Bad Astronomy

A fresh breath of Saturn

I’ve been posting a lot about antiscience crackpots and the damage they do, and while it’s important, it gets irritating to have to do it. After the site Boing Boing has to post something atrocious, they post a unicorn story or picture to cleanse the brain’s palate.

So here is my version of a unicorn: a soothing picture of Saturn from Cassini.

This is another in the series of beautiful equinox images from Cassini, as the Sun shines straight along the rings. While the icy moon Enceladus is not in the picture itself, you can see its shadow just below the shadow of the rings on Saturn’s cloudtops. The moon you can see in the image, just below the rings, is Mimas.

So, take a deep breath… remember that reality is real… and that we can investigate it, examine it, learn from it, and drink deeply of its beauty.

Ahhhhhhhh. That’s better.