AGRODOME in the MORNING by MagikUnicorn
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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
Another version from yesterday...
--- SPACE NEWS ---
Cassini Detects Hint of Fresh Air at Dione
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has “sniffed” molecular oxygen ions around Saturn’s icy moon Dione for the first time, confirming the presence of a very tenuous atmosphere. The oxygen ions are quite sparse – one for every 0.67 cubic inches of space (one for every 11 cubic centimeters of space) or about 2,550 per cubic foot (90,000 per cubic meter) – show that Dione has an extremely thin neutral atmosphere.
At the Dione surface, this atmosphere would only be as dense as Earth’s atmosphere 300 miles (480 kilometers) above the surface. The detection of this faint atmosphere, known as an exosphere, is described in a recent issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
“We now know that Dione, in addition to Saturn’s rings and the moon Rhea, is a source of oxygen molecules,” said Robert Tokar, a Cassini team member based at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M., and the lead author of the paper. “This shows that molecular oxygen is actually common in the Saturn system and reinforces that it can come from a process that doesn’t involve life.”
Dione’s oxygen appears to derive from either solar photons or energetic particles from space bombarding the moon’s water ice surface and liberating oxygen molecules, Tokar said. But scientists will be looking for other processes, including geological ones, that could also explain the oxygen.
“Scientists weren’t even sure Dione would be big enough to hang on to an exosphere, but this new research shows that Dione is even more interesting than we previously thought,” said Amanda Hendrix, Cassini deputy project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., who was not directly involved in the study. “Scientists are now digging through Cassini data on Dione to look at this moon in more detail.”
Several solid solar system bodies – including Earth, Venus, Mars and Saturn’s largest moon Titan – have atmospheres. But they tend to be typically much denser than what has been found around Dione. However, Cassini scientists did detect a thin exosphere around Saturn’s moon Rhea in 2010, very similar to Dione. The density of oxygen at the surfaces of Dione and Rhea is around 5 trillion times less dense than that at Earth’s surface.
Tokar said scientists suspected molecular oxygen would exist at Dione because NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope detected ozone. But they didn’t know for sure until Cassini was able to measure ionized molecular oxygen on its second flyby of Dione on April 7, 2010 with the Cassini plasma spectrometer. On that flyby, the spacecraft flew within about 313 miles (503 kilometers) of the moon’s surface.
Cassini scientists are also analyzing data from Cassini’s ion and neutral mass spectrometer from a very close flyby on Dec. 12, 2011. The ion and neutral mass spectrometer made the detection of Rhea’s thin atmosphere, so scientists will be able to compare Cassini data from the two moons and see if there are other molecules in Dione’s exosphere.
Thanks
Magik

Comments (44)
Very cool image and great news
These are so cool. ")
I like yesterday's better, but this is still cool. :D If I had not seen the other, I'd find this awesome.
excellent work magic, love the news! carry on my friend!:)*5
excellent work wonderful render
Terrific work on this Bryce construction project.
Cool model, excellent info!!!
Absolutely fantastic!!
WOW....this is absolutely fantastic my friend, gorgeous creation and information!
Fantastic image and render in the morning light MU, excellent!!
Very spectacular scifi scene and excellent information! Most interesting and very much appreciated for sharing with us! Thank you, Magik!
Magik, c'est une image fantastique. les dômes sont spectaculaires, et ont beaucoup de détail. Merci pour les nouvelles excitant à propos de la NASA
Fantastic lighting in this one, MU! Corrie
Very Cool!! I like this version too. :)
i prefer this one its more bright .
Awesome day after render, and cool info!
wow....gorgeous!!!
I like this one better Magik.
excellent details to see !!
Super work,MU:)*****
So special, Magik. Wonderful mushrooms;-)
WOW!! Great skills!! Amazing!!..... O_O Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING looks so realistic....
Fantastic work on this cool looking image MU....LOVE IT.
Like this one, excellent!!
Oulala, ça me plait vraiment jusqu'au plus petit detail! I'info est super, Dione (en plus un nom agréable) cette planète pourra être/devenir la nouvelle terre dans d'une des prophésies de la Bible!?!
This is a marvelous scene & such fascinating news! :-)
Wow. Gee. You are the greatest. I thank you for this one. 5+!
Wonderful light and shadows!!! Great narrative!!
WOOOOW!!ESTA IMAGEM É ABSOLUTAMENTE EXCEPCIONAL MEU AMIGO,DÁ PARA VER PERFEITAMENTE TODOS OS DETALHES QUE SÃO EXTRAORDINÁRIOS,ASSIM COMO A ILUMINAÇÃO.++++++++5 OBRIGADO PELA INFORMAÇÃO É FANTÁSTICA.
This is a fantastic render, Real! The details really come out in the morning light! Fascinating information, too. I think we are going to find various forms of life are much more preavalent throughout the universe than we expected - assuming we don't exterminate ourselves first...