Saturn pic, and comet SWAN..

antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov...

Now this is what space exploration meant to me as a little kid... Just look at the beauty of this picture of saturn..looks false with all those stunning colours and the play of light! well guess I had better keep my fingers crossed that we soon see space travel, as saturn is one thing i would love to see with the naked eye up close!!


Oh and here for Northern hemisphere people is comet swan...can be seen by the plough with binoculars - came out from behind the sun and is growing daily in brightness!

antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov...

(With a conspiracy mind / prophecy view, are comets not the herald for war and disasters here on earth?!)

wow, what kind of picture is it?
how they made it?

Nice pics, D4rk Kn1ght. I think that casisni photo must have been taken with the sun behind Saturn with it lighting up the rings. Kind of like a silhouette shot. I might make that my wallpaper.

Sweet.

There were already 2 topics about them

Saturn rings
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Comet Swan
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Comet SWAN's unusual orbit appears to be hyperbolic, meaning that it will likely go off into interstellar space, never to return.

This particular statement needs a bit of clarification.

Firstly, C/2006 M4 (Swan) does not have an "unusual" orbit. The fact that it has been calculated to be slightly hyperbolic is nothing new. Lots of comets have very similar orbital characteristics.

Secondly, the fact that the orbit is very slightly hyperbolic does not necessarily mean that the comet will "likely go off into interstellar space, never to return". The reason for this is that the orbit has been calculated with the Sun as the centre of mass. However, beyond the orbits of the giant planets, it is the centre of mass of the Solar System that counts. Even though the Sun contains 99.87 per cent of the entire mass in the system, it is appreciably perturbed by the giant planets (particularly Jupiter). This causes the Sun to "wobble" (since the Sun and Jupiter orbit about their common centre of mass, and this is located an appreciable distance from the Sun's centre).

In short, the orbital eccentricity* of C/2006 M4 (Swan) will almost certainly be slightly less than 1.0 when the comet returns to the outer Solar System. Therefore, it will still be gravitationally bound to the Sun (however loosely that may be).

* The orbital eccentricity determines the type of orbit.

If e1, the orbit is hyperbolic.

Only one comet in recorded history has a confirmed hyperbolic orbit. That comet is called C/1980 E1 (Bowell), and the only reason that it has an orbit of this type is because it made a close approach to Jupiter (approx. 0.18AU; only just beyond the orbits of the planet's outermost satellites) less than two years before perihelion passage in January 1982. This comet has been ejected from the Solar System forever, and is on its way to the stars.


[edit on 18-10-2006 by Mogget]

[edit on 18-10-2006 by Mogget]