* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Prometheus

Blobrana · L

This image of Prometheus was taken by the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on the 27th January, 2010, using the CL1 and GRN filters.

Expand (63kb, 1024 x 768)
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Blobrana · L

Looking for all intents and purposes like a celestial egg after a session in Saturn's skillet, Prometheus displayed its pockmarked, irregular surface for NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Jan. 27, 2010.
Prometheus is one of Saturn's innermost moons. It orbits the gas-giant at a distance of 139,353 kilometres and is 86 kilometres across at its widest point. The porous, icy-bodied world was originally discovered by images taken by Voyager 1 back in 1980.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Source

Blobrana · L

The data were captured yesterday, December 26, by Cassini during its best yet imaging encounter with the small ringmoon Prometheus, and showed up on the Cassini raw images website today. This is one of the more elongated moons to be seen in the solar system, almost exactly twice as long as it is wide. The word "potato" is commonly used to describe the shape of small bodies in the solar system, but I think that Prometheus, with its pointy ends, looks more like a related vegetable, a yam.
Read more

Blobrana · L

This image of Prometheus was taken by the Cassini spaceprobe on the 26th December, 2009.
The image was taken using the CL1 and CL2 filters.

Expand (63kb, 1024 x 768)
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Blobrana · L

This image of Prometheus was taken by the Cassini spaceprobe on the 26th December, 2009.
The image was taken using the CL1 and UV3 filters.

Expand (324kb, 1024 x 768)
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Blobrana · L

This image of Prometheus was taken by the Cassini spaceprobe on the 26th December, 2009.
The image was taken using the CL1 and CL2 filters.

Expand (156kb, 1024 x 768)
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Blobrana · L

The diminutive moon Prometheus whips gossamer ice particles out of Saturn's F ring in this image taken by the Cassini spacecraft on Aug. 21, 2009. The moon and the ring have eccentric, offset orbits, so Prometheus dips in and out of the F ring as it travels around Saturn. Its gravitational force drags the dust-sized particles at the edge of the F ring along for the ride.
Read more

Blobrana · L

Some deformations from the normal pattern in the shape of F ring, one of the seven rings of Saturn, have been recently captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
Scientists at NASA believe that the deformation in the shape of the ring, considered to be held together by its "shepherd moons" -- Prometheus and Pandora -- could be a result of the gravitational force exerted by the oblong moon Prometheus, visible just inside the ring.

Read more

Blobrana · L

Half an hour after Prometheus tore into this region of Saturn's F ring, the Cassini spacecraft snapped this image just as the moon was creating a new streamer in the ring.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 18 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 14, 2009.

Read more