Image:Radioisotope thermoelectric generator plutonium pellet.jpg

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an image of a glowing red hot pellet of plutonium-238 dioxide to be used in a radioisotope thermoelectric generator for either the Cassini mission to Saturn (planet) or the Galileo mission to Jupiter. This image was provided by the Department of Energy via email and was taken at the Department's Los Alamos National Laboratory. Each pellet produces 62 watts of heat and when thermally isolated, can glow brilliant orange. Excerpt from email: "The pellet is glowing red because of the heat generated by the radioactive decay (primarily alpha) of the fuel. [Photos of glowing pellets are typically taken after insulating the pellet under a graphite blanket for a period of time (minutes), removing the blanket, and taking the picture.] These pellets were used in the RTGs that powered NASA's Galilleo and Cassini spacecraft on missions to Jupiter and Saturn, respectively. The pictures now being sent back from Saturn by the Cassini orbiter are made possible through this unique fuel source. To view the pictures from Saturn you may visit the NASA web site at www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini. To read more about the General Purpose Heat source, please visit the Department of Energy website at http://nuclear.gov/space/space-desc.html Also, I am attaching another image of a Pu-238 fuel pellet that might be of better resolution that the one shown in the link below. If you use either of the images, please attribute it to the Los Alamos National Laboratory."

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeDimensionsUserComment
current12:55, 20 September 2006900×698 (151 KB)Johnny--Bravo (Talk | contribs) (Reverted to earlier revision)
03:23, 12 April 2005884×696 (144 KB)Aarchiba (Talk | contribs) (Missed a bit of black border)
03:20, 12 April 2005900×698 (151 KB)Aarchiba (Talk | contribs) (Trimmed black border.)
02:36, 12 April 20051,000×808 (191 KB)Deglr6328 (Talk | contribs)
05:23, 24 March 2005154×117 (5 KB)Deglr6328 (Talk | contribs)
05:22, 24 March 2005154×117 (5 KB)Deglr6328 (Talk | contribs) (This is an image of a glowing hot unencapsulated pellet of plutonium-238 dioxide to be used in a radioisotpe thermoelectric generator for the [cassini spacecraft|Cassini]] mission to Saturn (planet). The image was obtained from this [http://www.f)

The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed):