

 

 

Tuesday, July 10 (DOY 192)

 

Apoapsis in an orbit around Saturn can also be called "apokrone". Cassini passed through this point today at more than twice the "height" of Titan's orbit, going 5,695 kilometers per hour relative to the planet. This marked the start of orbit #169, which has a period of 24 days and an inclination of 21.2 degrees.

 

ISS, CIRS and VIMS monitored Titan from 1.8 million kilometers. The Magnetometer then executed a sensor offset calibration by rotating the spacecraft about its X axis.

 

Heavy rain over the DSN station at Canberra, Australia, drowned out Cassini's incoming signal for more than six hours, causing loss of science telemetry for large portions of the last two aurora observations.

 

Compelling images of a high-altitude vortex on Titan were released today and discussed in a feature titled, "The Titanian Seasons Turn, Turn, Turn": http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/newsreleases/newsrelease20120710/ .

 

 HR

Space Weather News for July 12, 2012
http://spaceweather.com

EARTH-DIRECTED X-FLARE: Big sunspot AR1520 erupted on July 12th around 16:53 UT, producing an X-class solar flare and hurling a CME directly toward Earth.  Forecasters expect the cloud to arrive on July 14th.  Its impact could spark moderate to severe geomagnetic storms, allowing auroras to be seen at lower latitudes than usual.  Check http://spaceweather.com for more information and updates.

 

HR

News advisory: 2012-212                                                                    July 18, 2012 Cassini Spots Daytime Lightning on Saturn The full version of this story with accompanying images is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-212&cid=release_2012-212 PASADENA, Calif. – Saturn was playing the lightning storm blues. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has captured images of last year’s storm on Saturn, the largest storm seen up-close at the planet, with bluish spots in the middle of swirling clouds. Those bluish spots indicate flashes of lightning and mark the first time scientists have detected lightning in visible wavelengths on the side of Saturn illuminated by the sun. “We didn't think we'd see lightning on Saturn’s day side – only its night side,” said Ulyana Dyudina, a Cassini imaging team associate based at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “The fact that Cassini was able to detect the lightning means that it was very intense.” Images can be found at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.govandhttp://ciclops.org. The storm occurred last year. The lightning flashes appear brightest in the blue filter of Cassini’s imaging camera on March 6, 2011. Scientists aggressively heightened the blue tint of the image to determine its size and location. Scientists are still analyzing why the blue filter catches the lightning. It might be that the lightning really is blue, or it might be that the short exposure of the camera in the blue filter makes the short-lived lightning easier to see. What scientists do know is that the intensity of the flash is comparable to the strongest flashes on Earth. The visible energy alone is estimated to be about 3 billion watts lasting for one second. The flash is approximately 100 miles (200 kilometers) in diameter when it exits the tops of the clouds. From this, scientists deduce that the lightning bolts originate in the clouds deeper down in Saturn’s atmosphere where water droplets freeze. This is analogous to where lightning is created in Earth’s atmosphere. In composite images that show the band of the storm wrapping all the way around Saturn, scientists have seen multiple flashes. In one composite image, they recorded five flashes, and in another, three flashes. “As summer storm season descends upon Earth’s northern latitudes, Cassini provides us a great opportunity to see how weather plays out at different places in our solar system,” said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist, based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “Saturn’s atmosphere has been changing over the eight years Cassini has been at Saturn, and we can't wait to see what happens next.” The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. Jia-Rui C. Cook 818-354-0850 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. jia-rui.c.cook@... - end -

HR

Cassini Significant Events 07/11/2012 - 07/17/2012

 

The most recent spacecraft tracking and telemetry data were collected on July 18 by the Deep Space Network's 34 meter Station 45 at Canberra, Australia. Aside from the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer, which is off, and the Ultrastable Oscillator (see the Jan. 5, 2012 Significant Events), the Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health with all its subsystems functioning normally. Information on the present position of the Cassini spacecraft may be found on the "Present Position" page at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/presentposition/.

 

Having passed through apoapsis the previous day, Cassini spent this week more than 2 million kilometers from Saturn making in-situ measurements in the outer magnetosphere and magnetosheath, remotely observing Saturn's aurora and monitoring Titan. On the ground, preparations were conducted for a busy period around periapsis next week, when the rings will again be observed by remote sensing, and actively probed in another Radio Science occultation experiment.

 

 

Wednesday, July 11 (DOY 193)

 

The Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) observed the small dark moon Ymir in its retrograde orbit 23 million kilometers from Saturn.

Sequence planners for S75, which goes active in September, are evaluating whether there will be a need to do a Live Inertial Vector Propagator Update to ensure adequate instrument pointing accuracy for observations of the outer irregular satellite Bestla, based on newly delivered ephemeris data.

 

 

Thursday, July 12 (DOY 194)

 

Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking allocations to Cassini were changed late in the S74 sequence process after the sequence had been built, so commands were uplinked today to change downlink telemetry rates to accommodate a short DSN tracking pass on Monday.

 

The Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem team performed a Reaction Wheel Assembly (RWA) bias maneuver. While off Earth-point and not being tracked, thrusters stabilized the spacecraft so the RWA speeds could be adjusted.

The 70 meter DSN station in Canberra, Australia, participated in an Operations Readiness Test (ORT) for next week's Radio Science rings and atmosphere occultation experiment.

 

 

Friday, July 13 (DOY 195)

 

The Navigation team took images of Saturn's moon Iapetus against a background star field to be used in support of optical navigation.

 

Today, and again on July 15 and 17, the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) observed Saturn's aurora by performing a mixture of slews and fixed pointings at the southern auroral oval. The visible and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIMS), the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS), and ISS took advantage of the pointing to also make auroral observations.

 

 

Saturday, July 14 (DOY 196)

 

A 34 meter DSN station in Canberra, Australia, participated in an ORT for next week's Radio Science experiment.

 

 

Sunday, July 15 (DOY 197)

 

Saturn and Titan are still prominent for viewing in small telescopes; look toward the southwest as soon as it's dark. You might notice Mars is in the same part of the sky. This affects Cassini in that many of the same DSN antennas that might otherwise be tracking Cassini are needed for communications with the Mars Science Laboratory, which is due to land on Mars on Aug. 5 Pacific time.

 

 

Monday, July 16 (DOY 198)

 

ISS led the pointing, with CIRS and VIMS also taking measurements, to monitor Titan as part of the Titan Meteorological Campaign.

The navigation team released a trajectory update in support of the Live Moveable Block that will execute during next week's Radio Science experiment.

 

 

Tuesday, July 17 (DOY 199)

 

A Mission Planning forum was held today to review propellant use in the S73 sequence and the status of the propellant budgets. This status is provided on a regular basis so the Project can maintain cognizance of propellant usage and end-of-mission margins.

Work began today on realtime commands that make up what is known as a Live Moveable Block that will ensure the best possible timing of spacecraft activities during the RS occultation experiment next week.

 

 HR

Cassini Titan Flyby (T-85): Watching the Lakes
July 24, 2012

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/flybys/titan20120724/

 

During the July 24, 2012, close Titan flyby, called T-85, the Cassini
spacecraft will look for a glint of sun light reflecting off a methane
lake.

The lake, named Kivu Lacus, is one of Titan's northern small lakes, and
the visible and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIMS) instrument team
hopes to image the specular reflection. VIMS is prime at closest
approach and is set to acquire close-up imaging of Kivu Lacus and Punga
Mare, the third largest body of liquid on Titan. Next, the instrument
will acquire a close-up image of the Huygens landing site, which
scientists will be able to use to look for geological changes.

This is one of VIMS' so-called "10-pointer" flybys, i.e. one of the two
scientifically most significant Titan flybys for VIMS during the
Solstice mission.

In addition, T-83 through T-88 (see
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/flybys/) is a set of six fly-bys
where closest approach occurs at Saturnian local noon -- that is, when
Titan is directly between the sun and Saturn -- and within a six month
time span approaching the predicted maximum of solar activity. Saturn's
magnetosphere will respond to increased solar wind pressure that is
expected to be pushing the Saturnian magnetic field closer to the
planet, which means that it is more likely that Titan will be in area
where Saturn's magnetic field is weaker, making it easier to observe the
magnetic fields (if any) from Titan.

Titan Flyby at a Glance

Date
July 24, 2012 [SCET]

Altitude
629 miles (1,012 kilometers)

Speed
13,000 mph (5.8 km/sec)

Details

Quick-Look Facts (PDF, 688 KB)
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/files/20120724_Titan85_flyby_quicklook.pdf

 

Cassini Significant Events 07/18/2012 - 07/24/2012

 

The most recent spacecraft tracking and telemetry data were collected on July 25 by the Deep Space Network's 70 meter Station 14 at Goldstone, California. Aside from the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer, which is off, and the Ultrastable Oscillator (see the Jan. 5, 2012 Significant Events), the Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health with all its subsystems functioning normally. Information on the present position of the Cassini spacecraft may be found on the "Present Position" page at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/presentposition/.

 

A 21-day period wrapped up on Saturday that was focused on Magnetospheric and Plasma Science observations of Saturn's magnetosphere and magnetosheath. Another Radio Science rings and atmosphere occultation experiment took place on Sunday. Finally, the Titan T85 encounter occurred on Tuesday as described here: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/flybys/titan20120724/

 

 

Wednesday, July 18 (DOY 200)

 

The Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) led spacecraft pointing as part of the Titan Meteorological Campaign while the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) and the Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) also took measurements.

The feature "Cassini Spots Daytime Lightning on Saturn" was released today. It may be viewed here: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/newsreleases/newsrelease20120718/

 

 

Thursday, July 19 (DOY 201)

 

A 34 meter Deep Space Network (DSN) station in Canberra, Australia, participated in an Operations Readiness Test for Sunday's Radio Science rings and atmosphere occultation experiment. During this pass, the flight team uplinked "Live Moveable Block" commands to refine the timing of spacecraft activities during Sunday's experiment.

 

 

Friday, July 20 (DOY 202)

 

A meeting with the NASA Engineering and Safety Center, the Cassini spacecraft team, and staff from the Southwest Research Institute was held to begin an investigation into the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer instrument anomaly that caused a solid state power switch to shut it off on June 3 of this year.

 

 

Saturday, July 21 (DOY 203)

 

Orbit Trim Maneuver (OTM) 328, the Titan 85 approach maneuver, was performed today using the Reaction Control Subsystem thrusters. The 161 second burn provided a delta-V of about 172 millimeters per second.

 

 

Sunday, July 22 (DOY 204)

 

The Radio Science Subsystem team performed an ingress occultation experiment, probing Saturn's rings and then atmosphere, using Cassini's 3-frequency radio beam. The DSN again provided the reference frequency via uplink because Cassini's Ultrastable Oscillator is inoperable. This time the spacecraft performed a limb-tracking maneuver, rotating as it went behind Saturn to keep its antenna pointing in such a way that it would still be received on Earth when atmospheric refraction began to bend the signal. The spacecraft's downlink was received and recorded at 70 meter and 34 meter stations at Canberra, Australia.

 

With the Sun eclipsed behind Saturn, Cassini was free to safely point its instruments toward the backlit rings. VIMS observed the unlit side at up to 175 degrees phase angle, looking for clouds from impacts of interplanetary debris on the A ring. Unusually high resolution should reveal most of the narrow gaps in the Cassini Division and narrow ringlets in the tenuous D ring. Riding on the VIMS observation, ISS took advantage of the opportunity to image the rings at high resolution and very high phase.

 

As Cassini crossed through the ring plane, the Cosmic Dust Analyzer measured particle count rates. CIRS then made a unique, high priority observation of the rings at high phase angles. VIMS observed the bright star Sirius rising through Saturn's atmosphere. Finally, UVIS observed another star behind the rings, providing a virtually microscopic view of ring densities including locations where the A ring opens into the Cassini Division.

 

 

Monday, July 23 (DOY 205)

 

UVIS observed the bright star Spica passing near Saturn's moon Dione due to Cassini's motion to search for evidence of Dione's exosphere in absorption spectra.

 

ISS searched for moonlets in gaps in the Cassini Division. CIRS carried out an infrared temperature mapping of Titan's atmosphere, and then the spacecraft performed a reaction-wheel bias maneuver.

 

An image called "Wave Maker" was featured today, showing Saturn's moon Daphnis causing out-of-plane structures in the A ring. It can be viewed here: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/imagedetails/index.cfm?imageId=4601

 

 

Tuesday, July 24 (DOY 206)

 

As planned years ago by Cassini's tour designers, today's close northerly flyby of Titan (see the T-85 page linked above) took advantage of that body's gravitation and orbital momentum to increase the spacecraft's orbital inclination from 21.2 to 32.2 degrees with respect to Saturn's equatorial plane.

 

For closest approach, attitude control was commanded to switch from reaction wheels to thrusters to provide increased control authority over atmosphere-generated torques. The spacecraft rotated about its three axes to point optical remote-sensing and in-situ instruments. Telemetry data from all the instruments were stored aboard the Solid State Recorder. Playback will be complete Friday morning after three tracking periods with DSN's 70 meter stations at Goldstone and Canberra. Cassini transmits its telemetry to Earth at rates up to about 165,000 bits per second.

 

 

 HR