Picture Of The Day 2 - January 13, 2019

Picture of the day 2 - December 1, 2018.

Saturn-Like gas giant and two moons.

Picture of the Day - January 13, 2019

Aurora’s dance over the northern pole and a hazy world.

Ten interesting facts about Saturn

Saturn is sometimes called “The Jewel of the Solar System.” It is a planet that is nothing like our own. Humans have been gazing up at Saturn for a long time. They have been wondering about it for thousands of years.

Here are some fun facts about the Ringed Planet.

Saturn is huge. It is the second largest planet in our Solar System. Jupiter is the only planet that is bigger.

The rings are huge but thin. The main rings could almost go from Earth to the moon. Yet, they are less than a kilometer thick.

Four spacecraft have visited Saturn: Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 and 2, and the Cassini-Huygens mission have all studied the planet. 

Saturn has oval-shaped storms similar to Jupiter’s: The region around its north pole has a hexagonal-shaped pattern of clouds. Scientists think this may be a wave pattern in the upper clouds. The planet also has a vortex over its south pole that resembles a hurricane-like storm.

Saturn is made mostly of hydrogen and helium: It exists in layers that get denser farther into the planet. Eventually, deep inside, the hydrogen becomes metallic. At the core lies a hot interior. (click the image for a better resolution).

Saturn has 62 moons: Some of these are large, like Titan, the second largest moon in the Solar System. But most are tiny – just a few km across, and they have no official names. In fact, the last few were discovered by NASA’s Cassini orbiter just a few years ago. More will probably be discovered in the coming years.

Saturn orbits the Sun once every 29.4 Earth years: Its slow movement against the backdrop of stars earned it the nickname of “Lubadsagush” from the ancient Assyrians. The name means “oldest of the old”.

In Saturn there is aurora: Photographic composition made by the Hubble Space Telescope showing the occurrence of aurora in the southern hemisphere of Saturn at intervals of two days.The aurora is visible only in the ultraviolet.

Saturn spins on its axis very fast. A day on Saturn is 10 hours and 14 minutes.

You can see Saturn with your own eyes: Saturn appears as one of the 5 planets visible with the unaided eye. If Saturn is in the sky at night, you can head outside and see it. To see the rings and the ball of the planet itself, you’ll want to peer through a telescope. But you can amaze your friends and family by pointing out that bright star in the sky, and let them know they’re looking at Saturn.

sources: nasa.gov, universetoday.com and solarsystem.nasa.gov

Triangulum Log - Post 4 - The Vista System (First Planet)

Top image shows the Andromeda Galaxy rising above the inner-most dwarf planet. From here, the great spiral galaxy covers over 11 degrees of the sky or almost 22 times larger than a full moon on Earth.

Other three images show the inner-most planet, a large ice giant 50 times the mass of Earth orbiting 0.30 AU from the sun.

In the last shot, each of the small stars in the background are actually large bright asteroids in the systems asteroid belt.

High Resolution Links Below

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

O’Sirus System - Post 1 (Hellish Moon)

We have gone deeper in the Triangulum Galaxy.  We are now only 1,473 light years from the NGC 604 Nebula. Our next system is the O’Sirus System, a dim Orange Dwarf orbited by 12 planets, including 1 world that supports life.

The lone satellite orbiting the third planet.  Roughly a third of Earth’s mass with a super-heated water vapor atmosphere. Atmospheric temperatures reach up to 1,000 K (1,340 °F), and glowing clouds of Titanium Dioxide hoover over the moon. The sun is only a K9V type star, but at only 0.11 AU, it covers an area of the sky 7.5 times larger than a Full Moon on Earth.

Space Engine System ID: RS 1229-171-8-11850488-229

High Resolution Pics

Picture 1 - Volcanic moon with glowing metallic clouds.

Picture 2 - Atmospheric Haze

Picture 3 - The Surface

Picture 4 - Lunar Sky

Picture 5 - Eclipse

Picture of the day - November 22, 2018

Crescent of a moon against the silhouette of a green gas giant.

Picture of the day - January 3, 2019

Desert-like moon orbiting a large gas giant. This is the same world as the skylines from the previous post.

My last post of planets in the Triangulum galaxy, a ringed world montage. And all these planets were found in one star system.

I have not decided which galaxy I am going to visit next, but I will left you know in the next day or so.

Space Engine System ID: RS 1229-118-6-214335-274

High Resolution Pictures

Ice Giant

Colorful Ice Giant

Cold Helium Gas Giant

Super-Earth

Ice World

Earth-like planet with life.

Picture of the Day - January 15, 2019

Titan-like world with methane oceans and clouds of hydrocarbons.

Image of Saturn taken by the Cassini spacecraft in 2007

Credit: NASA processed by Kevin M. Gill