[新闻] 卡西尼最新图片——土卫六（7月3日）

泰坦的南极上空的云。

Titan's South Polar Clouds
07.03.04  


This sequence of images illustrates the evolution of a field of clouds near Titan's south pole over a period of almost five hours. The images were acquired on July 2, 2004, by NASA's Cassini spacecraft at ranges of 364,000 to 339,000 kilometers (226,170 to 210,600 miles). These bright clouds, believed to be composed of methane, appear in generally the same area where Earth-based astronomers have previously detected clouds. Cassini also saw clouds in this region during its approach to Saturn.

The pixel scale of these images ranges from 2.2 to 2.0 kilometers per pixel (1.4 to 1.2 miles per pixel). The smallest features that can be discerned in the clouds are roughly 10 kilometers ( 6 miles) across.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org .

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

逼近泰坦

当Cassini的照像机通过模糊的卫星盯着看时，泰坦的面纱开始被掀起。
Closing in on Titan
07.03.04  

Titan's veil begins to lift as Cassini's cameras peer through the hazy moon.

This image acquired at a range of 344,000 kilometers (213,700 miles) shows details at Titan's surface never seen before. The image shows only surface brightness no topographic shading. The finest features are less than 10 kilometers (6 miles) across. In other areas the surface boundaries are less distinct perhaps due to different geologic process or atmospheric effects. There are some linear features that could be impact craters but the fact that many features are linear suggests that other geologic processes are shaping the surface.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org .

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

泰坦特写镜头

Titan Close-Up
07.03.04

Shown here is a blowup of a region of Titan imaged on July 2, 2004. This image was taken at a distance of 339,000 kilometers (210,600 miles) and shows brightness variations on the surface of Titan and a bright field of clouds near the south pole. The field of clouds is 450 kilometers (280 miles) across and is the about the size of Arizona. Features as small as 10 kilometers (6 miles) can be discern.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org .

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

泰坦的地图

Titan Map

This mosaic of images taken by the Cassini spacecraft as it approached Saturn shows the surface features of Titan, from the dark "H" on the left to the bright observation area at the south pole on the right. Visible in the center is the location where the spacecraft?s Huygens probe will descend in January 2005.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org .

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

揭示的泰坦的表面

Titan's Surface Revealed
07.03.04  


Piercing the ubiquitous layer of smog enshrouding Titan, these images from the Cassini visual and infrared mapping spectrometer reveals an exotic surface covered with a variety of materials in the southern hemisphere. Visible is a circular feature that may be a crater in the north.

Using near-infrared colors--some three times deeper in the red visible to the human eye--these images reveal the surface with unusual clarity. The color image shows a false-color combination of three previous images. The yellow areas correspond to the hydrocarbon-rich regions, while the green areas are the icier regions. Here, the methane cloud appears white, as it is bright in all three colors.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The visible and infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For more information about the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer visit http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu/.

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Titan's Mottled Surface


Shown here is a mosaic of Titan's south polar region acquired as Cassini passed by at a range of 339,000 kilometers (210,600 miles) on July 2. These images were acquired through special filters designed to see through the thick haze and atmosphere. The surface features become more blurry toward the limb, where the light reflected off the surface must pass through more atmosphere before reaching the camera. The bright spots near the bottom represent a field of clouds near the south pole. There are many strange dark and bright patterns on Titan's surface --linear, sinuous and circular--whose origins are not yet understood. The smallest features detected on the surface are about 10 kilometers (6 miles) wide.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org .

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

泰坦的表面

Piercing the ubiquitous layer of smog enshrouding Titan, these images from the Cassini visual and infrared mapping spectrometer reveals an exotic surface covered with a variety of materials in the southern hemisphere.

Using near-infrared colors--some three times deeper in the red visible to the human eye--these images reveal the surface with unusual clarity. The color image shows a false-color combination of the three previous images.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The visible and infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For more information about the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer visit http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu/.

揭示的泰坦的表面

Titan's Surface Revealed
07.03.04  



Piercing the ubiquitous layer of smog enshrouding Titan, these images from the Cassini visual and infrared mapping spectrometer reveals an exotic surface covered with a variety of materials in the southern hemisphere.

Using near-infrared colors--some three times deeper in the red visible to the human eye--these images reveal the surface with unusual clarity. The left image shows a variety of surface features at a wavelength of 2.0 microns. The darker areas are possibly regions of relatively pure water ice, while the brighter regions likely have a much higher amount of non-ice materials such as simple hydrocarbons. The middle image measured at a wavelength of 2.8 microns shows a very dark surface almost everywhere, as expected for a surface of water ice and simple hydrocarbons. The image on the right, taken at 5.0 microns, is similar to the left image, indicating dark icy regions and brighter hydrocarbon-rich materials. A bright cloud of methane particles is apparent in all three images near the south pole. It's persistence over an extensive range of colors indicates that these cloud particles are large compared to the typical haze particles surrounding the planet, suggesting a dynamically active atmosphere near the South Pole.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The visible and infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For more information about the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer visit http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu/.

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

好图！

希望“卡西尼”号能给我们带来关于泰坦的更多惊人发现！

央视国际 (2004年07月04日 17:28)


　　新华社华盛顿7月3日电(记者曲俊雅) 美国喷气推进实验室的科学家初步分析了“卡西尼”号飞船拍摄的土星最大卫星土卫六表面的照片，发现照片披露的土卫六表面情况很出乎他们的意料。　

　　从这次“卡西尼”号拍摄到的土卫六约2%的表面情况，科学家没有如预想中那样看到能显示土卫六上有液体存在的明亮的闪光物。另外，根据以前对土卫六表面的观测，科学家们以为土卫六表面明亮区域是水结成的冰，而在这次“卡西尼”号传来的照片上冰却显示为黑暗区域，科学家们推测这是由于其中混杂了由降水带到土卫六表面的有机物质造成的。　

　　科学家对照片的初步分析还发现，土卫六的南半球为多种物质所覆盖，北半球有一圆形物，他们推测那是一个火山口。土卫六上还存在一些模糊的直线和曲线状物，在美国喷气推进实验室工作的科学家、亚利桑那大学的特透博士说，这些线条可能是山脉或河流，表示土卫六上有可能正在进行与地球上相似的地质活动。科学家从照片上还看到土卫六的南半球有大块浓云，认为含有甲烷。他们还发现，由于受到土星引力场的吸引，土卫六的大气顶层正经受物质流失。　

　　“卡西尼”号飞船北京时间星期四进入土星轨道，照片是其第一次经过土卫六时，在距其约34万公里的太空拍摄的。“卡西尼”号携带的可见光红外扫描辐射计能够描绘出土卫六表面的矿物和化学特征。科学家说，这是迄今有关土卫六的最好照片；借助多种科学仪器，他们首次清晰地看见了土卫六的表面。　

　　“卡西尼”号目前只拍摄到约2%的土卫六表面的情况，科学家们期待今后“卡西尼”号能为他们提供更多的图片信息。在今后至少4年中，“卡西尼”号还将45次飞经土卫六，离土卫六的最近距离可达约950公里，并将使用雷达摄影仪拍出高分辨率的土卫六表面照片。按计划，尺寸较小的“惠更斯”探测器还将于12月25日从“卡西尼”号脱离，于明年1月14日“跳伞”降落到土卫六表面，对土卫六进行短暂的访问和研究。土卫六是“卡西尼”探测计划的一大重点。科学家相信，地球上生命产生之前的许多化合物，土卫六上目前也有，对它的研究能够帮助人们理解生命是如何产生的。

责编：刘英来