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Post by simnettpratt on Apr 22, 2017 18:24:46 GMT -5
So NASA has a space probe called Cassini orbiting Saturn. It was launched in 1997 and is about to burn itself up, plunging into Saturn's atmosphere. Before that however, it took some last pictures of earth from between Saturn's rings, almost a billion miles away. Here's the first one. I'm somewhere on the white dot.  If you zoom in a little, you can see the moon:  And if you zoom in a lot, you get this. I'm in the middle, near the top.  |
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Post by papipeguy on Apr 22, 2017 18:36:16 GMT -5
Fantastic shots. Really brings home how tiny we are in the universe.
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Post by simnettpratt on Apr 22, 2017 18:49:28 GMT -5
My buddy's dad had a real telescope at his house in the country, and one night we got to use it. While we couldn't find the big lens, we used the medium one to look at the only two things Tim knew how to find: the Moon and Jupiter.
The moon I'd seen, and wasn't that great, but Jupiter was a different story. It was big and silent, and glided slowly to the left; you could totally see the spot. It gave me chills to realize this wasn't digitized or reproduced, but live, with just really good eyes.
It was both majestic and wholly uncaring. I care not about your toils, puny human.
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Post by peterd-Buffalo Spirit on Apr 22, 2017 19:50:23 GMT -5
yes...that tiny dot does speak volumes when one considers the Galaxy and then the Universe is terms of size and perhaps the question, Is there more???
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Post by simnettpratt on Apr 22, 2017 22:32:23 GMT -5
If anyone can figure our what the pale purple over the land is, I'd like to hear it. I thought it might be the light of smaller cities, but then why is only the western half of the US purple? And what's with the sharply defined band down western South America? Some kind of digital enhancement, but if so, of what? I like the way Dallas and Houston really show up, and the triangle of Los Angeles, Phoenix to the east, and a dimmer Vegas above. I did not realize Phoenix was brighter than Las Vegas from space. You can see Atlanta above Florida, then another line of cities from DC up to Boston. The Carribean's pretty well defined, with maybe Grenada at the southern tip? Or is that Venezuala? Almost worth the $3.27 BILLION little Cassini cost.  |
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Post by trailboss on Apr 23, 2017 10:26:19 GMT -5
Some of the photos that are at a few clicks of the mouse are truly stunning. I regularly listen to the John Batchelor podcast, and he regularly has Robert Zimmerman on from Tucson, he really shares some great articles on the subject. behindtheblack.com/North Korea at night:   The name escapes me now, but we are readying a telescope to launch to deep space that will far exceed what the Hubble telescope is capable of..... |
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Post by simnettpratt on Apr 23, 2017 11:09:16 GMT -5
The name escapes you because it's not memorable: the JWST, or James Webb Space Telescope. Should be called The Webb Browser or something. It could detect the heat signature of a bumblebee on the moon, or the details on a penny at 24 miles, and will orbit the sun one million miles from earth (Hubble orbits the earth 375 miles away). Hubble, as you know, can be serviced; Webb, nope.
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