Iapetus Encounter In January |
Iapetus Encounter In January |
Nov 29 2004, 04:38 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 154 Joined: 8-June 04 Member No.: 80 |
I heard about a peak on Iapetus that may be taller than Olympus Mons on Mars. I was wondering if the RADAR instrument will be used in the January encounter to verify this. What is the maximum distance the RADAR can be used?
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Nov 30 2004, 03:25 AM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1276 Joined: 25-November 04 Member No.: 114 |
I have an animation of this flyby. It shows what to expect during the flyby.
Let me know if you want this. |
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Nov 30 2004, 02:13 PM
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#3
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 76 Joined: 26-May 04 Member No.: 77 |
Please! Can you post it here?
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Dec 1 2004, 12:48 AM
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#4
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1276 Joined: 25-November 04 Member No.: 114 |
It's 13.7 Mb
I think I would have to do a file transfer for that. Got ICQ or MSN? ICQ# 6840999 |
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Dec 1 2004, 04:41 PM
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#5
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3234 Joined: 11-February 04 From: Tucson, AZ Member No.: 23 |
In addition to the encounter on December 30, we can also look forward to the following encounters:
Nov. 2005 416,000 km (2.5 km/pixel, should show eastern Cassini Regio an d some of the bright terrain) Jan. 2006 879,000 km (5.3 km/pixel, ring east of Cassini Regio, and eastern Cassini Regio) Apr. 2006 603,000 km (3.6 km/pixel, southern leading hemisphere) Sep. 10, 2007 1250 km (12 m/pixel, central cassini regio) QUOTE I heard about a peak on Iapetus that may be taller than Olympus Mons on Mars. I was wondering if the RADAR instrument will be used in the January encounter to verify this. What is the maximum distance the RADAR can be used? ISS should be able to confirm the heights in the close encounter in 2007 when we might get some great images of those peaks (four of them). Voyager (not sure which one) saw one of the peaks along the limb and Cassini saw the four of them. -------------------- &@^^!% Jim! I'm a geologist, not a physicist!
The Gish Bar Times - A Blog all about Jupiter's Moon Io |
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Dec 6 2004, 01:03 PM
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#6
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IMG to PNG GOD Group: Moderator Posts: 2251 Joined: 19-February 04 From: Near fire and ice Member No.: 38 |
I did an animation showing 24 hours of the Iapetus flybys around the time of closest approach. It's fairly big (4 MB) but I could upload it temporarily to my website if there's interest in seeing it. However, it's not very impressive, it only shows Iapetus with a lat/lon grid, no instrument FOVs or observations are shown since needless to say I have no information on these. Needless to say I also have stills from the animation.
This is going to be an interesting flyby with images that should be better than the best Voyager 1 images of Rhea. |
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Dec 7 2004, 08:58 PM
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#7
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IMG to PNG GOD Group: Moderator Posts: 2251 Joined: 19-February 04 From: Near fire and ice Member No.: 38 |
These three stills show Iapetus near the time of closest approach which occurs near 1900 UTC on December 31. This is a very slow flyby, the distance varies by less than 5000 km over the 8 hour interval shown here. The field of view is two times the field of view of Cassini's narrow angle camera.
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Dec 7 2004, 11:44 PM
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#8
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 76 Joined: 26-May 04 Member No.: 77 |
WOW!!!
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Dec 8 2004, 02:31 PM
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#9
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Member Group: Members Posts: 710 Joined: 28-September 04 Member No.: 99 |
In the meantime two smaller Iapetus WOWs :
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06146 and http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06145 |
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Dec 8 2004, 02:55 PM
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#10
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Interplanetary Dumpster Diver Group: Admin Posts: 4404 Joined: 17-February 04 From: Powell, TN Member No.: 33 |
How close will Cassini come to Iapetus during Tb?
-------------------- |
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Dec 8 2004, 03:52 PM
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#11
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 76 Joined: 26-May 04 Member No.: 77 |
QUOTE (tedstryk @ Dec 8 2004, 02:55 PM) How close will Cassini come to Iapetus during Tb? After T-b near Cassini's apoapsis, near Dec 30th, Cassini will pass (I think) 100,000km from Iapetus - the closest to date by far. Someone in here said the flyby was originally planned to be closer - but due to uncertainties in Iapetus mass and concerns of Huygen's (in free flight at the time) trajectory being affected decided to increase the flyby distance. |
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Dec 8 2004, 05:27 PM
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#12
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3234 Joined: 11-February 04 From: Tucson, AZ Member No.: 23 |
Wow, those images got release quickly I anticipated them getting released much later (like nearer to the Iapetus encounter).
A few notes: Note the giant crater near the terminator (EDIT: I see T.R. did mention that in the caption). Iapetus is definitely a battered, ancient world with no less than three giant impact basins on the order of Odysseus in size (relative to satellite radius). That impact structure is on the order of 550 km across Here, BTW, is a look at those mountains by Voyager 2: -------------------- &@^^!% Jim! I'm a geologist, not a physicist!
The Gish Bar Times - A Blog all about Jupiter's Moon Io |
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Dec 8 2004, 05:32 PM
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#13
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3234 Joined: 11-February 04 From: Tucson, AZ Member No.: 23 |
-------------------- &@^^!% Jim! I'm a geologist, not a physicist!
The Gish Bar Times - A Blog all about Jupiter's Moon Io |
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Dec 8 2004, 10:14 PM
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#14
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1276 Joined: 25-November 04 Member No.: 114 |
SO cassini will use Radar on this approach?
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Dec 8 2004, 10:38 PM
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#15
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3234 Joined: 11-February 04 From: Tucson, AZ Member No.: 23 |
QUOTE (Decepticon @ Dec 8 2004, 03:14 PM) SO cassini will use Radar on this approach? SAR doesn't work at 100,000 km. Other modes might be possible but quite frankly I'm not sure what RADAR's plans are for the Iapetus encounter. -------------------- &@^^!% Jim! I'm a geologist, not a physicist!
The Gish Bar Times - A Blog all about Jupiter's Moon Io |
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