
Hubble Reveals Latest Portrait of Saturn - cow9
https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1917/
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gdubs
This summer I gazed at Saturn through an inexpensive telescope my dad found at
an antique store. The image was tiny, and rather black-and-white, but the
rings were sharp and unmistakable. Despite the lack of resolution, it was one
of the most magical things I’ve seen. Seeing Jupiter and its moons was pretty
great too.

~~~
jcims
Such a cool feeling isn't it? Never forget the first time I saw those rings in
person through a cheap telescope. It somehow places you in the same universe
you've only read about till then.

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jcims
In case it whet your appetite for more tastefully shot imagery of heavenly
bodies:

[https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/images/index.html](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/images/index.html)

~~~
tabtab
This backlit view from Cassini is one of the most amazing. It's not a view one
can see from Earth. [https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/13315/in-saturns-
shad...](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/13315/in-saturns-shadow-color-
exaggerated-view/) (Note: colors are enhanced a bit)

~~~
jcims
Took me a minute to figure out the shadow at Saturn's equator, but it looks
like the rings basically illuminate the entire planet and the shadow is just
where the dust from the ring blocks the reflected light from the sun.

Read an article about how Titan would possibly be a better location for humans
to land first, and one of the benefits listed was that you could see Saturn's
rings up close. Amen. :)

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tabtab
The back rings are also in sharp shadow that happens to mostly match the shape
of the planet from that angle.

Re: _Titan would possibly be a better location for humans to land first, and
one of the benefits listed was that you could see Saturn 's rings up close_

Titan's hazy atmosphere may make viewing Saturn itself tricky. It's debated
how much it's "fogged out" and how often there are partial clearings in the
haze. But at least the atmosphere can protect one from Saturn's radiation.

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doe88
The number of years of service and usefulness of Hubble is truly astonishing.
I even remember news, almost joking about its initial mirror flaw which
inflicted ironically an almost blindness, so much so people thought it would
be fatal. NASA & Hubble seem to have had the last laugh on this one. Long live
Hubble!

~~~
tabtab
But the repair costs were astronomical (pun semi-intended). However, the
experience helped with future maintenance missions. Part of the reason for the
flaw was paranoia about leaking tech to other countries that could result in
spy scopes, which made testing tricky.

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jankotek
Original image:
[https://hubblesite.org/image/4565/gallery](https://hubblesite.org/image/4565/gallery)

It has smaller resolution compared to older Saturn images.

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mihaifm
Thanks, much better. The posted article is insanely slow and clogged by ads
(over 600 http requests)

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mileycyrusXOXO
Additionally, the posted article is a watered down version of this one; the
journalist just rewrote paragraph by paragraph but in less detail.

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ademarre
Mike Massimino's book, _Spaceman_ , includes a captivating account of what it
was like to spacewalk on Hubble. He went on two Hubble servicing missions,
including the final one when the WFC3 was installed—the camera that captured
this new Saturn image.

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exhilaration
Why can't you see any stars in these pictures or the video they posted? I'd
expect to see thousands of stars.

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hackerbabz
The exposure is adjusted for Saturn which is much brighter than the stars.

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jonbronson
That said, it would be amazing to see HDR images of these stellar bodies.

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ksaj
Here's a picture of some of the light even HDR wouldn't likely uncover:

[https://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2007/07/The_constel...](https://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2007/07/The_constellation_Orion_and_the_winter_Milky_Way)

EDIT: A larger version of the image, with an equally huge url:
[https://m.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/imag...](https://m.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2007/07/the_constellation_orion_and_the_winter_milky_way/9242622-5-eng-
GB/The_constellation_Orion_and_the_winter_Milky_Way_article_mob.jpg)

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the8472
HDR and wide-spectrum are extensions along different measurement axes.

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neurostimulant
You can even see the hexagonal pole from Hubble! Amazing!

Full size image:
[https://www.spacetelescope.org/static/archives/images/origin...](https://www.spacetelescope.org/static/archives/images/original/heic1917a.tif)

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investologia
Link to the original video:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eJM0WlEjTs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eJM0WlEjTs)

It might save you some time

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metaphor
From the image titled _The Moons of Saturn (annotated)_ [1], what relevance do
the arrows denoting "North" and "East" have?

I'm genuinely dumbfounded by the concept of cardinal directions in space.

[1]
[https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1917b/](https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1917b/)

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Cogito
This is from memory, so apologies if vastly wrong.

North is the direction out of the solar system plane in the same direction as
Earth's North. East is prograde; tangent to the radial line from the sun, and
in the direction of travel about the sun.

Quickly googling I discovered that Saturn is considered to 'Rule the West' in
some astrology circles, but alas I think that may not help this discussion.

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SigmundA
Was trying to figure out why it looked photo-shopped to me. Realized the
planet looks cut and pasted on to the rings due to the planets shadow on the
rings being just barely visible behind giving it a black outline look. Well
I'm assuming its the shadow...

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gpm
Also the nearly precisely head on lighting, that comes from exactly 1 point.
The lack of any atmospheric distortion. The perfectly clean background.

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Areading314
Hubble is a fantastic program that gets far too little credit IMO.

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Normal_gaussian
I'm not sure how much more credit it could get. It is extremely well known
inside and outside of technical circles. Its images are often the face of
astronomy as a whole - and credited as such.

~~~
mobilefriendly
There was a lot of criticism of the cost of the Hubble program in the
beginning and then then mirrors failed after it was initally placed in orbit,
turning Hubble into a national joke. NASA and Congress seriously considered
abandoning Hubble then and a couple more times in the last two decades.

[https://spaceflightnow.com/2015/04/23/fixing-hubbles-
blurry-...](https://spaceflightnow.com/2015/04/23/fixing-hubbles-blurry-
vision/)

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baal80spam
Wow. It really looks like created in Blender or similar program!

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nsai
I read a journal claiming saturn would lose its rings over a period of time.
Wonder how the solar system would look a few hundred thousand years later..

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swebs
Nice image, but the article is Buzzfeed-tier garbage.

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kashyapc
The official URL from the ESA (European Space Agency) / Hubble Information
Centre newsletter was:

[https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1917/](https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1917/)

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auslander
Exposure is too long, all details lost.

