Planetary Picture of the Day
Week of May 23, 2022
Saturn, Mars, a Saturnian moon, Io and Saturn again. What a solar system we have!
Monday, May 23, 2022
Credit: NASA JPL-Caltech/SSI/Cassini Imaging Team/Jason Major
Saturnian Storm
Astounding capture of the north polar hexagon of Saturn by the Cassini spacecraft. The sides of the hexagon are about 14,500 km (9,000 mi) long, which is about 2,000 km (1,200 mi) longer than the diameter of Earth. The hexagon may be a bit more than 29,000 km (18,000 mi) wide, may be 300 km (190 mi) high, and may be a jet stream made of atmospheric gases moving at 320 km/h (200 mph).
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Image Processing and caption: Jason Major
Io's North Pole
View of the north polar region of Io, approximate natural color, made from images captured by NASA's Galileo spacecraft on March 28, 1998. The background is filled by Jupiter.
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Jason Major
Saturnian Moon
This is Methone, the 4-kilometer-long moon of Saturn. This moonlet looks like an egg and is about as smooth as one. Methone has a very low density — it may be a "fluff ball" of icy particles that flows over time. Image captured by Cassini on May 20, 2012.
Thursday, May 26, 2022
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/fredk, image acquired on May 17, 2022
Spiky Martian Rock
Here is another cool rock at Gale crater on Mars! The spikes are most likely the cemented fillings of ancient fractures in a sedimentary rock. The rest of the rock was made of softer material and was eroded away. Or, a wilder hypothesis: how about fulgurites? There is no lightning powerful enough on Mars today to create them -- only static discharges from dust. However, these features are embedded into 3.5-3.7 billion-year-old sediment. Maybe the rock could have formed then.
Friday, May 27, 2022
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill
Beautiful Saturn
This beautiful image features Saturn in near-infrared, processed using data taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in July 2017.
