The Official Saturn and Titan explorating thread [Archive]

curiousuburb

06-05-2004, 01:52 PM

In "Concert for another world" news,
After an unsuccessful attempt by the British Band Blur to perform in an alien atmosphere when the Beagle probe was lost en route to the Martian surface, a young Frenchman awaits the performance of four of his songs on the surface of Titan courtesy of the Huygens probe.

http://music2titan.com/

Meanwhile... Cassini's latest colour shot

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/saturn/images/PIA06060.jpg
original here (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgibin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/saturn/images/PIA06060.jpg&type=image) with higher res image links As Cassini coasts into the final month of its nearly seven-year trek, the serene majesty of its destination looms ahead. The spacecraft's cameras are functioning beautifully and continue to return stunning views from Cassini's position, 1.2 billion kilometers (750 million miles) from Earth and now 15.7 million kilometers (9.8 million miles) from Saturn.

In this narrow angle camera image from May 21, 2004, the ringed planet displays subtle, multi-hued atmospheric bands, colored by yet undetermined compounds. Cassini mission scientists hope to determine the exact composition of this material.

This image also offers a preview of the detailed survey Cassini will conduct on the planet's dazzling rings. Slight differences in color denote both differences in ring particle composition and light scattering properties.

Images taken through blue, green and red filters were combined to create this natural color view. The image scale is 132 kilometers (82 miles) per pixel.

curiousuburb

06-11-2004, 09:33 PM

First encounter with Phoebe (perhaps captured Kuiper Belt Object or asteroid)

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/small-moons/images/phoebe20040611-br402.jpg Click for Caption and Video (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgibin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/small-moons/images/phoebe20040611.jpg&type=image)
Phoebe Looms in View - June 11, 2004
Phoebe, Saturn's largest outer moon, is the first target of exploration for the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft. A short video clip shows images taken by the spacecraft as it approached Phoebe.

DiscoCow

06-11-2004, 10:53 PM

Amazing stuff. God, I can't wait until January (let's hope lightning doesn't strike twice with regard to the ESA landing probes on other worlds -I want to see the serface of Titan!!!)

curiousuburb

06-14-2004, 09:26 PM

The latest closeups of Phoebe's craters have provided hints of water-ice.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/small-moons/images/PIA06075-br402.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgibin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/small-moons/images/PIA06075.jpg&type=image)
A Skyline View
June 14, 2004

Images like this one, showing bright wispy streaks thought to be ice revealed by subsidence of crater walls, are leading to the view that Phoebe is an ice-rich body overlain with a thin layer of dark material. Obvious down slope motion of material occurring along the walls of the major craters in this image is the cause for the bright streaks, which are over-exposed here. Significant slumping has occurred along the crater wall at top left.

The slumping of material might have occurred by a small projectile punching into the steep slope of the wall of a pre-existing larger crater. Another possibility is that the material collapsed when triggered by another impact elsewhere on Phoebe. Note that the bright, exposed areas of ice are not very uniform along the wall. Small craters are exposing bright material on the hummocky floor of the larger crater.

Elsewhere on this image, there are local areas of outcropping along the larger crater wall where denser, more resistant material is located. Whether these outcrops are large blocks being exhumed by landslides or actual 'bedrock' is not currently understood.

The crater on the left, with most of the bright streamers, is about 45 kilometers (28 miles) in diameter, front to back as viewed. The larger depression in which the crater sits is on the order of 100 kilometers (62 miles) across. The slopes from the rim down to the hummocky floor are approximately 20 kilometers (12 miles) long; many of the bright streamers on the crater wall are on the order of 10 kilometers (6 miles) long. A future project for Cassini image scientists will be to work out the chronology of slumping events in this scene.

This image was obtained at a phase, or Sun-Phoebe-spacecraft, angle of 78 degrees, and from a distance of 11,918 kilometers (7,407 miles). The image scale is approximately 70 meters (230 feet) per pixel. No enhancement was performed on this image.

Images collected during Cassini's close flyby of Saturn's moon, Phoebe, have yielded strong evidence that the tiny object may contain ice-rich material, overlain with a thin layer of darker material perhaps 300 to 500 meters (980 to 1,600 feet) thick.

The surface of Phoebe is also heavily potholed with large and small craters. Images reveal bright streaks in the ramparts of the largest craters, bright rays which emanate from smaller craters, and uninterrupted grooves across the face of the body.

"The imaging team is in hot debate at the moment on the interpretations of our findings," said Dr. Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. "Based on our images, some of us are leaning towards the view that has been promoted recently, that Phoebe is probably ice-rich and may be an object originating in the outer solar system, more related to comets and Kuiper Belt objects than to asteroids."

In ascertaining Phoebe's origin, imaging scientists are noting important differences between the surface of Phoebe and that of rocky asteroids which have been seen at comparable resolution. "Asteroids seen up close, like Ida, Mathilde, and Eros, and the small martian satellites do not have the bright 'speckling' associated with the small craters that are seen on Phoebe," said Dr. Peter Thomas, an imaging team member from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

The landforms observed in the highest resolution images also contain clues to the internal structure of Phoebe. Dr. Alfred McEwen, an imaging team member from the University of Arizona, Tucson, said, "Phoebe is a world of dramatic landforms, with craters everywhere, landslides, and linear structures such as grooves, ridges, and chains of pits. These are clues to the internal properties of Phoebe, which we'll be looking at very closely in order to understand Phoebe's origin and evolution."

"I think these images are showing us an ancient remnant of the bodies that formed over four billion years ago in the outer reaches of the solar system," said Dr. Torrence Johnson, an imaging team member from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Battered and beat-up as it is, it is still giving us clues to its origin and history."

Phoebe may be an icy interloper from the distant outer solar system which found itself captured by giant Saturn in its earliest, formative years. Final conclusions on Phoebe's origins await a combination of the results on Phoebe's surface structures, mass and composition gathered from all 11 instruments, which collected data during the flyby on June 11, 2004.

"This has been an impressive whirlwind flyby and it's only a curtain raiser on the events about to begin," said Porco.

Cassini arrives in orbit around Saturn on the evening of June 30, 2004 (July 1 Universal Time).

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org .

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

There are several other new images of Phoebe in the Image Gallery (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/latest/index.cfm)

Carson O'Genic

06-14-2004, 11:07 PM

Originally posted by talksense101
I have no grudge against your enthusiasm. But shouldn't we clean up our act on the one planet we live in before heading out to others? In the distant future, we might end up like locusts and leeches if we keep travelling from planet to planet just to consume it's resources.

Progress, discovery, science, whatever you want to call it never makes sense when you compare it directly to what you could do with the money to help some person. Problem is that there are always people to help and the planet to clean up, so you may a well toss in some money to keep learning and adventure alive. In the end the amount of money spent on science and NASA is still only a small amount of the money spent by our government and that of other nations. Just a drop in the bucket, but its the drop that I feel most proud of.

The ancient Eygyptians inslaved people to build the pyramids, countless faithful were coerced out of their money to build fantastic cathedrals during the middle ages. A few tax dollars to fund the wonders of our time seem tame in comparison.

Carson O'Genic

06-14-2004, 11:17 PM

Hey on a slightly related subject-don't want to start a thread for this- I saw this photo posted today from Spirit at Gusev. Doesn't that rock look like it has the same blueberry (hematite) formation as Opportunity has seen on the otherside of Mars? Any Martian geologists around?

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p/159/2P140478464EFF6830P2597L2M1.JPG

The rock is the big one on the left.

curiousuburb

06-14-2004, 11:33 PM

Originally posted by Carson O'Genic
Hey on a slightly related subject-don't want to start a thread for this- I saw this photo posted today from Spirit at Gusev. Doesn't that rock look like it has the same blueberry (hematite) formation as Opportunity has seen on the otherside of Mars? Any Martian geologists around?

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p/159/2P140478464EFF6830P2597L2M1.JPG

The rock is the big one on the left.

There is a Mars Exploration (http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35465) Thread going. I've been a bit slack updating it.

First glance suggests it might be basaltic, but I'd have to see the other filters.

To my recollection, no 'blueberries' have been confirmed at Gusev, only at Meridiani.

There's a new Mars briefing tomorrow at 1pm which should provide content for fresh updates.

curiousuburb

06-25-2004, 02:36 PM

Yesterday's Cassini briefing included data and imagery from Phoebe.

Confirmation of Water Ice proves origin as Kuiper Object from outer solar system not asteroid.

Confirmation of Carbon Dioxide, Ferrous Iron, and 'unidentified material' compound.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/small-moons/images/PIA06400.jpg
Phoebe’s Mineral Distribution
June 23, 2004 . . . Full-Res: PIA06400 (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06400)

These set of images were created during the Phoebe flyby on June 11, 2004. The images show the location and distribution of water-ice, ferric iron, carbon dioxide and an unidentified material on the tiny moon of Saturn. The first image was taken with Cassini's narrow angle camera and is shown for comparison purposes only. The other images were taken by the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer onboard Cassini.

The infrared image of Phoebe obtained at a distance of about 16,000 km (10,000 miles) shows a large range of bright and dark features. The resolution of the image is about 4 km (2.5 miles). carbon dioxide on the surface of Phoebe is distributed globally, although it appears to be more prevalent in the darker regions of the satellite.

The existence of carbon dioxide strongly suggests that Phoebe did not originate in the asteroid belt, but rather in much colder regions of the Solar System such as the Kuiper Belt. The Kuiper Belt is a vast reservoir of small, primitive bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. An unidentified substance also appears to be more abundant in the darker regions.

A map showing the distribution of water ice (blue), ferric iron (red), which is common in minerals on Earth and other planets, and the unidentified material (green). Water ice is associated with the brighter regions, while the other two materials are more abundant in the darker regions.

NASA TV (http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Breaking.html) plans the following coverage (all times EST)

June 29, Tuesday
12 p.m. - Cassini Saturn Orbit Insertion Press Conference - JPL (Interactive Media Briefing)
3 p.m. - 7 p.m. - Live Interviews on Cassini Saturn Orbit Insertion (Interactive Media Briefing)

June 30, Wednesday
12 p.m. - Cassini Saturn Orbit Insertion Status Press Conference - JPL (Interactive Media Briefing)
1 p.m. - NASA Honor Awards - HQ (Employee Event)
2 p.m. - News briefing: "17 countries, 7 years, 1 planet, The International Aspects of Cassini" - JPL (Interactive Media Briefing)
5 p.m. - 5:45 p.m. - "Ringside Chat" Press Conference - JPL (Interactive Media Briefing)
6 p.m. - 7 p.m. - Live Interviews on Cassini Mission - JPL (One-Way Media Interviews)
9:30 p.m. - 12:40 a.m. (July 1) - Live Commentary from Mission Control of Cassini-Huygens arrival at Saturn - JPL (Mission Coverage)

July

July 1, Thursday
1 a.m. - Cassini News Briefing: Post-Saturn arrival - JPL (Interactive Media Briefing)
7:45 a.m. - 11 a.m. - Live Commentary on Cassini's First Images (taken during orbit insertion) - JPL (Mission Coverage)
1 p.m. - News briefing: Cassini Saturn arrival first pictures - JPL (Interactive Media Briefing)
3 p.m. - 7 p.m. - Live Interviews on Cassini Mission - JPL (One-Way Media Interviews)

July 2, Friday
6 a.m. - 9 a.m. - Live Interviews with Dennis Boccippio on NASA's role in studying "Lightning and Lightning Safety Awareness" - MSFC (One-Way Media Interviews)
2 p.m - Cassini Preliminary Science Press Update - JPL (Interactive Media Briefing)

curiousuburb

06-29-2004, 01:02 PM

Today's Pre-Saturn Orbit Insertion Briefing was 'all systems go' for Cassini to get captured in 20 hours.

Navigation reports that after 7 years in space and 4.5 Billion kilometers travel, with the help of 4 gravity assists from Venus, Earth, and Jupiter and a few trajectory correction maneuvers, they expect SOI absolute accuracy to within 11 km, relative accuracy within 3 or 4 km. :wow:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/mission/images/soi_earth-20040628.jpg
details here (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/mission/images/soi_earth-20040628.jpg&type=image)

The pass through the ring plane is well outside the densest rings, and the high gain antenna will rotate to face the direction of travel to act as a shield for the spacecraft in case of smaller particle impacts.

The maximum camera resolution at closest ring plane approach will be about 120 meters per pixel, while most ring particles are expected to be on the order of 10 meters or less in diameter, so seeing individual grains of ring material isn't going to happen. They'll be analyzing structure and potentially doing fluid dynamics to attempt to replicate patterns, and using the far ultraviolet and spectrographic systems to get compositional info.

First Titan encounter (of 43 during the mission) will take place July 2nd as well... so we get some ring data, then some Titan data quite early. Though of course, the delay from Saturn is about 1 hour 23 minutes and change.

This latest movie of Titan looks inviting.
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/movies/PIA06080.gif

They've already measured interaction with Saturn's magnetosphere, and rotational audio (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/cassini-062804.html).

curiousuburb

06-30-2004, 08:10 PM

Live commentary for Cassini's Saturn Orbit Insertion is due to start on NASA TV at 1830 PST

curiousuburb

06-30-2004, 11:19 PM

Successful Saturn Orbit Insertion.

Photos and data to come later this evening.

THT

07-01-2004, 09:18 AM

Congratulations to JPL! Here's to many years of discovery and adventure around the Saturn system.

curiousuburb

07-01-2004, 09:32 AM

Cassini's first image of the Rings (unprocessed).

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/61685main_SOI2-330.jpg
Image above: After becoming the first spacecraft to enter Saturn's orbit, Cassini sent back this image of a portion of the planet's rings. It was taken by the spacecraft's narrow angle camera and shows the dark, or unlit, side of the rings.

Press conference this morning might have processed versions of the first Ring pics.

More to come after a textbook night

curiousuburb

07-01-2004, 10:52 AM

Unspecified caption yet, but this is the sunlit side...
looks like the F Ring and gap to A Ring just bulging into the center left edge.

It seems to me we can see the lit lower crescent of a moon inside and above the F Ring.
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/61696main_soi7-516.jpg

You can also clearly see perturbations or 'wake' in the F ring, perhaps due to the nearby moon (Prometheus?).

This image was taken with the Wide Angle camera at a resolution of about 7km per pixel.
Detailed shots of the F ring wake at 700m per pixel will be available soon.

Images and briefing to come this morning.

Timo

07-01-2004, 11:47 AM

From engadget.com:

Interesting fact: Cassini has a DVD record of 616,400 handwritten signatures from 81 countries around the globe, including the mission’s namesakes, Jean-Dominique Cassini and Christiaan Huygens, lifted from 17th-century letters. We kinda wonder what region encoding they put on that and if it’s CSS’d so that there won’t be any aliens bootlegging it.

:D

[nice thread, BTW]

addabox

07-01-2004, 03:45 PM

Astonishing.

God I hope this baby hangs together for the duration of the mission. The Titan lander could be so fucking amazing.

Thanks for keeping this up-to-date, 'burb. :)

curiousuburb

07-20-2004, 12:00 AM

Sorry for slacking in my updates... new term start.

ESA has a spiffy new "Where is Cassini Now (http://www.esa.int/images/WhereIsCassini4.swf)" Flash animation

Dark side detail of Dione
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/large-moons/images/PIA05418.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/large-moons/images/PIA05418.jpg&type=image)
The icy, cratered surface of Saturn's moon Dione shows more than just its sunlit side in these two processed versions of the same image.

The view at left, with only mild enhancement, shows a romantic crescent with large craters visible. The contrast in the version at the right has been greatly enhanced to show the side of Dione lit faintly by reflected light from Saturn. A similar phenomenon can be seen from Earth, when the Moon's dark side is visible due to "earthshine." The crater at the top of the image appears to have a sunlit central peak in the enhanced view - a common characteristic of craters on Dione as seen in Voyager images. Slight variations in brightness on the moon's dark side hint at the bright curved linear streaks, seen by Voyager. These streaks are thought to be deposits of water ice

Iapetus, the two-faced moon also gets a new photo
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/large-moons/images/PIA06100.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/large-moons/images/PIA06100.jpg&type=image)
The moon with the split personality, Iapetus, presents a puzzling appearance. One hemisphere of the moon is very dark, while the other is very bright. Whether the moon is being coated by foreign material or being resurfaced by material from within is not yet known.

Iapetus' diameter is about one third that of our own moon at 1,436 kilometers (892 miles). The latest image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on July 3, 2004, from a distance of 3 million kilometers (1.8 million miles) from Iapetus (pronounced eye-APP-eh-tuss).

The brightness variations in this image are not due to shadowing, they are real. The face of Iapetus visible was observed at a Sun-Iapetus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of about 10 degrees. The image scale is 18 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel. The image was magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility.

Titan fans are inside 100 days to the next flyby and dose of data (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/titan/index.cfm), then another 60 days of itching for Huygens Xmas-eve release.

Ring junkies might tip their hats to this rakish new view.
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/rings/images/PIA05417.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/rings/images/PIA05417.jpg&type=image)
This dramatic view of Saturn’s rings draped by the shadow of Saturn, shows brightness variations that correspond to differences in the concentration of the ring particles as they orbit the planet.

The planet’s western limb is visible in the upper right corner. Three of Saturn’s moons can be seen here: Bright Enceladus (499 kilometers, or 310 miles across) is visible near lower right; Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across) appears at center left; and interior to the F ring, near the top of the image, is Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across). The F ring, the outermost ring shown here, displays several knot-like features near the left side of the image.

The image was taken in visible light by the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera on July 3, 2004, from a distance of 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Saturn, at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of about 108 degrees. This is the first processed wide angle camera image to be released since Cassini’s encounter with Jupiter in 2000. The image scale is 87 kilometers (54 miles) per pixel.

Messenger is due for launch to Mercury near the end of the month, so I'll have to start another thread. :\

addabox

07-20-2004, 12:07 AM

Mercury is a relatively short ride compared to Saturn, no?

curiousuburb

10-23-2004, 12:45 PM

Tune in for Titan on Tuesday

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/titan/images/PIA06090-br402-300.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/titan/images/PIA06090.jpg&type=image)

Tune in to Titan

On Tuesday, Oct. 26, Cassini will pass within 1,200 km (746 miles) of Saturn's giant moon Titan. The historic flyby will be the closest approach to Titan to date. NASA TV coverage begins Oct. 26 at 6:30 p.m. (PST).

curiousuburb

10-23-2004, 12:45 PM

Originally posted by addabox
Mercury is a relatively short ride compared to Saturn, no?

Actually, Messenger is on a long, gravity assist trajectory and won't get to Mercury for 4+ years.

Not Unlike Myself

10-25-2004, 10:05 AM

Originally posted by talksense101
...we might end up like locusts and leeches if we keep travelling from planet to planet just to consume it's resources. Manifest Destiny. Oh yeah.

curiousuburb

10-26-2004, 04:14 PM

http://www.fireantav.com/an/xanadu.jpg

Cassini Eyes Titan's Xanadu - October 25, 2004

This image taken on Oct. 24, 2004, reveals Titan's bright "continent-sized" terrain known as Xanadu. It was acquired with the narrow angle camera on Cassini's imaging science subsystem through a spectral filter centered at 938 nanometers, a wavelength region at which Titan's surface can be most easily detected. The surface is seen at a higher contrast than in previously released imaging science subsystem images due to a lower phase angle (Sun-Titan-Cassini angle), which minimizes scattering by the haze.

The image shows details about 10 times smaller than those seen from Earth. Surface materials with different brightness properties (or albedos) rather than topographic shading are highlighted. The image has been calibrated and slightly enhanced for contrast. It will be further processed to reduce atmospheric blurring and to optimize mapping of surface features. The origin and geography of Xanadu remain mysteries at this range. Bright features near the south pole (bottom) are clouds. On Oct. 26, Cassini will acquire images of features in the central-left portion of this image from a position about 100 times closer.

From here (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/titan/images/PIA06107.jpg&type=image) among a few new Titan shots released today

Expecting much better tonight. Maybe even 100 times better. ;)
:D

Coming up on 4 hours to the Titan flyby webcast (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/webcast/cassini/).

(All times are Pacific time)

Titan Flyby
NASA TV Coverage
- October 26, 6:30 pm

Post-Flyby Briefing
NASA TV Coverage
- October 27, 9:00 am

Science Briefing
NASA TV Coverage
- October 28, 9:00 am

curiousuburb

10-28-2004, 12:26 PM

Huygens Landing Site
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/67907main_pia06136_detail.jpg (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia06136.html)
Shown here are two images of the expected landing site of Cassini's Huygens' probe (latitude 10.6 S, longitude 191 W). At right is a wide-angle image showing most of Titan's disc, with a scale of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) per pixel. At left is a narrow-angle image of the landing site at a scale of 0.83 kilometers (.5 miles) per pixel (location shown by black box at right). North is tilted about 45 degrees from the top of both images. The surface has bright and dark markings with a streamlined pattern consistent with motion from a fluid, such as the atmosphere, moving from west to east (upper left to lower right). The image at left is 400 kilometers (249 miles) wide. Both images were taken by Cassini's imaging science subsystem through near-infrared filters.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

+ High resolution (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06136)

+ View archive (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/Cassini_Multimedia_Collection(Search_Agent)_archiv e_1.html)

False colour VIMS images of the same areas in Infrared
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/67953main_pia06983_detail.jpg (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia06983.html)
This image taken by Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer clearly shows surface features on Titan. It is a composite of false-color images taken at three infrared wavelengths: 2 microns (blue); 2.7 microns (red); and 5 microns (green). A methane cloud can be seen at the south pole (bottom of image). This picture was obtained as Cassini flew by Titan at altitudes ranging from 100,000 to 140,000 kilometers (88,000 to 63,000 miles), less than two hours before the spacecraft's closest approach. The inset picture shows the landing site of Cassini's piggybacked Huygens probe.

Radar results this morning didn't cover the same area, but in the Northern hemisphere swath of 100km x 2000km they captured yesterday, the altimetry results showed less than a 50m variation in elevation... pretty flat surface they said.

More data should come out tomorrow. There was some fascinating chemistry stuff discussed this morning about the propensity for polymerization of certain hydrocarbons into other chains, sometimes 'metallic', sometimes 'white', and sometimes 'black' to certain instruments, but I would have liked to have heard more on how/why certain transformations occur.

Where in the atmosphere seems important, but Titan is somewhat unusual in that it passes in and out of Saturn's magnetosphere periodically in its orbit and is sometimes fully exposed to the solar wind, while at other times benefits from shielding against certain cosmic emissions and potentially mutagenic radiation.

Yesterday's results from scooping a sample of Titan's atmosphere.
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/67933main_pia06980_detail.jpg (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia06980.html)
This graph shows data acquired by Cassini as it flew by Titan at an altitude of 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) on Oct. 26, 2004 - its closet approach yet to the hazy moon. The data is from Cassini's ion and neutral mass spectrometer, which detects charged and neutral particles in the atmosphere. The graph reveals a diversity of hydrocarbons in the high atmosphere above Titan, including benzene and diacetylene.

Still more questions than answers, but it's sure fascinating.

mattjohndrow

10-28-2004, 05:01 PM

EARTH FIRST!!!

We'll strip-mine other planets later.

curiousuburb

10-28-2004, 05:17 PM

Originally posted by mattjohndrow
EARTH FIRST!!!

We'll strip-mine other planets later.

Uh, Titan is crucial to understanding organic chemistry similar to what might have been found on the early Earth. It's the best candidate for studying early Earth, in that regard.

Titan may help us understand phenomena like the Ozone Hole in new ways.
It will certainly teach us new things about hydrocarbons and atmospheres.

Some of this knowledge may have demonstrable benefit here despite your short term view.

mattjohndrow

10-28-2004, 08:16 PM

Originally posted by curiousuburb
Some of this knowledge may have demonstrable benefit here despite your short term view.

i was kidding...joke...i actually think the whole research project is rather cool.

curiousuburb

10-28-2004, 08:20 PM

Originally posted by mattjohndrow
i was kidding...joke...i actually think the whole research project is rather cool.

sorry. lack of sarcasm tags caught me on the wrong side of coffee.

curiousuburb

11-05-2004, 05:04 PM

Planetary Society/ESA Announce: Titan Art Contest (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMZDG0A90E_index_0.html)

Best image(s) by Nov 28th win a trip to Germany to watch Huygens descent live at ESA control.

How to enter

Create an artwork representing what you imagine Titan looks like underneath its haze, based on your perspective on Huygens' journey. Are you viewing the moon from the air after Huygens breaks through the cloud or on the surface after the craft has parachuted to a landing? Did Huygens land on solid ground or is she floating in an ethane sea? Send us your vision of what lies beneath the veil when you imagine Titan.

Once you have finished your artwork you can enter the contest online. You do not need to mail your work, just create it on the computer, take a digital photo or scan your artwork. However, if you are not able to enter the contest digitally, you can also mail it to us. _
_
Contest questions and answers
_
Who can enter?

Anyone aged 10 and above may enter either in the youth section (aged 10-17) or the adult section (18 and over).

What kind of art can I create?

You can use any medium to create your artwork and then send us a digital image through the online entry form. You can also mail your art to us but please note that it should be no larger than 2.5 x 28 x 43 cm (1 x 11 x 17 inches) and that we cannot return artwork.

When does the contest end?

28 November 2004 at 23:59 Pacific time

What can I win?

The Grand Prize is a trip to Darmstadt, Germany to be on site at ESA's Operations Centre for the descent of the Huygens probe. There are also four first prizes (two for both sections) and up to 20 second prizes. The Grand Prize Winner will be chosen from among the first prize winners.

All the winning artwork will be displayed at ESA's European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) during the Huygens mission to Titan and winners will all receive a Planetary Society prize package. This contains: one year's free Planetary Society membership; a Certificate of Honour; a Cassini-Huygens Mission Patch; an ESA poster, pin and keychain; and a 'Nine Planets' lithograph set.

In addition, two special prizes (one in each section) will be awarded for the artwork that most closely resembles any part of the image of the Titan panoramic landscape taken by the Huygens probe during its final descent. These awards, a framed and autographed Huygens photo of the Titan landscape, will be made within 30 days of the return of the actual Titan image data.

Mailing address for postal entries
Huygens Art Contest
The Planetary Society
65 N Catalina Ave.
Pasadena
CA 91106
USA

Get your paints and pixels going, ladies and gentlemen of artistic bent.
It is remotely possible you might even get a bit of Titan named after you.

Carson O'Genic

11-08-2004, 11:43 PM

Originally posted by curiousuburb
sorry. lack of sarcasm tags caught me on the wrong side of coffee.

:lol: :lol:

I thought that was quite funny.

Thanks Curiousuburb for the updates!

curiousuburb

11-30-2004, 10:13 PM

Inspiring true-colour Cassini picture of the week... Mimas against the rings shadow.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/large-moons/images/PIA06142.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/large-moons/images/PIA06142.jpg&type=image)

Nature's Canvas
November 29, 2004
Full-Res: PIA06142 (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06142)

In a splendid portrait created by light and gravity, Saturn's lonely moon Mimas is seen against the cool, blue-streaked backdrop of Saturn's northern hemisphere. Delicate shadows cast by the rings arc gracefully across the planet, fading into darkness on Saturn's night side.

The part of the atmosphere seen here appears darker and more bluish than the warm brown and gold hues seen in Cassini images of the southern hemisphere, due to preferential scattering of blue wavelengths by the cloud-free upper atmosphere.

The bright blue swath near Mimas (398 kilometers, or 247 miles across) is created by sunlight passing through the Cassini division (4,800 kilometers, or 2,980 miles wide). The rightmost part of this distinctive feature is slightly overexposed and therefore bright white in this image. Shadows of several thin ringlets within the division can be seen here as well. The dark band that stretches across the center of the image is the shadow of Saturn's B ring, the densest of the main rings. Part of the actual Cassini division appears at the bottom, along with the A ring and the narrow, outer F ring. The A ring is transparent enough that, from this viewing angle, the atmosphere and threadlike shadows cast by the inner C ring are visible through it.

Images taken with red, green and blue filters were combined to create this color view. The images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Nov. 7, 2004, at a distance of 3.7 million kilometers (2.3 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 22 kilometers (14 miles) per pixel.

curiousuburb

12-11-2004, 03:05 PM

Some fabulous new photos have been parked on the Cassini Gallery pages (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/latest/index.cfm) in the past week, including Iapetus and more Ring shots and more as we approach the Titan-B flyby 12/13 and Dione closest approach 12/15 on our way to the biggest event of the mission so far.

I'll be airborne for some of this on approach to the UK (explained in another thread), but will try to update again before Huygens probe release in two weeks.

Choice among the uploads are these two showing Prometheus mooching material and potentially causing more wake disturbances and perturbations in the F ring, and a quicktime movie called "Tilt and Whirl".

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/rings/images/PIA06143.jpg
Thieving Moon
December 3, 2004 _ Full-Res: PIA06143 (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06143)

As it completed its first orbit of Saturn, Cassini zoomed in on the rings to catch this wondrous view of the shepherd moon Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) working its influence on the multi-stranded and kinked F ring.

The F ring resolves into five separate strands in this closeup view. Potato-shaped Prometheus is seen here, connected to the ringlets by a faint strand of material. Imaging scientists are not sure exactly how Prometheus is interacting with the F ring here, but they have speculated that the moon might be gravitationally pulling material away from the ring. The ringlets are disturbed in several other places. In some, discontinuities or "kinks" in the ringlets are seen; in others, gaps in the diffuse inner strands are seen. All these features appear to be due to the influence of Prometheus.

The image was taken in visible light with the narrow angle camera on Oct. 29, 2004, at a distance of about 782,000 kilometers (486,000 miles) from Prometheus and at a Sun-Prometheus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 147 degrees. The image scale is 4.7 kilometers (2.9 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two, and contrast was enhanced, to aid visibility.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/latest/thumb/PIA06144.jpg
Tilt and Whirl
December 3, 2004 _ Full-Res: PIA06144 (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06144) _ QuickTime (1.7 MB) (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/latest/movies/PIA06144_half_movie.mov)

Zigzagging kinks and knots dance around Saturn in this movie of the F ring from Cassini. From a great distance, as during Cassini's initial approach to Saturn in mid-2004, the F ring appears as a faint, knotted strand of material at the outer fringe of Saturn's immense ring system. From this close vantage point, just after the spacecraft rounded the planet to begin its second orbit, the F ring resolves into several ringlets with a bright central core. The core of the F ring is about 50 kilometers (31 miles) wide and is located at a distance of approximately 80,100 kilometers (49,800 miles) from Saturn's cloud tops.

Scientists have only a rough idea of the lifetime of features like knots and clumps in Saturn's rings, and studies of images, such as those comprising this movie, will help them piece together this story.

The view here is from Cassini's southern vantage point, below the ringplane. During the course of the movie sequence, Cassini was headed on a trajectory that took the spacecraft away from the planet and farther south, so that the rings appear to tilt farther upward. To help visualize this, note that the top portion of the F ring is closer to the spacecraft, while the bottom portion is farther away and curves around the far side of Saturn.

The movie consists of 44 frames taken three minutes apart, so that the span of time represented in the sequence is almost exactly two hours, or about one-eight of a Saturn rotation. The images that comprise this movie sequence were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Oct. 28, 2004, and at distances ranging from approximately 516,000 kilometers (321,000 miles) to 562,000 kilometers (349,000 miles). No enhancement was performed on the images.

Get ready for mainstream media coverage to ramp up in advance of the 12/26 Huygens release.

curiousuburb

12-27-2004, 09:54 AM

Huygens released on time and on target... Titan here we come... landing Jan 14th.

True colour Cassini picture of the week... Saturn, Titan, and (hard to spot) Mimas.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/saturn/images/PIA06164-br500.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1246)
Cassini's Holiday Greetings
December 24, 2004 Full-Res: PIA06164 (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06164)

From its station nearly 1.2 billion kilometers (746 million miles) from Earth, the stalwart Cassini spacecraft sends holiday greetings to Earth with this lovely color portrait of Saturn and two of its moons.

The 2004 holiday season marks the close of a miraculous year that saw the end of Cassini's long journey across the solar system and the beginning of its adventures in orbit around Saturn. In a triumph of human achievement, the Cassini mission has already returned thousands of images and has begun to uncover the mysteries of the Saturn system. This color portrait serves as reminder of the Saturnian places we have already seen and the promise of future discovery at Titan when the European Space Agency's Huygens probe arrives at Titan on Jan. 14, 2005.

The image shows the majestic ringed planet, with bands of colorful clouds in its southern hemisphere. The planet's northern extremes have a cool bluish hue, due to scattering of blue wavelengths of sunlight by the cloud-free upper atmosphere there. Long shadows of the icy rings stretch across the north.

A grayish, oval-shaped storm is visible in Saturn's southern hemisphere and is easily 475 kilometers (295 miles) across - the size of some hurricanes on Earth.

Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) is visible near lower right with its thick, orange-colored atmosphere, and faint Mimas (398 kilometers, or 247 miles across) appears just right of the rings' outer edge.

Images taken in the red, green and blue filters with the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera on Dec. 14, 2004, were combined to create this color view at a distance of approximately 719,000 kilometers (447,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 43 kilometers (27 miles) per pixel.

curiousuburb

01-11-2005, 11:48 PM

Huygens is Go for Titan Entry Jan 14th...

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA06172-br500.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA06172-br500.jpg)

Go Huygens!
January 11, 2005 Full-Res: PIA06172 (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06172)

This map illustrates the planned imaging coverage for the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer, onboard the European Space Agency's Huygens probe during the probe's descent toward Titan's surface on Jan. 14, 2005. The Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer is one of two NASA instruments on the probe.

The colored lines delineate regions that will be imaged at different resolutions as the probe descends. On each map, the site where Huygens is predicted to land is marked with a yellow dot. This area is in a boundary between dark and bright regions.

This map was made from the images taken by the Cassini spacecraft cameras on Oct. 26, 2004, at image scales of 4 to 6 kilometers (2.5 to 3.7 miles) per pixel. The images were obtained using a narrow band filter centered at 938 nanometers - a near-infrared wavelength (invisible to the human eye) at which light can penetrate Titan's atmosphere to reach the surface and return through the atmosphere to be detected by the camera. The images have been processed to enhance surface details. Only brightness variations on Titan's surface are seen; the illumination is such that there is no shading due to topographic variations.

For about two hours, the probe will fall by parachute from an altitude of 160 kilometers (99 miles) to Titan's surface. During the descent the camera on the probe and five other science instruments will send data about the moon's atmosphere and surface back to the Cassini spacecraft for relay to Earth. The Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer will take pictures as the probe slowly spins, and some these will be made into panoramic views of Titan's surface.

This map (PIA06172) shows the expected coverage by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer side-looking imager and two downward-looking imagers - one providing medium-resolution and the other high-resolution coverage. The planned coverage by the medium- and high-resolution imagers is the subject of the second map (PIA06173).

NASA TV/webcast will carry ESA TV during the Titan events.
Check the TV schedule for full details (all times listed are in Eastern Time).

January 13, Thursday
10:55 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. - Huygens Final Status (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/index.html) News Conference From ESA

January 14, Friday
3 a.m. - Live Coverage Begins
11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. - Huygens Probe News Briefing (will confirm if data is being received)
5 p.m. - 6 p.m. - ESA Commentary and "Presentation of First Triplet Image of/data from Titan"

January 15, Saturday
5 a.m. - 6 a.m. - ESA News Briefing "Early Look at Science Results"

I know what I'll be watching this weekend.

addabox

01-12-2005, 05:03 PM

Man, I had spaced on the timetable, thankyou thankyou thankyou for keeping me up to date.

I am so glued to the screen.

curiousuburb

01-12-2005, 06:11 PM

Originally posted by curiousuburb
Planetary Society/ESA Announce: Titan Art Contest (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMZDG0A90E_index_0.html)

Best image(s) by Nov 28th win a trip to Germany to watch Huygens descent live at ESA control.

-snip-

Get your paints and pixels going, ladies and gentlemen of artistic bent.
It is remotely possible you might even get a bit of Titan named after you.

Winners Announced http://www.esa.int/images/huygens_art_contest_15_chelsey_tyler_S.jpg (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEMQ35Q3K3E_0.html)

curiousuburb

01-14-2005, 09:38 AM

Huygens is on Titan!! Data playback in progress... first info later today.

curiousuburb

01-14-2005, 10:52 AM

"A Fantastic Success... We are the first visitors to the surface of Titan."
- ESA chief at this morning's Huygens (First Science Data Recieved) Briefing

[that we know of]

"Huygens continued to send data, received here on Earth through ground stations, after Cassini had to end scheduled high-data rate reception to turn and relay science to us."

"All spacecraft housekeeping data in the stream looks normal."

I may be misinterpreting this early (more coffee on the way), but I took this to mean that the batteries lasted longer than expected, and effectively that we have more data from Huygens on the surface of Titan than we had bandwidth for.

Cassini was always due to have limited data take due to orbit planning, but the fact that Earth stations picked up the Huygens-to-Cassini carrier signal and our final limitation on new data is/was the shortage of "big ears" more than a billion miles away.

"Last spacecraft Carrier was at 1555GMT from a station in Australia... Radio telescopes around the world are being requested to try and track longer to extend the scientific doppler work and see how long Huygens survives"
- Huygens Principal Investigator Jean-Pierre ???

The first "Actual Science Results" briefing won't start for a few hours as they decompress the datastream and collect enough info to feed the world's media.

Landing on other worlds is cool.

curiousuburb

01-14-2005, 11:04 AM

perhaps even more impressive... of the entire scheduled high-data rate relay,
not one packet was lost from B Channel... :wow:
the redundant A channel data is a bit unhappy

THT

01-14-2005, 11:15 AM

Congratulations!

Anxiously awaiting data...

Powerdoc

01-14-2005, 11:44 AM

Huygens has landed on Titan. The communication has started between Cassini and earth.

Titan is the most enigmatic moon of the solar system.
In the next coming hours, we will see the first images and audio recording of this moon.

BBC link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4175099.stm)

pfflam

01-14-2005, 12:20 PM

AWESOME . . . unbelieveable!!!

landing succseffully on a planet/moon that far away is just mind boggling . . . . one of the biggest steps humanity has evertaken . . . .

now if we can just get our terrestrial act together . .

Powerdoc

01-14-2005, 12:27 PM

Originally posted by pfflam
AWESOME . . . unbelieveable!!!

landing succseffully on a planet/moon that far away is just mind boggling . . . . one of the biggest steps humanity has evertaken . . . .

now if we can just get our terrestrial act together . .

Yes it's very exciting, and the scientific info collected may lead to great scientific discoveries.

hardhead

01-14-2005, 01:03 PM

This is such an awesome achievment, yet the regular news media is giving it little news. What a shmuck kulture we've become...

Hmm, what's Paris Hilton wearing today?

curiousuburb

01-14-2005, 01:48 PM

Looks like the first Huygens Science Briefing is about to start on ESA/NASA TV

First pictures are a possibility, but early results suggest it landed on a solid surface, not liquid.

curiousuburb

01-14-2005, 01:53 PM

ESA's Cassini-Huygens Home Page (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/index.html) has linked clips from some of the earlier press events.

ESA/NASA TV are getting ready for the first true science briefing, potentially with pics.

Should we merge this into the general Saturn Exploration thread (http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=42225), Powerdoc?

curiousuburb

01-14-2005, 02:04 PM

First images back are from the Descent Imager... they have 350 images...
showed two from more than 10km up... below the haze looking down.

claiming to see drainage features... pics aren't posted yet, and aren't processed to clean noise either...

should get clearer later

Powerdoc

01-14-2005, 02:07 PM

Originally posted by curiousuburb
ESA's Cassini-Huygens Home Page (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/index.html) has linked clips from some of the earlier press events.

ESA/NASA TV are getting ready for the first true science briefing, potentially with pics.

Should we merge this into the general Saturn Exploration thread (http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=42225), Powerdoc?

Yes my bad. Perhaps I should do some thread's title editing too. Because today was the day ;)

SpcMs

01-14-2005, 03:50 PM

Ladies and Gents, Titan:

http://www.esa.int/images/landing03_L2.jpg

http://www.esa.int/images/landing01_L2.jpg

curiousuburb

01-14-2005, 08:47 PM

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/cassini_huygens/huygens_land/landing_01_H.jpg (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEMBQO71Y3E_1.html)
Titan Close-Up - Jan. 14, 2005
This raw image was returned by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer camera onboard the European Space Agency's Huygens probe after the probe descended through the atmosphere of Titan. It shows the surface of Titan with ice blocks strewn around. The size and distance of the blocks will be determined when the image is properly processed.

Total size of the effective Huygens Data Set during primary relay via Cassini: 4h32m (end by Horizon)

- beyond expected battery life/'warranty' period

Data decompression & replay scheduled for 8 replay sessions to ensure error free decode.

Preliminary analysis suggest no packet loss on Channel B, good science...
primarily - atmospheric composition, charge, pressure, etc... at one second inhalations on the way to the surface.

Extended carrier wave detection from Earth Radio Telescopes as bonus doppler science not finalized.

More info at the 1/15 ESA Briefing

crazychester

01-14-2005, 11:41 PM

Originally posted by curiousuburb
"Last spacecraft Carrier was at 1555GMT from a station in Australia... Tidbinbilla Deep Space Tracking Station. Just down the road from where I sit this very minute.

Love those channels. The lumps were "oh shit, it looks just like frickin' Mars" until it turns out they're ice.

curiousuburb

01-15-2005, 11:58 AM

ESA brings you the microphone science on the way down through Titan's atmosphere...

Sounds of Titan (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM85Q71Y3E_index_0.html)

Titan Winds.mp3 (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/huygens_alien_winds_descent.mp3)

Radar Descent.mp3 (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/huygens_alien_winds_descent_radar.mp3)

New composite image surface pictures in a panorama

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/105764main_pia07230-330.jpg (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07230.html)

This composite was produced from images returned yesterday, January 14, 2005, by the European Space Agency's Huygens probe during its successful descent to land on Titan. It shows a full 360-degree view around Huygens. The left-hand side, behind Huygens, shows a boundary between light and dark areas. The white streaks seen near this boundary could be ground 'fog,' as they were not immediately visible from higher altitudes.

As the probe descended, it drifted over a plateau (center of image) and was heading towards its landing site in a dark area (right). From the drift of the probe, the wind speed has been estimated at around 6-7 kilometers (about 4 miles) per hour.

These images were taken from an altitude of about 8 kilometers ( about 5 miles) with a resolution of about 20 meters (about 65 feet) per pixel. The images were taken by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer, one of two NASA instruments on the probe.

and the processed, colour version of the surface of Titan seen yesterday.

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/105768main_pia07232-516.jpg (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07232.html)

This image was returned yesterday, January 14, 2005, by the European Space Agency's Huygens probe during its successful descent to land on Titan. This is the colored view, following processing to add reflection spectra data, and gives a better indication of the actual color of the surface.

Initially thought to be rocks or ice blocks, they are more pebble-sized. The two rock-like objects just below the middle of the image are about 15 centimeters (about 6 inches) (left) and 4 centimeters (about 1.5 inches) (center) across respectively, at a distance of about 85 centimeters (about 33 inches) from Huygens. The surface is darker than originally expected, consisting of a mixture of water and hydrocarbon ice. There is also evidence of erosion at the base of these objects, indicating possible fluvial activity.

The image was taken with the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer, one of two NASA instruments on the probe.

Aside from the admission of a human error in failing to enable Cassini capture of the A data channel, it looks and sounds like a great success so far.

ipodandimac

01-15-2005, 02:41 PM

Originally posted by pfflam
one of the biggest steps humanity has evertaken . . . .

i dunno.... i love space exploration, but when you take a step back and think about it, it's a huge waste of money. say that we discover some cool things and learn more about how Earth was formed. how does that help us? it's not like we need to worry about building our own planets. so what if we find out that the center of earth isnt magma like everyone pretends to know 'as a fact'? what the hell would that information do for us? you're right--nothing. studying dark matter and other things related to energy are important, but not taking pictures of a moon that would take us like 50 years to travel to.

ok i'm done ranting.

addabox

01-15-2005, 03:08 PM

Originally posted by ipodandimac
i dunno.... i love space exploration, but when you take a step back and think about it, it's a huge waste of money. say that we discover some cool things and learn more about how Earth was formed. how does that help us? it's not like we need to worry about building our own planets. so what if we find out that the center of earth isnt magma like everyone pretends to know 'as a fact'? what the hell would that information do for us? you're right--nothing. studying dark matter and other things related to energy are important, but not taking pictures of a moon that would take us like 50 years to travel to.

ok i'm done ranting.

The day science decides that the only topics worth studying are those with a reasonable likelihood of generating "practical" results is the day it ceases to be science.

ipodandimac

01-15-2005, 03:54 PM

Originally posted by addabox
The day science decides that the only topics worth studying are those with a reasonable likelihood of generating "practical" results is the day it ceases to be science.
fair enough, but i'd like my tax money back (the portion of it going to NASA).

aecheylon

01-15-2005, 04:19 PM

NASA certainly spends a lot of money (16B), but not when compared to the overall expenditures of the US government. And while the money spent on NASA could arguably be put to better uses, Americans spend only about $60 dollars each year per citizen to cover this 16B. Depending on your bracket, you might get a decent something back if we didn't spend 16B each year on it, but the "real" money (and potential savings) really lie elsewhere within our gigantic and sprawling annual expenditures.

curiousuburb

01-15-2005, 05:50 PM

Originally posted by ipodandimac
fair enough, but i'd like my tax money back (the portion of it going to NASA).

No more GPS for you, or velcro, or centrifuged medicine, or ...

Powerdoc

01-16-2005, 02:13 AM

Originally posted by curiousuburb
No more GPS for you, or velcro, or centrifuged medicine, or ...

:D

Carson O'Genic

01-17-2005, 07:23 PM

My $60/year give me endless hours of enjoyment looking a raw images from Mars and playing arm-chair geologist. Best money I ever spent.

Ferali

01-18-2005, 10:35 PM

whoa thats crazy i dont get the sound tho has anyone else listened to that? it just sounds like static. and we spent so much money and we were all excited about hugens and all that and all i see is a couple pictures of the ground?... please say theres more to come as far as under the atmosphere titan pictures...

Amorph

01-20-2005, 12:25 PM

Originally posted by Ferali
whoa thats crazy i dont get the sound tho has anyone else listened to that? it just sounds like static. and we spent so much money and we were all excited about hugens and all that and all i see is a couple pictures of the ground?... please say theres more to come as far as under the atmosphere titan pictures...

It will take them 10-15 years to pry all the interesting detail out of the data they're getting.

Believe me, these guys haven't been waiting 8 years for a few pictures of pebbles.

Powerdoc

01-21-2005, 12:11 PM

The preliminary analysis demonstrated that there is a lot in common between earth and titan.

There is polycarbures, erosion, atmoshpere. Titan is like a frozen earth. A sort of earth 3 billions of years ago.
As amorph stated, the complete analysis of all the data will recquiere years.

curiousuburb

02-25-2005, 12:54 PM

Trogdor on Saturn

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/saturn/images/PIA06197-br402.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1399)

The Dragon Storm
February 24, 2005
Full-Res: PIA06197 (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06197)

A large, bright and complex convective storm that appeared in Saturn's southern hemisphere in mid-September 2004 was the key in solving a long-standing mystery about the ringed planet.

Saturn's atmosphere and its rings are shown here in a false color composite made from Cassini images taken in near infrared light through filters that sense different amounts of methane gas. Portions of the atmosphere with a large abundance of methane above the clouds are red, indicating clouds that are deep in the atmosphere. Grey indicates high clouds, and brown indicates clouds at intermediate altitudes. The rings are bright blue because there is no methane gas between the ring particles and the camera.

The complex feature with arms and secondary extensions just above and to the right of center is called the Dragon Storm. It lies in a region of the southern hemisphere referred to as "storm alley" by imaging scientists because of the high level of storm activity observed there by Cassini in the last year.

The Dragon Storm was a powerful source of radio emissions during July and September of 2004. The radio waves from the storm resemble the short bursts of static generated by lightning on Earth. Cassini detected the bursts only when the storm was rising over the horizon on the night side of the planet as seen from the spacecraft; the bursts stopped when the storm moved into sunlight. This on/off pattern repeated for many Saturn rotations over a period of several weeks, and it was the clock-like repeatability that indicated the storm and the radio bursts are related. Scientists have concluded that the Dragon Storm is a giant thunderstorm whose precipitation generates electricity as it does on Earth. The storm may be deriving its energy from Saturn's deep atmosphere.

One mystery is why the radio bursts start while the Dragon Storm is below the horizon on the night side and end when the storm is on the day side, still in full view of the Cassini spacecraft. A possible explanation is that the lightning source lies to the east of the visible cloud, perhaps because it is deeper where the currents are eastward relative to those at cloud top levels. If this were the case, the lightning source would come up over the night side horizon and would sink down below the day side horizon before the visible cloud. This would explain the timing of the visible storm relative to the radio bursts.

The Dragon Storm is of great interest for another reason. In examining images taken of Saturn's atmosphere over many months, imaging scientists found that the Dragon Storm arose in the same part of Saturn's atmosphere that had earlier produced large bright convective storms. In other words, the Dragon Storm appears to be a long-lived storm deep in the atmosphere that periodically flares up to produce dramatic bright white plumes which subside over time. One earlier sighting, in July 2004, was also associated with strong radio bursts. And another, observed in March 2004 and captured in a movie created from images of the atmosphere (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06082 and http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06083) spawned three little dark oval storms that broke off from the arms of the main storm. Two of these subsequently merged with each other; the current to the north carried the third one off to the west, and Cassini lost track of it. Small dark storms like these generally get stretched out until they merge with the opposing currents to the north and south.

These little storms are the food that sustains the larger atmospheric features, including the larger ovals and the eastward and westward currents. If the little storms come from the giant thunderstorms, then together they form a food chain that harvests the energy of the deep atmosphere and helps maintain the powerful currents.

Cassini has many more chances to observe future flare-ups of the Dragon Storm, and others like it over the course of the mission. It is likely that scientists will come to solve the mystery of the radio bursts and observe storm creation and merging in the next 2 or 3 years.

curiousuburb

06-17-2005, 12:29 PM

Just when you thought you'd seen the wobbly F ring wake well... < or F wing if you're elmer fudd >

Pandora's Flocks

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/rings/images/PIA07523-br500.jpg
June 17, 2005 Full-Res: PIA07523 (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07523)

The shepherd moon, Pandora, is seen here alongside the narrow F ring that it helps maintain. Pandora is 84 kilometers (52 miles) across.

Cassini obtained this view from about four degrees above the ringplane. Captured here are several faint, dusty ringlets in the vicinity of the F ring core. The ringlets do not appear to be perturbed to the degree seen in the core.

The appearance of Pandora here is exciting, as the moon's complete shape can be seen, thanks to reflected light from Saturn, which illuminates Pandora's dark side. The hint of a crater is visible on the dark side of the moon.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 4, 2005, at a distance of approximately 967,000 kilometers (601,000 miles) from Pandora and at a Sun-Pandora-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 117 degrees. The image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.

Other releases of late include:
ring planehttp://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/rings/images/PIA07520-th100.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1566), F ringhttp://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/rings/images/PIA07522-th100.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1569) and volcano on Titanhttp://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA07962-th100.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1560)

Debating whether to start a Deep Impact thread...

aplnub

06-17-2005, 01:33 PM

Start away...

Are you an astronomy junky?

I have a 10" Meade LX200 GPS I play with.

Placebo

06-17-2005, 02:07 PM

Aurora

06-17-2005, 05:46 PM

Originally posted by curiousuburb
Unspecified caption yet, but this is the sunlit side...
looks like the F Ring and gap to A Ring just bulging into the center left edge.

It seems to me we can see the lit lower crescent of a moon inside and above the F Ring.
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/61696main_soi7-516.jpg

You can also clearly see perturbations or 'wake' in the F ring, perhaps due to the nearby moon (Prometheus?).

This image was taken with the Wide Angle camera at a resolution of about 7km per pixel.
Detailed shots of the F ring wake at 700m per pixel will be available soon.

Images and briefing to come this morning. I dont know about you but to me it sure looks like there are a bunch of moving objects all over that background.

curiousuburb

07-06-2005, 12:58 PM

And for a non-Cassini perspective for a change, Space.com (http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/image_of_day_050704.html) offers Saturn in Visible and X-Ray

http://a52.g.akamaitech.net/f/52/827/1d/www.space.com/images/050704_saturn_xrayopt_04.jpg (http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/image_of_day_050704.html)
Sparkling Saturn

Saturn's rings light up with bright blue highlights, in this blend of both visual and X-ray observations.

Astronomers believe that fluorescence caused when solar X-rays smack into the oxygen molecules locked with in Saturn’s icy ring water.

As seen in this image, most of the X-rays among Saturn’s rings come from the B ring, the bright white, inner ring in the optical image of the planet.

There is some evidence for a concentration of X-rays on the morning side (left side, also called the East ansa) of the rings, possibly because X-rays are associated with optical features called spokes that are largely confined to the dense B ring and most often seen on the morning side.

Spokes are due to transient clouds of fine ice-dust particles that are lifted off the ring surface. It has been suggested that the spokes are triggered by meteoroid impacts, which are more likely in the midnight to early morning hours because during that period the relative speed of the rings through a cloud of meteoroids would be greater.

The higher X-ray brightness on the morning side of the rings could be due to the additional solar fluorescence from the transient ice clouds that produce the spokes. This explanation may also account for other Chandra observations of Saturn, which show that the X-ray brightness of the rings varies significantly from one week to the next.

Credit: X-ray: NASA/MSFC/CXC/A.Bhardwaj et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/AURA

They have previously reported on puzzling results from science in these bands and compared Chandra and HST

http://www.space.com/images/h_xray_saturn_02.jpg (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/xray_saturn_040308.html)
Chandra's image of Saturn held some surprises for the observers. First, Saturn's 90 megawatts of X-radiation is concentrated near the equator. This is different from a similar gaseous giant planet, Jupiter, where the most intense X-rays are associated with the strong magnetic field near its poles.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/U. Hamburg/J.Ness et al; Optical: NASA/STScI

curiousuburb

07-26-2005, 04:12 AM

Hot on the heels of the recent Top 10 Cassini Science Highlights (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/features/feature20050715.cfm),

check out the latest spooky Sounds of Saturn (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-release-details.cfm?newsID=589)

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/saturn/images/PIA07967-br500.jpg click for 127kb WAV file (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/saturn/audio/pia07967-072504.wav)
Saturn's radio emissions could be mistaken for a Halloween sound track. That's how two researchers describe their recent findings, published in the July 23 issue of the Geophysical Research Letters. Their paper is based on data from the Cassini spacecraft radio and plasma wave science instrument. The study investigates sounds that are not just eerie, but also descriptive of a phenomenon similar to Earth's northern lights.

"All of the structures we observe in Saturn's radio spectrum are giving us clues about what might be going on in the source of the radio emissions above Saturn's auroras," said Dr. Bill Kurth, deputy principal investigator for the instrument. He is with the University of Iowa, Iowa City. Kurth made the discovery along with Principal Investigator Don Gurnett, a professor at the University. "We believe that the changing frequencies are related to tiny radio sources moving up and down along Saturn's magnetic field lines."

Samples of the resulting sounds can be heard at www.nasa.gov/cassini , http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/cassini/ .

The radio emissions, called Saturn kilometric radiation, are generated along with Saturn's auroras, or northern and southern lights. Because the Cassini instrument has higher resolution compared to a similar instrument on NASA's Voyager spacecraft, it has provided more detailed information on the spectrum and the variability of radio emissions. The high-resolution measurements allow scientists to convert the radio waves into audio recordings by shifting the frequencies down into the audio frequency range.

The terrestrial cousins of Saturn's radio emissions were first reported in 1979 by Gurnett, who used an instrument on the International Sun-Earth Explorer spacecraft in Earth orbit. Kurth said that despite their best efforts, scientists still haven't agreed on a theory to fully explain the phenomenon. They will get another chance to solve the radio emission puzzle beginning in mid-2008 when Cassini will fly close to, or possibly even through, the source region at Saturn. Gurnett said, "It is amazing that the radio emissions from Earth and Saturn sound so similar." Other contributors to the paper include University of Iowa scientists George Hospodarsky and Baptiste Cecconi; Mike Kaiser (currently at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.); French scientists Philippe Louarn, Philippe Zarka and Alain Lecacheux; and Austrian scientists Helmut Rucker and Mohammed Boudjada. Cassini, carrying 12 scientific instruments, on June 30, 2004, became the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn. It is conducting a four-year study of the planet, its rings and many moons. The spacecraft carried the Huygens probe, a six-instrument European Space Agency probe that landed on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, in January 2005.

curiousuburb

09-30-2005, 05:46 AM

Spongy and Lavalike moons and more

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA07740-br402.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/video-details.cfm?videoID=97) Hyperion

Click pic above for links to QT movie of Hyperion flyby.

Cassini performed back-to-back flybys of Saturn moons Tethys and Hyperion last weekend, coming closer than ever before to each of them. Tethys has a scarred, ancient surface, while Hyperion is a strange, spongy-looking body with dark-floored craters that speckle its surface.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/IMG001750-th100.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-release-details.cfm?newsID=605) Click for news of 'doubleheader' flyby.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA07737-br500.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1759)
False colour close-up of Tethys. Click for details

This view is among the closest Cassini images of Tethys' icy surface taken during the Sept. 24, 2005 flyby.
This false-color image, created with infrared, green and ultraviolet frames, reveals a wide variety of surface colors across this terrain. The presence of this variety at such small scales may indicate a mixture of different surface materials. Tethys was previously known to have color differences on its surface, especially on its trailing side, but this kind of color diversity is new to imaging scientists. For a clear-filter view of this terrain, see PIA07736 (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1758).

Not Unlike Myself

09-30-2005, 07:49 AM

You're really into this space stuff huh?

curiousuburb

09-30-2005, 11:52 AM

Originally posted by Not Unlike Myself
You're really into this space stuff huh?

It's like a new world every day... ;)

Kickaha

09-30-2005, 11:54 AM

In some cases, it really is. :D

I mean, they keep finding more and more little moonlets. What's next, Charon finds out it has two little siblings?

Not Unlike Myself

09-30-2005, 01:00 PM

Maybe a topic for a new thread.... but while space gives some people that sense of 'wonder'.. it depresses me..

One more plant, one more place you'll never see. And the kicker is.. none of this is new.. it's all been there long before we existed... and will continue to exist long after we are gone. So what if we see it?

It's like sensation 'freaks'. They live for the feeling of being alive. This seems almost the same. If the thrill is in the seeing.. does it really matter if you've seen a lot or seen a little? Because in the end.. you still dye...

So while we look to space for answers about who we are.. why we are here.. who or what else is 'out there'... I look inside and say what does all that abstract 'hypothesis' really matter? Most people struggle their whole lives just trying to figure out who *they themselves* are... :(

I dunno.. maybe I need prozac or something... (yeah yeah.. or something)

Kickaha

09-30-2005, 01:23 PM

By that reasoning, we should all have just stayed in the trees.

Powerdoc

09-30-2005, 02:41 PM

General discussion : it's not the right place for this thread. Moved to Apple outsider.

Not Unlike Myself

09-30-2005, 03:16 PM

Originally posted by Kickaha
By that reasoning, we should all have just stayed in the trees. Disagree. Coming to the ground was to get things we could TOUCH. "Wow, there is food over there...let me go see if I can get it" and "Oh crap, there is a sabertooth tiger over there, let me run away".
But looking at the sky is looking at things you CANNOT touch and interact with. The moon was visited by how many people? And for what benefit? There really isn't the same tangible benefit that immediate env. exploration provides.

I'm not saying that taking pictures of deep space doesn't have appeal to anyone... but that for just me it doesn't. We have more important pressing matters to explore here at home.

Put me in the club that says deep space photography and exploration should be *PRIVATE* money. Not public. Spend the millions on building better LEVY's or some anti-aircraft missles around major cities... How's THAT for spending money? :err:

Carson O'Genic

09-30-2005, 09:04 PM

Originally posted by Not Unlike Myself
Disagree. Coming to the ground was to get things we could TOUCH. "Wow, there is food over there...let me go see if I can get it" and "Oh crap, there is a sabertooth tiger over there, let me run away".
But looking at the sky is looking at things you CANNOT touch and interact with. The moon was visited by how many people? And for what benefit? There really isn't the same tangible benefit that immediate env. exploration provides.

I'm not saying that taking pictures of deep space doesn't have appeal to anyone... but that for just me it doesn't. We have more important pressing matters to explore here at home.

Put me in the club that says deep space photography and exploration should be *PRIVATE* money. Not public. Spend the millions on building better LEVY's or some anti-aircraft missles around major cities... How's THAT for spending money? :err:

I disagree, we are touching things with our instruments. Through the wonder that is the internet, I get to go online everyday and look at the latest pictures of rocks, sand, etc on Mars (yes I do this and love it). How cool is that.

The scientists at NASA etc are doing the stearing but I'm following in on the ride and am a very happy tax payer getting my cheap thrills. What do I get? I get to know more about the universe around me.

Imagine if the folks back in spain could have had a video camera on board with Columbus. Would have been fun (until the ugly parts) to watch what he was discovering , no? That is how I feel.

Humans will be scattered around our solar system one day, during my slice of life I get to witness the first exploratory motions.

bergz

10-01-2005, 10:09 PM

Originally posted by Kickaha
I mean, they keep finding more and more little moonlets. What's next, Charon finds out it has two little siblings?

link (http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/10/01/new.planet.moon.ap/index.html) 'Planet Xena' has a sidekick: Gabrielle

Full article below:
The astronomers who claim to have discovered the 10th planet in the Earth's solar system have made another intriguing announcement: it has a moon.

While observing the new, so-called planet from Hawaii last month, a team of astronomers led by Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology spotted a faint object trailing next to it. Because it was moving, astronomers ruled it was a moon and not a background star, which is stationary.

The moon discovery is important because it can help scientists determine the new planet's mass. In July, Brown announced the discovery of an icy, rocky object larger than Pluto in the Kuiper Belt, a disc of icy bodies beyond Neptune. Brown labeled the object a planet and nicknamed it Xena after the lead character in the former TV series "Xena: Warrior Princess."

By determining the moon's distance and orbit around Xena, scientists can calculate how heavy Xena is. For example, the faster a moon goes around a planet, the more massive a planet is.

But the newly discovered moon, nicknamed Gabrielle after Xena's faithful traveling sidekick in the TV series, likely will not quell the debate over what exactly is a planet and whether Pluto should keep its status. The problem is there is no official definition for a planet and setting standards like size limits potentially invites other objects to take the "planet" label.

Possessing a moon is not a criteria of planethood since Mercury and Venus are moonless planets. Brown said he expected to find a moon orbiting Xena because many Kuiper Belt objects are paired with moons.

The moon is about 155 miles wide and 60 times fainter than Xena, the farthest-known object in the solar system. It is currently 9 billion miles away from the sun, or about three times Pluto's current distance from the sun.

Scientists believe Xena's moon was formed when Kuiper Belt objects collided with one another. The Earth's moon formed in a similar way when Earth crashed into an object the size of Mars.

The moon was first spotted by a 10-meter telescope at the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii on September 10. Scientists expect to learn more about the moon's composition during further observations with the Hubble Space Telescope in November.

Brown planned to submit a paper describing the moon discovery to the Astrophysical Journal next week.

The International Astronomical Union, a group of scientists responsible for naming planets, is deciding on formal names for Xena and Gabrielle.

Not Unlike Myself

10-02-2005, 09:34 PM

Originally posted by Carson O'Genic
Imagine if the folks back in spain could have had a video camera on board with Columbus. Would have been fun (until the ugly parts) to watch what he was discovering , no? That is how I feel.

Humans will be scattered around our solar system one day, during my slice of life I get to witness the first exploratory motions. Um.. but deep space probes are not colonization ships. And if there *had* been camera's w/ Columbus they'd have documented the rape of the new world. I'm sure the Native American's would love that footage. It's not all 'dreams and happy endings'. I think you know darn well we will wipe ourselves out long before we can sustain a person on another planet for more then a few weeks. Remember... although 'hostile' the new world still had *air* *water* and *food*. (things I don't see laying around in any of these 'inspirational' photos you peep at daily.

Carson O'Genic

10-03-2005, 12:44 PM

Originally posted by Not Unlike Myself
Um.. but deep space probes are not colonization ships. And if there *had* been camera's w/ Columbus they'd have documented the rape of the new world. I'm sure the Native American's would love that footage. It's not all 'dreams and happy endings'. I think you know darn well we will wipe ourselves out long before we can sustain a person on another planet for more then a few weeks. Remember... although 'hostile' the new world still had *air* *water* and *food*. (things I don't see laying around in any of these 'inspirational' photos you peep at daily.

Offcourse robotic exploration wasn't an option until recently. My point is we can all share in the exploration in a good way, and for me that makes the cost of NASA worth it.

I'm more optimistic than you regarding colonization. I know we're not there yet, but I think we'll survive until some of us make it off the planet. I think the moon will likely develop into some sort of tourism destination for the rich to begin with, then the rest will build from there.

bergz

10-03-2005, 04:26 PM

I think it's great that the first thing we've done is export a bunch of radioactive material off our planet in tin cans. Like smallpox but more efficient.

Not to contribute to the digression from CuriousBurb's pure science postings. I love this thread.

--B

Carson O'Genic

10-03-2005, 08:15 PM

Originally posted by bergz

I think it's great that the first thing we've done is export a bunch of radioactive material off our planet in tin cans. Like smallpox but more efficient.

Not to contribute to the digression from CuriousBurb's pure science postings. I love this thread.

--B

We're just redistributing the elements that came for stars in the first place. :p

curiousuburb

10-06-2005, 06:09 AM

Spongy and Lavalike moons and more

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA07740-br402.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/video-details.cfm?videoID=97) Hyperion

Click pic above for links to QT movie of Hyperion flyby.

Cassini performed back-to-back flybys of Saturn moons Tethys and Hyperion last weekend, coming closer than ever before to each of them. Tethys has a scarred, ancient surface, while Hyperion is a strange, spongy-looking body with dark-floored craters that speckle its surface.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/IMG001750-th100.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-release-details.cfm?newsID=605) Click for news of 'doubleheader' flyby.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA07737-br500.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1759)
False colour close-up of Tethys. Click for details.

This view is among the closest Cassini images of Tethys' icy surface taken during the Sept. 24, 2005 flyby.
This false-color image, created with infrared, green and ultraviolet frames, reveals a wide variety of surface colors across this terrain. The presence of this variety at such small scales may indicate a mixture of different surface materials. Tethys was previously known to have color differences on its surface, especially on its trailing side, but this kind of color diversity is new to imaging scientists. For a clear-filter view of this terrain, see PIA07736. (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1758)

curiousuburb

10-06-2005, 06:10 AM

F ring detail (and damage)...

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA07601-br500.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1768)

Drawing the Drapes
October 5, 2005 Full-Res: PIA07601 (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07601)

Prometheus poses here with its latest creation: a dark, diagonal gore in the tenuous material interior to Saturn's F ring. The shepherd moon creates a new gore each time it comes closest to the F ring in its orbit of Saturn, and the memory of previous passes is preserved in the rings's structure for some time afterward. Prometheus is 102 kilometers (63 miles) across.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 20, 2005, at a distance of approximately 499,000 kilometers (310,000 miles) from Saturn and at a high Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 144 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.

curiousuburb

10-18-2005, 05:00 PM

Cassini's latest stunning pic...

Ringside with Dione

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA07744-br500.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1790)

October 17, 2005 Full-Res: PIA07744 (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07744)

Speeding toward pale, icy Dione, Cassini's view is enriched by the tranquil gold and blue hues of Saturn in the distance. The horizontal stripes near the bottom of the image are Saturn's rings. The spacecraft was nearly in the plane of the rings when the images were taken, thinning them by perspective and masking their awesome scale. The thin, curving shadows of the C ring and part of the B ring adorn the northern latitudes visible here, a reminder of the rings' grandeur.
It is notable that Dione, like most of the other icy Saturnian satellites, looks no different in natural color than in monochrome images.

Images taken on Oct. 11, 2005, with blue, green and infrared (centered at 752 nanometers) spectral filters were used to create this color view, which approximates the scene as it would appear to the human eye. The images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of approximately 39,000 kilometers (24,200 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 22 degrees. The image scale is about 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel.

and Flicks

QuickTime (sm, no audio) (3.5 MB) (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/movies/PIA07749_half_movie.mov) http://ciclops.org/media/ir/2005/1568_3890_0.gif QuickTime (lg, no audio) (9.9 MB) (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/movies/PIA07749_full_movie.mov)

Ice Moon Rendezvous Full-Res: PIA07749 (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07749)

Zooming in closer and closer, this movie chronicles Cassini's targeted flyby of Dione, with Saturn and its lovely rings forming a dramatic backdrop.
The movie begins with Cassini during its approach about 107,000 kilometers (66,000 miles) from the icy moon. Few surface details are discernable from this distance, but the view quickly improves. The movie jumps to a point 39,000 kilometers (24,000 miles) from Dione, with Saturn's atmosphere now in the background and draped by threadlike ring shadows.

As the spacecraft gets still closer, the camera focuses on bright fractures in the west. It becomes apparent that these braided canyons slice through older craters. At the closest point in this approach sequence, Cassini is about 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) above Dione's surface and the image scale is 234 meters (768 feet) per pixel. For a narrow-angle camera image taken at almost the same instant see PIA07748. (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07748)

A dramatic shift in perspective follows, with Cassini moving past the point of closest approach and staring at a large crater on Dione's receding limb. Steep cliffs gleam in the sunlight as the intrepid craft pulls away. About three and a half hours have elapsed since the first image in the movie was taken.

This movie was created from clear-filter images taken during the Oct. 11, 2005, flyby of Dione. All images except the departing view were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera.

You can clearly see the central peak in the receding crater in the final shots of the movie, and in both the main image and both movies you really get a sense of just how thin the rings are. The ring shadow on Saturn is a nice touch, too.

Brilliant stuff.

curiousuburb

10-31-2005, 04:26 AM

For a switch of senses as a seasonal trick/treat, click the link for

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/sounds/images/sounds_of_saturn_01_578.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/sounds/)

curiousuburb

12-07-2005, 07:35 AM

And you think it's cold where you are...

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA07767-br402.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1889)

Season of Moons
December 6, 2005 Full-Res: PIA07767 (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07767
)

This montage shows four major icy moons of Saturn that the Cassini spacecraft visited while surveying the Saturnian system during 2005. Even though all of these bodies are made largely of ice, they exhibit remarkably different geological histories and varied surface features.
Craters from meteorite impacts are common features on all of these moons. But since the major moons of Saturn are thought to have all formed at approximately the same time, the different distribution of sizes, shapes and numbers of craters on each of their surfaces tell scientists a great deal about the differences in their geologic histories.

Rhea and Iapetus are thoroughly peppered by impacts, suggesting their surfaces have been exposed to the shooting gallery of space for eons. Dione appears to have regions of terrain that are smoother, with fewer craters, suggesting a slightly younger surface. Dione also has a large system of bright, braided fractures that suggest tectonic activity took place there some time after the moon first formed.

Enceladus, however, possesses a region of terrain near its south pole (shown here), that is so dramatically devoid of impact sites that scientists suspected it was geologically active in the recent past, and perhaps even today. The discovery this year of material jetting from the pole and creating a great plume of icy particles confirmed these suspicions. See Fountains of Enceladus (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1873) for images of the Enceladus plume.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA07758-th200.jpghttp://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA07759-th200.jpgMore on the Enceladus Plume (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-release-details.cfm?newsID=619) http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/movies/PIA07762_full_movie.gif
Click for links to QT Movie (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/video-details.cfm?videoID=104)

The processes that power the activity on Enceladus remain elusive, as do those that produced the pronounced equatorial bulge on Iapetus. This feature was imaged for the first time by Cassini during a flyby of Iapetus that began New Year's Day. The bulge on Iapetus reaches 20 kilometers (12 miles) above the surrounding terrain in places, making it one of the tallest features in the solar system.

Like many scientific journeys, Cassini's historic survey of Saturn's moons has raised more questions. For example, why small Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across) is presently geologically active while much larger Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) is not. Fortunately, such puzzles are the most exciting sort for scientists interested in uncovering the secrets of Saturn's realm.

Also of note recently have been more releases on Titan, including movies of the descent and landing site calculated from the last imaging flyby (some with radar).
http://uanews.org/silk/huygens_landsite.jpgDescent Imager (http://uanews.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/UANews.woa/7/wa/MainStoryDetails?ArticleID=12045) Landing site movie (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/video-details.cfm?videoID=102) http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA06440-th100.jpgDescent movie (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/video-details.cfm?videoID=101)

The Nov 30th ESA Press conference on Mars Express and Huygens results is now online http://www.esa.int/images/mars_and_titan_160x50.jpg (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Results_from_Mars_Express_and_Huygens/SEM951VLWFE_0.html)

curiousuburb

03-03-2006, 06:39 AM

Updates:

Relief on Iapetus, the two-faced Moon

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA07125-br500.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=2015)

To the Relief of Iapetus
March 2, 2006 Full-Res: PIA08125 (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08125)

Sunlight strikes the terminator (the boundary between day and night) region on Saturn's moon Iapetus at nearly horizontal angles, making visible the vertical relief of many features.
This view is centered on terrain in the southern hemisphere of Iapetus (1,468 kilometers, or 912 miles across). Lit terrain visible here is on the moon's leading hemisphere. In this image, a large, central-peaked crater is notable at the boundary between the dark material in Cassini Regio and the brighter material on the trailing hemisphere.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 22, 2006, at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Iapetus and at a Sun-Iapetus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 67 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two and contrast-enhanced to aid visibility.

Titan's Hood through the Haze (with Tethys on the left)

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA08124-br500.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=2014)

Saturnian Specters
March 1, 2006 Full-Res: PIA08124 (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08124)

Ghostly details make this dark scene more than just a beautiful grouping of two Saturn moons, with Tethys on the left and Titan on the right. In Titan's thick and inflated atmosphere, the detached high haze layer can be seen, as well as the complex northern polar hood (at the top). Images like this one can help scientists make definitive estimates of the altitudes to which the high haze extends.
The faint vertical banded pattern is a type of noise that usually is removed during image processing. Because this image was processed to enhance the visibility of details in Titan's atmosphere and the faint G ring, the vertical noise was also enhanced.

Titan is Saturn's largest moon, at 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles) across. Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across.

This view was obtained in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 19, 2006, at a distance of approximately 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Titan and 1 million kilometers (600,000 miles) from Tethys. The image scale is 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel on Titan and 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel on Tethys.

And the latest shot of the edge of the F Ring seems to show a spiral pattern...

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/rings/images/PIA08123-br500.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=2013)

F Ring Edge
February 28, 2006 Full-Res: PIA08123 (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08123)

Structure in Saturn's narrow and complex F ring is seen here, including one of the faint strands (at the left) that Cassini has shown to curl around the planet in a tight, rotating spiral. Scientists think the spiral structure might be due to disturbance of micron-sized F-ring particles by a tiny moon (or moons).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 19, 2006, at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn and from just above the ringplane. The image scale is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.

bergz

03-09-2006, 04:53 PM

http://www.boingboing.net/200603091121.jpg

The following is the full text of a cnn article. (http://edition.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/03/09/enceladus.water.ap/) ---B

The Cassini spacecraft has found evidence of liquid water spewing from geysers on one of Saturn's icy moons, raising the tantalizing possibility that the celestial object harbors life.

The surprising discovery excited some scientists, who say the Saturn moon, Enceladus, should be added to the short list of places within the solar system most likely to have extraterrestrial life.

Recent high-resolution images snapped by the orbiting Cassini confirmed the eruption of icy jets and giant water vapor plumes from geysers resembling frozen Old Faithfuls at Enceladus' south pole. (Watch NASA's Dr. Torrence Johnson talk about the importance of finding liquid water on Enceladus -- 1:22)

"We have the smoking gun" that proves the existence of water, said Carolyn Porco, a Cassini imaging scientist from the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

If Enceladus does harbor life, it probably consists of microbes or other primitive organisms capable of living in extreme conditions, scientists say.

The findings were published in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

David Morrison, a senior scientist at NASA's Astrobiology Institute, cautioned against rushing to judgment about whether the tiny moon could support life. Scientists generally agree habitats need several ingredients for life to emerge, including water, a stable heat source and the right chemical recipe.

"It's certainly interesting, but I don't see how much more you can say beyond that," Morrison said.

Scientists believe Mars and Jupiter's icy moons might have -- or once had -- conditions hospitable to life.

Saturn is around 800 million miles from Earth. Enceladus measures 314 miles (505 kilometers) across and is the shiniest object in the solar system.

It was long thought to be cold and still. But scientists now believe it is a geologically active moon that possesses an unusually warm south pole.

The water is believed to vent from fissures in the south pole. Porco said the venting has probably been going on for at least several thousand years, potentially providing a lasting heat source.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a joint NASA-European Space Agency project. The spacecraft was launched in 1997 and went into orbit around Saturn in 2004, exploring its spectacular rings and many moons.

Cassini made three flybys of Enceladus last year and is expected to fly within 220 miles (354 kilometers) of the moon again in 2008.

curiousuburb

03-09-2006, 07:54 PM

Dude, I was just going to update this thread with the science version of the story...

;)

Here's the full NASA version (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-release-details.cfm?newsID=639):

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA07798-br402.jpg

http://www.space.com/images/050815_enceladus_temp_02.jpg

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA07799-br500.jpg Click for details (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=2026)

bergz

03-09-2006, 08:03 PM

I know, I'm sorry about the http://thedarktower.net/forums/html/emoticons/emote-puke.gifNN link. Just wanted to beat you to it for once. :D

Best. Thread. Evar.

--B

Carson O'Genic

03-11-2006, 06:22 PM

Thank you to both of you for the updates. I like to see these threads pop to the top now and then. So is there life on that very cold hunk o' ice? So what is the list now for places with liquid water? Europa, Enceladus, Io?, Mars?

bergz

03-11-2006, 08:36 PM

This article has some brief (thank God) and interesting links about boron- and silicon-based lifeforms, as well as ammonia vs. H2O, which you should be able to follow with a minimal knowledge of chemistry.

Why Do We Think Aliens Are Made of Water? (http://www.slate.com/id/2137875/)

--B

curiousuburb

03-30-2006, 08:21 AM

Crank up the Katie Melua and get another rewrite for her bicycle tune...

Cassini Team adds to the Saturnian Moon count...

+10 Million Moonlets (propellers)

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/browse/PIA07792.jpg (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-release-details.cfm?newsID=643)

Cassini Finds 'Missing Link' Moonlet Evidence in Saturn's Rings
March 29, 2006

Scientists with NASA's Cassini mission have found evidence that a new class of small moonlets resides within Saturn's rings. There may be as many as 10 million of these objects within one of Saturn's rings alone. The propeller moonlets represent a hitherto unseen size-class of particles orbiting within the rings.

The moonlets' existence could help answer the question of whether Saturn's rings were formed through the break-up of a larger body or are the remnants of the disk of material from which Saturn and its moons formed.

"These moonlets are likely to be chunks of the ancient body whose break-up produced Saturn's glorious rings," said Joseph Burns of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., a co-author of the report.

Careful analysis of high-resolution images taken by Cassini's cameras revealed four faint, propeller-shaped double streaks. These features were found in an otherwise bland part of the mid-A Ring, a bright section in Saturn's main rings. Cassini imaging scientists reporting in this week's edition of the journal Nature believe the "propellers" provide the first direct observation of how moonlets of this size affect nearby particles. Cassini took the images as it slipped into Saturn orbit on July 1, 2004.

Previous measurements, including those made by NASA's Voyager spacecraft in the early 1980s, have shown that Saturn's rings contain mostly small water-ice particles ranging from less than 1 centimeter (one-half inch) across to the size of a small house. Scientists knew about two larger embedded ring moons such as 30-kilometer-wide (19-mile) Pan and 7-kilometer-wide (4-mile) Daphnis. The latest findings mark the first evidence of objects of about 100 meters (300 feet) in diameter. From the number of moonlets spotted in the very small fraction of the A ring seen in the images, scientists estimated the total number of moonlets to be about 10 million.

"The discovery of these intermediate-sized bodies tells us that Pan and Daphnis are probably just the largest members of the ring population, rather than interlopers from somewhere else," said Matthew Tiscareno, an imaging team research associate at Cornell and lead author on the Nature paper.

Moons as large as Pan and Daphnis clear large gaps in the ring particles as they orbit Saturn. In contrast, smaller moonlets are not strong enough to clear out the ring, resulting in a partial gap centered on the moonlet and shaped like an airplane propeller. Such features created by moonlets were predicted by computer models, which give scientists confidence in their latest findings.

"We acquired this spectacular, one-of-a-kind set of images immediately after getting into orbit for the express purpose of seeing fine details in the rings that we had not seen previously," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader and co-author. "This will open up a new dimension in our exploration of Saturn's rings and moons, their origin and evolution."

The detection of moonlets embedded in a ring of smaller particles may provide an opportunity to observe the processes by which planets form in disks of material around young stars, including our own early solar system. "The structures we observe with Cassini are strikingly similar to those seen in many numerical models of the early stages of planetary formation, even though the scales are dramatically different," said co-author Carl Murray, an imaging team member at Queen Mary, University of London. "Cassini is giving us a unique insight into the origin of planets."

Locating the Propellers
March 29, 2006 Full-Res: PIA07792 (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07792)

This collection of Cassini images provides context for understanding the location and scale of propeller-shaped features observed within Saturn's A ring.
Careful analysis of the highest resolution images taken by Cassini's cameras as the spacecraft slipped into Saturn orbit revealed the four faint, propeller-shaped double-streaks in an otherwise bland part of the mid-A ring. Imaging scientists believe the "propellers" provide the first direct observation of the dynamical effects of moonlets approximately 100 meters (300 feet) in diameter. The propeller moonlets represent a hitherto unseen size-class of particles orbiting within the rings.

The left-hand panel provides broad context within the rings, and shows the B ring, Cassini Division, A ring and F ring. Image scale in the radial, or outward from Saturn, direction is about 45 kilometers (28 miles) per pixel; because the rings are viewed at an angle, the image scale in the longitudinal, or circumferential, direction is several times greater.

The center image is a closer view of the A ring, showing the radial locations where propeller features were spotted. The view is approximately 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) across from top to bottom and includes a large density wave at bottom (caused by the