We take a lot of science's achievements for granted, but if you pause and think about it for a moment it's mind boggling. That thing is 1,5 bn kms away.
>So here's raising a glass to our kind. We have done a remarkable thing ... to set our craft on a long-distance mission in search of lovely blue oceans like those of Earth, and have it answer us with such gratifying certitude.
From the article: "The image has not been validated or calibrated. A validated/calibrated image will be archived with the Planetary Data System in 2018".
Anyone knows what calibration/validation means in this case? I hope there are higher-res versions coming down.
Processing won't add pixels where they don't already exist. But there might be higher-pixel composite images produced, and some of the images will certainly be made much prettier, having their imaging artifacts removed and coloring applied.
Everyone talks about having more compute power in their wristwatch than the entire Apollo mission series did.
I figure that NASA simply retasked the Apollo computers to image processing. Waste not, want not, but the compute time now gets measured with calendars.
The images from the initial link are the newest raw images taken during the flyby which happened about two days before. Possibly the closest images ever taken of Saturn.
[+] [-] elorant|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dougmany|9 years ago|reply
>So here's raising a glass to our kind. We have done a remarkable thing ... to set our craft on a long-distance mission in search of lovely blue oceans like those of Earth, and have it answer us with such gratifying certitude.
http://ciclops.org/index/8201/A-Subsurface-Globe-Encompassin...
[+] [-] juancampa|9 years ago|reply
Anyone knows what calibration/validation means in this case? I hope there are higher-res versions coming down.
[+] [-] kobeya|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] QuinnyPig|9 years ago|reply
I figure that NASA simply retasked the Apollo computers to image processing. Waste not, want not, but the compute time now gets measured with calendars.
[+] [-] unknown|9 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] nkg|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] astdb|9 years ago|reply
The images from the initial link are the newest raw images taken during the flyby which happened about two days before. Possibly the closest images ever taken of Saturn.
Google did a great doodle too https://www.google.com/doodles/cassini-spacecraft-dives-betw...