Cassini space probe will see Saturn eclipse the sun on July 19

It discus about NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, now orbiting Saturn and weaving in and among its moons, will be aligned in such a way that Saturn will eclipse the sun as seen from the spacecraft. This simulated view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shows the expected positions of Saturn and Earth on July 19, 2013, around the time Cassini will take Earth’s picture. Cassini will be about 898 million miles (1.44 billion kilometers) away from Earth at the time. That distance is nearly 10 times the distance from the sun to Earth. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Cassini will start obtaining the Earth part of the mosaic at 2:27 p.m. PDT (5:27 p.m. EDT or 21:27 UTC) on July 19 and end about 15 minutes later, all while Saturn is eclipsing the sun from Cassini’s point of view. The spacecraft’s unique vantage point in Saturn’s shadow will provide a special scientific opportunity to look at the planet’s rings. At the time of the photo, North America and part of the Atlantic Ocean will be in sunlight. I found this information from this blog, please read here. I think it interesting.





By : Nella Faras