Well, Look Here!

Jupiterian storms!
Jovian storms, but on SATURN (via Cassini)!

Right before Christmas NASA JPL put out this image of what looks like Jupiter. Nice swirly cloud belts, a giant storm, cloud spots—all the things we’re used to seeing in the upper cloud decks of the solar system’s largest planet. Only thing is, this is Saturn! Good old bland-looking Saturn (the way we got used to seeing it in Voyager images) has some fascinating weather patterns of its own, reminiscent of Jupiter’s.

This view was possible by using Cassini’s narrow angle camera, outfitted with filters that made it possible to cut through the methane haze that can keep us from seeing the action farther down.

This kind of stuff is what’s so amazing about exploring the solar system with robotic probes. Every picture is like opening up a gift—you don’t always know what’s going to come out of the box, and when it’s something like this, you’re amazed and delighted. For the scientists on the Cassini-Huygens mission, that present arrives daily, and in fact, many times daily, dressed up as ever-more-detailed information about Saturn and its retinue of moons.

In less than two weeks, the Huygens mission will drop down through the clouds of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, and give us the first-ever detailed looks beneath that heavy shroud. We can only hope it will be at LEAST as interesting as the new stuff we’re finding out about Saturn!

Happy New Year, 2005!

It was only yesterday we were all making our resolutions for the new year. Of course the world’s problems straddle the clock’s tick from midnight to 12:00:01 taking 2004 into 2005. Against the backdrop of continued strife, the plight of the tsunami victims in Asia and Africa, and other issues, skygazing might seem to be a frivolous activity. But it’s not. It’s part of our lives. And it’s amazing sometimes how a short stroll through the universe can change one’s perspective on life here on Earth.

All this stuff that we humans do happens under that starry sky. We often credit our “lucky stars” when things go right, and blame “the planets” or something like that when life doesn’t go the way we want it to. But, in truth, the stars and planets and galaxies are going about their business of shining, evolving, revolving, rotating, and all the other things that celestial objects do. Any effect they have on us is mostly imagined, except for the pleasure we get from watching them, exploring the processes that make them what they are, whether we are doing it professionally or simply stepping out to look up for a few minutes in the evening or early morning. It’s the only free show we never have to pay for—they’re always out there.