Happy Halloween From Saturn

By Nancy Atkinson - October 30, 2009 at 2:20 PM UTC | uncategorized
halloween.jpg

[/caption] The Cassini team posted this image today, sending "bats wishes" for a happy, healthy and fun Halloween. And this give all of us here at Universe Today a chance to wish everyone a fun, safe, almost-full-Moon-lit, eat-your-favorite-treats, happy Hallow's Eve. Click the image for a larger version.

Also, as a heads up, Cassini will be flying by the moon Enceladus next week, on Nov. 2, approaching within about 100 kilometers (62 miles) of the surface. The spacecraft has gone closer during a previous flyby (25 kilometers or 15 miles), but this time it will be going deep into the heart of the plume from the geysers on the tiger-striped moon. The objective is to analyze the particles in the plume with instruments that can detect the size, mass, charge, speed and composition. This will happen at about 7:40 a.m. UTC and the spacecraft will spend only about a minute in the plume.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com