March 27, 2009
Picture of the Week—Saturn
Tethys, Titan and Saturn. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
No, the picture of the week is not going to be of baby clouded leopards. The National Zoo’s new bundles of joy are unbearably cute, it’s true. But for a real ooh-aah experience, check out the Jet Propulsion Lab’s gallery of images from the Cassini-Huygens Mission.
Cassini has been zipping around Saturn and its 52 moons (they keep finding more) for almost five years now, and it’s sent back awesome shots of the planet, its rings, and those moons.
The image above is one of my favorites: Tethys is in the foreground and Titan (Saturn’s largest moon and the setting for a Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. book) is rising from behind Saturn.
If you’re near D.C., stop by the National Air and Space Museum’s “Spectacular Saturn” exhibition of gorgeous and huge images from Cassini. It’s worth elbowing your way past the spring-breakers to get an even better look at this part of the solar system.
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