Friday, September 26, 2014

APOD 1.5

Saturn, a long known solar object in our system for hundreds of years, but even with how long humans have been observing it, and how far technology has come, we still have many things to discover about it. Such as not until the August of 2009 had we ever observed or had a picture of Saturn at its Equinox. The main issue being that, since Saturn's rings during its equinox point almost exactly at Earth while also at the sun, they usually just seem to disappear, so we have never had a chance to view all of Saturn during its equinox. But thanks to Cassini, the flagship satellite by NASA which was sent to Saturn in 1997, we now have a photo/ multiple photos of what Saturn's whole self looks like during its equinox. It is a surreal sight seeing the darkened rings, and the dramatic shadow cast behind the planet, and a humble reminder that even up to our modern years, we have much to learn and find out about the heavens above.

See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
 the highest resolution version available.

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