PDS logoPlanetary Data System
PDS Information
Find a Node - Use these links to navigate to any of the 8 publicly accessible PDS Nodes.

This bar indicates that you are within the PDS enterprise which includes 6 science discipline nodes and 2 support nodes which are overseen by the Project Management Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Each node is led by an expert in the subject discipline, supported by an advisory group of other practitioners of that discipline, and subject to selection and approval under a regular NASA Research Announcement.
Click here to return to the Photojournal Home Page Click here to view a list of Photojournal Image Galleries Photojournal_inner_header
Latest Images  |  Spacecraft & Technology  |  Animations  |  Space Images App  |  Feedback  |  Photojournal Search  

PIA06348: Entering the Magnetic Bubble
 Target Name:  Saturn
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Cassini-Huygens
 Spacecraft:  Cassini Orbiter
 Instrument:  Dual Technique Magnetometer 
Plasma Spectrometer 
 Product Size:  720 x 540 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  SwRI
 Primary Data Set:  Cassini
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA06348.tif (244.3 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA06348.jpg (36.88 kB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

This graph illustrates the Cassini spacecraft's transition into Saturn's magnetosphere from an outer region called the magnetosheath. A magnetosphere is a magnetic envelope of charged particles that surrounds some planets, including Earth. In between it and a boundary called the bow shock -- where solar winds bend to avoid the magnetosphere -- is an area called the magnetosheath.

These data (bottom panel) were taken by Cassini's plasma spectrometer, which measures the energy and electric charge of particles such as protons and electrons. In this graph, the color green represents the highest intensity particles. The top panel shows the strength of the magnetic field as measured by the dual technique magnetometer instrument on Cassini. The field intensified as Cassini entered the magnetosphere.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For more information about the Cassini plasma spectrometer team's home page, visit http://caps.space.swri.edu/ and the dual technique magnetometer team's home page, http://www.imperial.ac.uk/research/spat/research/cassini/.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Southwest Research Institute/Imperial College London

Image Addition Date:
2004-07-01