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I would like to take this opportunity, as it is my first journal entry, to dedicate my latest piece Saturnian Dream: Moonlet Requiem," to my mother, Maria Del Carmen. This piece was initially conceived and commenced so as to coincide with her birthday, though delays and various issues sadly made that goal impossible to attain. So, as today is Mother's Day, I would like to formally dedicate this piece in her memory, as Saturn, the sixth planet, was her most favourite.
She once told me that as a child she often dreamed of being whisked away to gaze upon Saturn and its spectacular, awe-inspiring rings. No other person has, or likely will ever have made as great an influence on my life as she did. Indeed, were it not for her love, patience and foresight I would have never begun to draw or express myself artistically. Truly I would never have made it this far or become the person I am today without her. A year now approaches since she was taken from us, and as I reflect upon her remarkable life, I say...
"Mom, this one's for you, Happy Mother's Day."
She once told me that as a child she often dreamed of being whisked away to gaze upon Saturn and its spectacular, awe-inspiring rings. No other person has, or likely will ever have made as great an influence on my life as she did. Indeed, were it not for her love, patience and foresight I would have never begun to draw or express myself artistically. Truly I would never have made it this far or become the person I am today without her. A year now approaches since she was taken from us, and as I reflect upon her remarkable life, I say...
"Mom, this one's for you, Happy Mother's Day."
Way Off!
LEFT: First release image of the binary asteroid (152830) Dinkinesh, photo-bombed by a small orbiting moon. (COURTESY: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL/NOAO) RIGHT: My own, pre-encounter impression of what Dinkinesh might have looked like. Above: Animated image sequence of Lucy's approach showing Dinkinesh's moon passing behind it. (NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL/NOAO) ) So clearly, once again, the universe has a few surprises up its sleeve! NASA and the Lucy mission team have just released the first images from the spacecraft's flyby of (152830) Dinkinesh yesterday, 1 November 2023. The images reveal an astonishing reality; that Dinkinesh, the smallest main belt asteroid we've visited so far, is the proud owner of it very own moon! That was something which did not even cross my mind when I was planning my pre-encounter render. SIZE AND SHAPE: While composing my pre-encounter render I assumed that Dinkinesh was a singular object, with rough dimensions of ~960 x 670
Dinkinesh flyby: An artist's impression
With just a couple of hours to go before Lucy spacecraft makes its closest approach to asteroid (152830) Dinkinesh, I'd just like to take a moment to show my pre-encounter imaginings of what Dinkinesh might look like as well as discuss a bit why I made some of the choices I did in its rendering. For a more detailed analysis see my previous post. Below is a sequence of eight images depiciting the approach and departure phase of the spacecraft's flyby of Dinkinesh. We start from a distance of 1,000 km just a few minutes before closest approach. Guided by my analysis of other small asteroids previously visited by spacecraft, I have elected to portray Dinkinesh as a irregular, somewhat elongated, rubble pile asteroid. Its surface is strewn by hundreds of boulders and large rocky fragments, the largest approach 80 meters in length. The regions between these rocky outcrops (particularly lower-lying depressions) are covered by smoother areas of dust and finer regolith. Dinkinesh's shape
Dinkinesh Pre-Encounter Speculation
FOR THE TLDR VERISON INCKLUDING MY PRE-ENCOUNTER RENDER OF DINKINESH, PLEASE SEE MY NEXT POST As of 2023, humanity's robotic emissaries have visited a total of sixteen asteroidal bodies. Hopefully on 1 November 2023, we will be able to add one more object to the list, the inner main belt asteroid (152830) Dinkinesh. With estimated dimensions of ~960 m x 670 m (McFadden et al, 2023), Dinkinesh will be the smallest main belt asteroid visited so far. The majority of the encounters achieved so far, (10, 62.5%) were brief flybys or directed impacts, while 6 objects (Eros, Vesta, Ceres, Itokawa, Ryugu and Bennu) were subject to long-term, close-range observations of their surfaces. Two of these 16 objects (5535 Annefrank and 9969 Braille) were ultimately imaged at resolutions too low to make out clear surface features, though overall shape could be ascertained. The Lucy spacecraft, launched just over a year ago, is on a nearly four-year trek to the L4 Jupiter Trojans (known as the
37th Anniversary of Voyager 2 flyby of Uranus...
Hello All, Happy (Belated) New Year's! Tomorrow, January 24th, is the 37th anniversary of Voyager 2's historic flyby of the enigmatic ice giant, Uranus. Having exceeded its planned four to five year mission to explore Jupiter (1979) and Saturn (1981), Voyager 2 flew past Uranus on 24 January, 1986, with closest approach occurring around 17:59 UTC at a distance of 81,500 km (50,640 miles). To date, Voyager 2's encounter marks the first and only mission to conduct in situ observations and measurements of Uranus and its system of moons. I'm currently working on a piece to commemorate this historic event, stay tuned... Cheers UPDATE: 01/25/2023: I have uploaded a new digital painting to commemorate Voyager 2's 1986 flyby, you can see it here...
© 2012 - 2024 Eduardo-Tarasca
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This is a fantastic Mother's Day gift!! Congrats on the DD!!!