It was 11:56 necropsy Wednesday nighttime when a Deep Space internet receiver nibble up a signal from NASA ’s Cassini orbiter as it emerged from its first trip through the gapbetween Saturn and the natural gas heavyweight ’s rings . In the result data came pictures of the planet ’s north pole and cloud tops from only 1,800 air mile ( 3000 kilometers ) away — our tight look yet at the upper part of Saturn ’s atmosphere , where the imperativeness is about the same as it is at ocean level on Earth .
research worker at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory were awestruck by the detail , but I was leave with a question : What would it be like to really visit the upper compass of Saturn ’s sky ?
What initially caught my attention in the young images were the bright place scatter the thin bands across the satellite ’s side . My August 15 was that these were potential flutter of lightning captured by Cassini’sImaging Science SubsystemWide Angle Camera , but no . “ We did n’t catch any lightning [ on Wednesday nighttime ] , ” Caltech professor Andy Ingersoll , an expert in planetary atmosphere , tell me when I called him to talk about the Saturnian weather I ’d necessitate to pack for .
According to Ingersoll , the lighter blob pictured above are clouds of ammonia floating about 93 miles ( 150 kilometers ) atop the next closest stratum of the air . If you were suspend in a hydrogen balloon ( not He , as a helium balloon in a hydrogen atmosphere would “ sink like a rock , ” Ingersoll said ) , these ammonia clouds would look very like to our piss vapor cumulus cloud here on Earth .
“ There in all likelihood are cloud of body of water vaporization down deeply but we ca n’t see them as well because it ’s frigid . The body of water [ freezes ] at greater depth than the ammonia , ” suppose Ingersoll . “ So , we typically see ammonia clouds and that ’s what I recollect these are , as warm atmosphere rises up and condenses out cloud particles . ” Warm , it should be noted , is a comparative terminal figure — temperature fair -270 Celsius in Saturn ’s upper aura , so bring a coat .
brio of images from@CassiniSaturn ’s close walk over#Saturnon April 26pic.twitter.com/yklpSXJwrS
— Jason Major ( @JPMajor)April 27 , 2017
On Wednesday night , Cassini get a series of photos thatbegan with the spinning gyrein the center of Saturn ’s north pole hexagon . go south , it finally flew by the equator at a tonic 77,000 miles per 60 minutes ( 124,000 km/h ) . If the camera was shoot in gloss , we would have check the cerulean blue angel of the north terminal ’s inner vortex , but the spacecraft ’s speed call for monochrome picture taking .
https://gizmodo.com/oh-my-god-look-at-saturns-north-pole-1793887193
“ alas , we ’re seeing [ these feature ] only in pitch-dark and ashen , ” say Ingersoll . “ That was just inevitable because we were flying so fast we could n’t afford to put a filter on the camera because it would have smeared the figure too much . We needed to collect all the light there was . ”
What was astonishing to Ingersoll was how light the streaky clouds ofammonium hydrosulphidewere beneath those fluffy ammonia cloud — and their scale leaf . “ There were these long thread of cloud , filamentary cloud fairly unlike Earth cloud , ” he say . “ It ’s as if you had you pulled the air out and the clouds resist to mix with each other . ”
That could have something to do with another phenomenon Ingersoll observed : The thready cloud were very neat , as if nothing was disturbing the air , despite the fact that winds on Saturn hit up to 1,100 miles per time of day ( 1,800 kph ) . That could speak to a fundamental view of the outer planets ’ atmospheres .
“ [ Thursday ’s photo data point ] bears on the question of why are the winds actually stronger on Saturn than they are Jupiter , and why are both of them stronger than the winds on Earth , ” Ingersoll said . “ And I think it ’s because there ’s just less turbulence the farther out you go in the solar system . ”
Wednesday night ’s close brushing with Saturn was just the first of the 22 passes schedule before Cassini ’s final descent this September , but it ’s only one of three or four where visual light data will be collected . What Ingersoll is look forward to in future flybys are reading material that thrust through the upper swarm level and into the depths of the planet . Magnetic , infrared and microwave sensors will be pointed at Saturn on future flybys , cutting through the opaque cloud cover and into the gas hulk ’s sum to get our best view yet of the structure of the planet .
take in from@CassiniSaturnapproaching Saturn ’s north rod early yesterday morning , prepare for the first fateful anchor ring dive#CassiniInspirespic.twitter.com / PySHdNQMyq
— Conor A Nixon ( @Shamrocketeer)April 28 , 2017
“ [ Cassini ’s ] photographic camera is only one of its instruments , ” he say . “ In fact , Cassini is a very wonderful spacecraft because of the assortment of instruments that it has . ”
Ingersoll mentioned the final Grand Finale observation he was appear forward to most at the very end of our conversation , which could solve an on-going enigma of the planet ’s constitution . Saturn ’s magnetic field has a very unusual property in that it ’s “ axisymmetric”—it has no tilt . That ’s uncanny , because the maths behind global charismatic field require a bit of tilt .
“ How does a planet generate a magnetic field ? The off - axis rock is sort of part of that whole theory and if there ’s no tilt at all , well , it will be interesting , ” he suppose with a chuckle .
Bryson is a freelance storyteller who wants to explore the population with you .
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