CASSINI VIMS
(Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer)
The Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) is essentially a
color camera mounted on the Cassini spacecraft bound for Saturn. It has a
pair of imaging grating spectrometers designed to measure reflected and
emitted radiation from atmospheres, rings, and surfaces over wavelengths
from 0.35 to 5.1 micrometers to determine their compositions,
temperatures, and structures.
When the human eye looks at an object, the cones in the retina are able to
discern the amount of light hitting them at 3 different wavelengths, which
are interpreted as colors. Light with a wavelength of around 420 nm
(nanometers, or billionths of a meter) looks blue, light at 534 nm looks
yellow and 564 nm looks red. Colors other than red, yellow, and blue are
the result of the eye receiving different amounts of light at each
wavelength at the same time.
Cassini VIMS takes pictures in 352 different colors at the same time, with
wavelengths between 300 and 5100 nm. Thus the color range of VIMS's vision
is greater than that of the human eye (300-5100 nm, as opposed to 380-620
nm), and far more accurate in determining the wavelength of the light that
strikes it.
Collaborators
University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Lab, USA; NASA Ames Research
Center, USA; NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory USA;, Caltech, USA; Cornell
University, USA; US Geological Survey Denver, USA; University of Arizona
Tucson, USA; SOEST, University of Hawaii, USA; Institut d'Astrophysique
Spatiale, France; CNRS, France; DESPA/Observatoire de Meudon, France;
Observatoire de Paris Meudon, France; Instituto di Astrophysica Spaziale,
CNR/IRSI, Italy; Instituto di Fisica, Italy; Agenzia Spatiale Italiana,
Italy; Institut fur Planetenerkundung DLR, Germany
Contact
Dr. Robert H. Brown
Lunar and Planetary Lab, University of Arizona, USA
rhb@lpl.arizona.edu
http://vimsops.lpl.arizona.edu/