File:Alpha Centauri AB over limb of Saturn PIA10406.jpg

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Summary
DescriptionAlpha Centauri AB over limb of Saturn PIA10406.jpg |
English: Original Caption Released with Image:
The nearest star system, the trinary star Alpha Centauri, hangs above the horizon of Saturn. Both Alpha Centauri A and B—stars very similar to our own—are clearly distinguishable in this image. (The third star in the Alpha Centauri system, the red dwarf Proxima Centauri, is not visible here.) From the orbit of Saturn, light (as well as Cassini's radio signal) takes a little more than an hour travel to Earth. The distance to Alpha Centauri is so great that light from these stars takes more than four years to reach our Solar System. Thus, although Saturn seems a distant frontier, the nearest star is almost 30,000 times farther away. This image is part of a stellar occultation sequence, during which Cassini watches as a star (or stars) as it passes behind Saturn. Light from the stars is attenuated by the uppermost reaches of Saturn's gaseous envelope, revealing information about the structure and composition of the planet's atmosphere. The view was captured from about 66 degrees above the ringplane and faces southward on Saturn. Ring shadows mask the planet's northern latitudes at bottom. The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 17, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 534,000 kilometers (332,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale on Saturn is about 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel. |
Date | |
Source |
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10406 |
Author | NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
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This image or video was catalogued by Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: PIA10406. This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing. Other languages:
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Licensing
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse |
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This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.) | ![]() |
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Original upload log
- 2008-06-20 12:31 Kwamikagami 1017×477×8 (17057 bytes) {{Information |Description= Original Caption Released with Image: The nearest star system, the trinary star Alpha Centauri, hangs above the horizon of Saturn. Both Alpha Centauri A and B—stars very similar to our own—are clearly distinguishable in th
Captions
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17 May 2008
image/jpeg
d20b02f9de6c46ceff273a13ffc68237ed54a27a
85,841 byte
477 pixel
1,017 pixel
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Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
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current | 14:20, 26 April 2019 | ![]() | 1,017 × 477 (84 KB) | FriedrichKieferer | Better quality. |
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