Coolest Photo You Will Ever SEE! (moon Enceladus)

[river rat]

"I think every dollar spent on NASA is well-spent.

As one who worked closely with NASA, via my position in private industry during the Saturn/Apollo and Skylab program -- I can say with confidence and pride that MUCH of long term value was accomplished.

However -- that being said and acknowledged..
I also witnessed more Waste, Theft, Corruption, Ignorance, Incompetence, nepotism, political and union bullshit than one would normally associate with such a large program...

It was shocking.
Every dollar was NOT well spent on NASA...
Whatever was achieved, came at a much higher cost than necessary.

There is evidence, that it remains the same today....more than 3 decades later......with far less talent running the shop.

Semper Fi

[razorback-bert]

That is just the marble I lost as kid.

[Kaylee Frye]

This is very cool - check it out!

[Bubbatuck]

Thanks... I will bow to your experience.

Perhaps I should say that money wisely spent on space-exploration is well-spent.

However, NASA's budget is small change to the Feds. I shudder to think of the waste and grift in the large-scale programs.

[panaxanax]

"I'm thinking that moon doesn't rotate."

It does appear that way, doesn't it? I would think that the craters near the edge would be elongated rather than perfectly round. Interesting picture, however.

[Enchante]

Just as long as it's not one of Ted Kennedy's missing testicles ............. :^(

[SueRae]

Neat-o.

I had the privilege of working on a small piece of the Cassini spacecraft years ago, as well as the Galileo. Sadly, the group I used to work with just got put on notice due to Nasa budget constraints.

The value of such discovery may not be evident for years..and may never do anything else but help expand our collective knowledge of the universe we inhabit..but dang, isn't that what we in these fine United States are all about? (off soapbox)

[burzum]

Craters are never elongated unless they impact at less than the speed of sound for the rock that they hit. It would be extremely rare for such a low speed impact. When the impact is faster than the speed of sound for the rock that is hit, the energy transmitted to the rock builds up faster than it can dissipate leading to an explosion. This explosion occurs from the release of energy at one point and is completely symmetric. This is why it doesn't matter at which angle a meteorite strikes a surface, the resulting crater will always be mostly circular.

Next time you look at the moon consider how many impacts were at shallow angles but yet all the craters are round. Also consider how impossibly rare it would be for all the impacts to hit the moon normal to the surface.

[KevinDavis]

Enceladus Ho!!!

[AD from SpringBay]

Gives new meaning to the term, "big blue veiner".

[meanie monster]

ping to myself for later.....

[meanie monster]

i almost beat the ping,,,,,wink wink....

[Osage Orange]

I had one of those when I was a kid.....

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

what is intersting is that there are no impact craters in the area.

There probably were. Localized geologic activity erased them.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Now THAT's what I call a Blue Moon!

[demlosers]

I'm going to pump that moon for pure Saturn water and sell it for big - $$$$s!

;-)

[King Prout]

um... that's trippy

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

BSR, thanks for the info. Somebody else mentioned the same thing. I appreciate the ping though.

[Phsstpok]

I'm sorry, but I still think this photo of the deathstar Saturn's moon Mimas remains more impressive.

[mikrofon]

So THAT'S what happened to my daughter's bowling ball...