03-22-2007 - Uncategorized

sagar: Author=’Earth & Sky’ program=” video=”*Earth & Sky video pick.*

VIDEO IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE AT SOURCE

The Hubble telescope captured Saturn’s icy moons — Mimas, Enceladus, Dione, and Tethys — racing across the ringed planet’s face.

If you look carefully you can see the shadows of the moons, first Enceladus then Dion (appears larger), brush across Saturn’s rings. More about the enormous ice geysers of Enceladus at “this link.”:http://earthsky.org/article/51027/space-graffiti

Saturn’s rings were tilted nearly edge-on toward the Sun. This edge-on alignment occurs once every 15 years.

The 30-second movie is created from Hubble images taken over a 9�-hour span. The images were taken Nov. 17, 1995 with Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2.

More about it, including a higher resolution version, at the “Hubble website.”:http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2007/13/video/b/

Written by Jorge Salazar