Cassini 'hit' by a cosmic ray..or shut down on purpose?

All was going well, I've seen some of the pictures it was sending back which are amazing then this happens..I dont know if I should have expected it really. What are the odds after 7 months of travel & X million miles..the moment they turn on the camera's it gets hit by a cosmic ray. What are the odds of that eh..a little TOO convenient?

www.iht.com...

from the looks of the great shots of those objects flying thru the rings...we turned it off???...or it was turned off by "others"....../???,...the plot thickiiinnnsss

i think it's great that the story has a lighter spin to it by paralleling it to 2001: a space odyssey. we could very well be seeing the repercussion of the cassini images getting out and about here.

Well you know airbrushing takes time you know, a convenient stall?

"I'm sorry Dave, I can't allow you to send those photos to Earth at this time"
LOL

While fun to speculate, there is no evidence of an alien interfering with Cassini. The more probable explanation is this:

The sun does, however, also have an effect on high-energy cosmic rays. High-energy cosmic rays come from interstellar space and are sometimes called Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs), even though it is thought that some of them come from beyond our galaxy. The solar wind mentioned above consists of a continuous stream of plasma, loose protons and electrons. The region of space in which the influence of the solar wind is felt, called the heliosphere, extends far beyond the orbit of Pluto. Because the solar wind is a plasma, it is electrically conducting and transmits a part of the sun's magnetic field. When GCRs approach the sun they encounter the heliosphere and the magnetic field within it. Because of the shape of the magnetic field, the GCRs lose some of their energy, and the lower-energy ones never reach the vicinity of the earth. In times of high solar activity (high levels of solar wind) this effect is stronger and fewer GCRs reach the earth.

The sun has an 11-year cycle in its activity. One of the ways in which the cycle is made visible is in the number of sun spots that can be seen through telescopes. During a solar maximum the number of sun spots is high, and during a solar minimum the number of sun spots is low. During a solar maximum, the solar wind is also stronger and the sun is a tiny bit brighter (about 0.1%), even though sun spots are places on the sun's surface that are cooler than their surroundings - there are other features that more than compensate.

www2.slac.stanford.edu...

the sun is at its peak in the 11 year sunspot cycle. I would look to that causing the problem with Cassini before I will begin to entertain alien interference in any way.

Interesting theory MM. Funny how no other sats at much closer proximity to sun reported any problems.

Well, a cosmic ray isn't going to hit every single thing in the sun's orbit. It's a cosmic ray or particle, not a cosmic sphere.

I'm of the school that believes one has to look for ALL natural explanations and rule them out before looking to the supernatural (or in this case, alien) explanation.

Historically cosmic raditation events be able to disable or blind a sat is preceded by a M or X class flare. Hitting Cassini randomly with no other sat's damaged would be like hitting the ISS with a .38 snubnose from earth.. Highly unlikely. Like 10 to the 1000000 exponent.

Originally posted by jpm1602
Historically cosmic raditation events be able to disable or blind a sat is preceded by a M or X class flare. Hitting Cassini randomly with no other sat's damaged would be like hitting the ISS with a .38 snubnose from earth.. Highly unlikely. Like 10 to the 1000000 exponent.

Like MajorMalfunction already said. A cosmic ray doesn't effect everything, 360 degrees around the Sun. Solar flares only affect things directly in there path.

And at this moment, Saturn is on the other side of the Sun more or less, so any solar flares that affect Saturn won't be affecting us at all.

[edit on 16-9-2007 by jra]

To me a 'cosmic ray' sounds aimed, at least the way it was written here.

Wouldn't something like 'cosmic radiation field' seem less like it was aimed at Cassini?

DocMoreau

I stand by my analogy.

Originally posted by MajorMalfunction
While fun to speculate, there is no evidence of an alien interfering with Cassini. The more probable explanation is this:

The sun does, however, also have an effect on high-energy cosmic rays. High-energy cosmic rays come from interstellar space and are sometimes called Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs), even though it is thought that some of them come from beyond our galaxy. The solar wind mentioned above consists of a continuous stream of plasma, loose protons and electrons. The region of space in which the influence of the solar wind is felt, called the heliosphere, extends far beyond the orbit of Pluto. Because the solar wind is a plasma, it is electrically conducting and transmits a part of the sun's magnetic field. When GCRs approach the sun they encounter the heliosphere and the magnetic field within it. Because of the shape of the magnetic field, the GCRs lose some of their energy, and the lower-energy ones never reach the vicinity of the earth. In times of high solar activity (high levels of solar wind) this effect is stronger and fewer GCRs reach the earth.

The sun has an 11-year cycle in its activity. One of the ways in which the cycle is made visible is in the number of sun spots that can be seen through telescopes. During a solar maximum the number of sun spots is high, and during a solar minimum the number of sun spots is low. During a solar maximum, the solar wind is also stronger and the sun is a tiny bit brighter (about 0.1%), even though sun spots are places on the sun's surface that are cooler than their surroundings - there are other features that more than compensate.

www2.slac.stanford.edu...

the sun is at its peak in the 11 year sunspot cycle. I would look to that causing the problem with Cassini before I will begin to entertain alien interference in any way.

Good find MM! clearly this is the most likely explanation...

Originally posted by MajorMalfunction
the sun is at its peak in the 11 year sunspot cycle. I would look to that causing the problem with Cassini before I will begin to entertain alien interference in any way.

We are actually at the Solar Minimum, or the "lowest" point in the sunspot cycle.

See link for graph:

That was actually one of the more entertaining coverup stories in a while, so you have to give them some credit for coming up with this stuff.

reply to post by NoPhobos



You beat me to it, I was going to say the same thing. Yes we are at a minimum. Being at a solar minimum means more solar energy on earth (warming) since there are no sun spots.

Interesting also is that is was flying by the death star (Iapetus). Darth Vader was probably not pleased with the probe.

This is an interesting side note: The next Solar Maximum will occur 2012-2013. Could it be December 2012?

Just to add flavour to this discussion, I present to you this bit of news:

Mars Orbiter in Safe Mode After Glitch

Another dimension to the story?