Summary: Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer VIMS shows the Titanean surface during the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft’s study of the Saturnian system.
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| The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft’s Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, a two optical system with a Visible Channel (lower center) and an Infrared Channel (center), is attached to the Cassini orbiter’s cylindrical main body: courtesy National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), via NASA Cassini at Saturn mission pages |
Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer VIMS shows the Titanean surface during studies of the Saturnian system by the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft.
The Titan IV 401B-33 rocket launched the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft Oct. 15, 1997, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), located at the northern end of Cape Canaveral, east central Florida. The Cassini orbiter and the Huygens probe comprise the robotic spacecraft’s two main elements.
The spacecraft’s mission of a multidisciplinary study of the Saturnian system represents a collaboration of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana; ASI). Overall management of the Cassini-Huygens mission was assigned to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
The Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) was developed as a remote sensing instrument specifically for the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, according to Edward Miller and 18 co-authors in their presentation in the Oct. 7, 1996, issue of Proceedings of SPIE (Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineeers). The Cassini VIMS instrument’s primary purpose entails the obtaining of two dimensional, high resolution multispectral images of Saturn, its rings and its satellites. The VIMS Science Team is based in Tucson, Arizona, at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL).
Titan numbers among the Cassini VIMS instrument’s data-gathering targets. VIMS’ Titanean data will facilitate the Cassini-Huygens mission’s scrutiny of the Titanean atmosphere. Also, “atmospheric windows in the infrared” will allow VIMS to show the Titanean surface, according to Robert H. Brown and 21 co-authors in their report on the spectrometer’s observational techniques, published in the November 2004 issue of Space Science Reviews. VIMS also allows mission scientists to search for surface signs of such volatile activities as volcanism.
Titan ranks as the largest moon in the Saturnian system. The yellowish orange-hued moon rates as the solar system’s second largest natural satellite, after Jovian moon Ganymede. Dutch Golden Age astronomer Christiaan Huygens (April 14, 1629-July 8, 1695) is credited with discovering Titan March 25, 1655, as Saturn’s first known moon.
The Cassini VIMS comprises two optical systems. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory designed and built the spectrometer’s Infrared Channel (VIMS-IR). Electro-optical systems producer Officine Galileo, based in Firenze (Florence), Italy, built the spectrometer’s Visible Channel (VIMS-V) for the Italian Space Agency. The spectrometer’s dual imaging design allows for the simultaneous collection of both infrared light, radiant energy that is invisible to humans, and visual light, light that is visible to humans.
Miller et al. explain that the two optical systems differ in their detector configurations. The IR Channel (VIMS IR) detects via its Focal Plane Assembly (FPA), a linear array of 256 rectangular indium antimonide (InSb) detectors that acquire data in the “whiskbroom” mode of one exposure’s view of one spatial pixel. The Visible Channel’s (VIMS-V; VIMS-VIS) Charge-Coupled Device (CCD), an area array square detector of 96 channels, obtains data in the “push-broom” mode of one exposure’s view of one row of pixels in a square scene.
The Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer is mounted on the spacecraft’s Remote Sensing Pallet (RSP). The pallet carries four of the spacecraft’s 12 scientific instruments. The spacecraft’s Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS), Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) and Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) are also found on the pallet. The Remote Sensing Pallet is
attached about halfway up the Cassini orbiter’s nearly cylindrical main body.
The spacecraft’s first flyby of Saturn’s largest moon happened July 2, 2004. The Cassini-Huygens mission’s second flyby occurred Oct. 26, 2004, as the spacecraft’s first close to Titan’s surface.
The takeaways for the Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer’s showing of the Titanean surface are that the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft’s remote sensing spectrometer gathers data in infrared light, which is invisible to humans, and also in visible light, which is visible to humans; that VIMS’ Infrared (IR) Channel allows for surface data collection; that the spacecraft’s first Titanean flyby occurred July 2, 2004; and that the VIMS instrument obtained a surface photo of a possible volcano during the mission's next Titanean flyby, which took place Oct. 26, 2004, as the spacecraft's first close approach to the Titanean surface.
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| High-resolution infrared image, obtained by the Cassini orbiter’s Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) instrument during Cassini-Huygens spacecraft’s second Titanean flyby and first close approach to Titan on Oct. 26, 2004, shows bright, circular winged feature that might be a volcano on the Titanean surface; NASA ID PIA07962; image addition date 2005-06-08; image credit NASA / JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) / University of Arizona / LPL (Lunar Planetary Laboratory): May be used for any purpose without prior permission, via NASA JPL Photojournal |
Acknowledgment
My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.
Image credits:
Image credits:
The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft’s Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, a two optical system with a Visible Channel (lower center) and an Infrared Channel (center), is attached to the Cassini orbiter’s cylindrical main body: courtesy National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), via NASA Cassini at Saturn mission pages @
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/the-journey/the-spacecraft/
High-resolution infrared image, obtained by the Cassini orbiter’s Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) instrument during Cassini-Huygens spacecraft’s second Titanean flyby and first close approach to Titan on Oct. 26, 2004, shows bright, circular winged feature that might be a volcano on the Titanean surface; NASA ID PIA07962; image addition date 2005-06-08; image credit NASA / JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) / University of Arizona / LPL (Lunar Planetary Laboratory): May be used for any purpose without prior permission, via NASA JPL Photojournal @ https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07962
For further information:
For further information:
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Available @ http://lasp.colorado.edu/~horanyi/graduate_seminar/Visual_IR_Mapping.pdf
Available @ http://lasp.colorado.edu/~horanyi/graduate_seminar/Visual_IR_Mapping.pdf
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