New Details From Cassini's Phoebe Flyby

No_Weak_Heart writes "New details and images of Cassini-Huygens' close encounter with Saturn's moon Phoebe have been released. Much of the data seems to confirm the earlier suspicion that Pheobe was formed in the outer reaches of the solar system and was later captured by Saturn's gravity. More coverage at Nature, NY Timesand the BBC. We covered the flyby here."

The good photos.

[Eevee]

Closeup (2050x2900 pixels) [nasa.gov] Look for the bright crater right at the top (on the solar terminator line) and the fresh crater on the lower right.

Ultraviolet comparison. [nasa.gov] Interesting for the brightest UV location being in shadow in the visible light photo.

Re:The good photos.

[Anonymous Coward]

Grayscale jpegs... Is Cassini color blind? I personally prefer to get 1/3 of the pictures but have them with 3 channel color. That was the decision for the Voyager/Pioneer probes too. Why does the Cassini team prefer black-and-white?

Re:The good photos.

[Rhodnius]

Not that anybody's going to read this topic, but here's the answer. Cassini does take both color and grayscale photos. Just like in any other environment, color requires more data and more processing. The majority of Cassini's photos are grayscale because they're easier and faster to take. There will be some color pictures once the data is processed and released, but there's more grayscale pictures and it's easier to get them out faster. And it's not like Phoebe is a colorful object anyway.

Strictly speaking, the spacecraft doesn't have a color camera. Rather, all of its cameras can be equipped with filters for various wavelengths - red, green, blue, infrared, ultraviolet, and so on. Taking a color picture requires multiple exposures through different filters, so it takes longer and delivers less resolution.

Finally, color pictures really aren't that valuable for science anyway. They make for pretty pictures and posters, but that isn't Cassini's job. Filtering at different wavelengths is important for some objects (particularly Titan and the rings), but for other objects, grayscale images usually convey very close to 100% of the scientific information that a color picture would.

Elvis?

[Red Rocket]

Closeup (2050x2900 pixels) Look for the bright crater right at the top (on the solar terminator line)

It looks like the aliens have put a tribute to Elvis in the top left of that crater.

Re:The good photos.

[prof_peabody]

A group of three crators near the bottom right look like a Mickey Mouse head. Oh wait I didn't say that... This will be just like when Disney threatened to sue some geologists over some seafloor features (salt dome bumps) in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico that looked very much like Mickey (uncanny).

Cassini helps put science in the media

[prof_peabody]

I'm glad to sea all the space exploration headlines in the media. NASA and it's co-operative agencies have done a spectacular job of delivering both high and low level versions of their results very quickly. If anyone from NASA/JPL/LPI et al is reading this, kudos to you keep up the good work. The next few months will be very interesting in the Cassini mission!