What would it look like to approach the grand planet Saturn?
One doesn't have to just imagine -- the Cassini spacecraft did just this in 2004, recording thousands of images along the way, and hundreds of thousands more since entering orbit. Some of Cassini's early images have been digitally tweaked, cropped, and compiled into the featured inspiring video which is part of a larger IMAX movie project named In Saturn's Rings. In the concluding sequence, Saturn looms increasingly large on approach as cloudy Titan swoops below. With Saturn whirling around in the background, Cassini is next depicted flying over Mimas, with large Herschel Crater clearly visible. Saturn's majestic rings then take over the show as Cassini crosses Saturn's thin ring plane. Dark shadows of the ring appear on Saturn itself. Finally, the enigmatic ice-geyser moon Enceladus appears in the distance and then is approached just as the video clip ends. After more than a decade of exploration and discovery, the Cassini spacecraft ran low on fuel in 2017 was directed to enter Saturn's atmosphere, where it surely melted. APOD's main NASA site is moving : From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
Astronomy.co.uk Star Naming Service
Name a star for yourself or for that special person as the perfect gift that will sparkle for a lifetime! Ideal for any occasion, birthdays, christenings, anniversaries and memorials. Reserve a place in the heavens for your loved ones
Th Sky Tonight - May 2025
https://www.astronomy.co.uk/the-sky-tonight/
The Pinwheel Galaxy -NASA
The first Full Moon of 2022, known as the Wolf Moon, will occur tonight! Throughout cold January nights, the howling of wolves could be heard around villages in both Europe and America, so the January Full Moon became widely known as the Wolf Moon.
The exact time of the Full Wolf Moon is January 17, 2022, 23:48 GMT
The Lagoon Nebula - Hubble
This is a small section of the Cygnus supernova blast wave which appears as a delicate streak of light.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Blair; acknowledgment: Leo Shatz
An exploding star !
Hubble
The station crew sees 16 sunrises a day, and they officially started 2022 at 12am GMT.
The Snow Angel Nebula - Hubble
Crescent Earth
The Earth as seen from the Moon on the Command Module of Apollo17 on December 16, 1972.
Credit: @NASA (image #AS17-152-23274); Processing: @JPMajor
Dolphin head nebula located near the center of the constellation Canis Major
DEM L249, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, is an unusual supernova remnant.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and Y. Chou (Academia Sinica, Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)