Firts image of titan's surface

Naz · Jan 14, 2005

I am still amazed that it landed safely! can't wait to see the rest of the images.
I'm so happy for NASA and for the Euro's space agency who participated in this effort. Congrats!!!

http://www.esa.int/images/landing01_L.jpg

Spacy got any comments?

DavidGP · Jan 14, 2005

Nifty stuff

Hey NAZ good to see you on the board, you seemed to be gone a while! Hope all is well with you?

jarcher · Jan 14, 2005

Titan is the fifteenth of Saturn's known satellites and the largest:
orbit: 1,221,830 km from Saturn
diameter: 5150 km
mass: 1.35e23 kg

Bill Arnett; last updated: 2000 Oct 20 said:

In Greek mythology the Titans were a family of giants, the children of Uranus
and Gaia, who sought to rule the heavens but were overthrown and supplanted by
the family of Zeus.
Discovered by Huygens in 1655.
It was long thought that Titan was the largest satellite in the solar system
but recent observations have shown that Titan's atmosphere is so thick that its
solid surface is slightly smaller than Ganymede's. Titan is nevertheless larger
in diameter than Mercury and larger and more massive than Pluto.
One of the principal objectives of the Voyager 1 mission was the study of
Titan. Voyager 1 came within 4000 km of the surface. We learned more in the few
minutes of that encounter than in the previous 300 years.
And yet our knowledge is frustratingly incomplete. Titan is surrounded by a
thick, opaque atmosphere; the surface cannot be seen at all in visible light
(below left). (The Cassini mission will map Titan's surface with radar as
Magellan did at Venus.) All that the Voyager images show is a slight variation
in color between the northern and southern hemispheres. Some surface detail is
visible in the infrared with HST.
Titan is similar in bulk properties to Ganymede, Callisto, Triton and
(probably) Pluto. It is not known whether it has any internal structure like
Ganymede or is uniform like Callisto.
Titan is about half water ice and half rocky material. It is probably
differentiated into several layers with a 3400 km rocky center surrounded by
several layers composed of different crystal forms of ice. Its interior may
still be hot. Though similar in composition to Rhea and the rest of Saturn's
moons, it is denser because it is so large that its gravity compresses its
interior.
Alone of all the satellites in the solar system, Titan has a significant
atmosphere. At the surface, its pressure is more than 1.5 bar (50% higher than
Earth's). It is composed primarily of molecular nitrogen (as is Earth's) with no
more than 6% argon and a few percent methane. Interestingly, there are also
trace amounts of at least a dozen other organic compounds (i.e. ethane, hydrogen
cyanide, carbon dioxide) and water. The organics are formed as methane, which
dominates in Titan's upper atmosphere, is destroyed by sunlight. The result is
similar to the smog found over large cities, but much thicker. In many ways,
this is similar to the conditions on Earth early in its history when life was
first getting started.
Titan has no magnetic field and sometimes orbits outside Saturn's
magnetosphere. It is therefore directly exposed to the solar wind. This may
ionize and carry away some molecules from the top of the atmosphere.
At the surface, Titan's temperature is about 94 K (-290 F). At this
temperature water ice does not sublimate and thus there is little water vapor in
the atmosphere. Nevertheless, there appears to be a lot of chemistry going on;
the end result seems to be a lot like a very thick smog.
There are scattered variable clouds in Titan's atmosphere in addition to the
overall deep haze. These clouds are probably composed of methane, ethane or
other simple organics. Other more complex chemicals in small quantities must be
responsible for the orange color as seen from space.
It seems likely that the ethane clouds would produce a rain of liquid ethane
onto the surface perhaps producing an "ocean" of ethane (or an ethane/methane
mixture) up to 1000 meters deep. Recent ground-based radar observations have
cast this into doubt, however.
Recent observations with the Hubble Space Telescope show remarkable near
infrared views of Titan's surface (right and top). Voyager's camera couldn't see
through Titan's atmosphere but in the near infrared the haze becomes more
transparent, and HST's pictures suggest that a huge bright "continent" exists on
the hemisphere of Titan that faces forward in its orbit. These Hubble results
don't prove that liquid "seas" exist, however, only that Titan has large bright
and dark regions on its surface. The landing site for the Huygens probe has been
chosen in part by examining these images. It will be just "offshore" of the
largest "continent" at 18.1 degrees North, 208.7 degrees longitude.
The observations by HST also indicate that Titan's rotation is in fact
synchronous like most of Saturn's other moons.
More about Titan
more images
from LANL
Hubble Space Telescope images of Titan's surface by Mark Lemmon
HST images of Titan's surface: html, txt
Keck speckle interferometry images of Titan
AO images of Titan from DESPA
Open Issues
Are there liquids on the surface?
Is the interior still hot?
Why does Titan have a dense atmosphere while the other large moons do not?
There are a lot of organic compounds and a potentially liquid environment on
Titan. It is extremely cold for life, but could it be possible? Titan is one
of the best possibilities. In any case, it's interesting as a comparison with
the early environment on Earth.
The Cassini radar mapper and Huygens probe will provide the hard data so
frustratingly lacking on this enigmatic moon (if it survives its passage
through the US Congress).
Click to expand...

cool pic. . .

G.T. · Jan 14, 2005

Dirt & rocks.... they could have shot that in my backyard.

Kidding. Controlled soft landing on Saturn's moon. Awesome.

Good to see you around Naz... been a while.

MrPewty · Jan 14, 2005

It's stunning that they can send something across that distance and get it to land on Titan when Saturn is right there. I can't wait for the rest of the pics.

lb4norleans · Jan 14, 2005

G.T. said:

Dirt & rocks.... they could have shot that in my backyard.

Kidding. Controlled soft landing on Saturn's moon. Awesome.

Good to see you around Naz... been a while.
Click to expand...

I was just going to wisecrack: "That looks a lot like Spencer Fork Canyon."

Amazing feat for the space program for sure.

G.T. · Jan 15, 2005

star17 said:

And if you think this was cool, wait to you see what Deep Impact does on July 4th
Click to expand...

Too late. Already saw the movie.

Is that likely to be broadcast live on real TV or will I need to monitor NASA's website to catch it?

Just curious... will it be a head-on hit, or trailing, or what? What kind of delta V are they going to have?

goldfish · Jan 15, 2005

Wow, awesome....

Learning As I Go · Jan 15, 2005

Yeah,

Very cool stuff.

I watched it "Live" last night, but I couldn't stay awake.

As they pour over the data, this should definitely become more interesting.

LAIGo

G.T. · Jan 15, 2005

star17 said:

Here you go Gary:

http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/index.html
Click to expand...

Thanks!

NASA TV will have it, it will be tape-delay on the Food Network
Click to expand...

Makes sense. We wouldn't want to interrupt Oprah, now would we?

I'm glad it's on a holiday. Wouldn't have much time to monitor it at work, and work puters have Flash, ActiveX, Quicktime, and anything that might be entertaining disabled. (darned IT departmet)

Kodo · Jan 15, 2005

so, are you going to take turns kicking him in the balls?

Adrynalyne · Jan 15, 2005

Suckage.

Adrynalyne · Jan 15, 2005

Hahahaha

G.T. · Jan 15, 2005

star17 said:

America's Space Program....never a dull moment (don't bitch people, it's just a government-funded weenie roast)

poof
Click to expand...

Never a dull moment.

Weenies are for weenies. Next time bring brats. (Bratwurst, not kiddies)

morlok · Jan 15, 2005

With sound, too:
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM85Q71Y3E_index_0.html

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Firts image of titan's surface

Naz Humpaluphugus

DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

jarcher I can't handle a title

G.T. R.I.P February 4, 2007. You will be missed.

MrPewty MajorGeek

lb4norleans Who 'dat

G.T. R.I.P February 4, 2007. You will be missed.

goldfish Lt. Sushi.DC

Learning As I Go Sergeant

G.T. R.I.P February 4, 2007. You will be missed.

Kodo SNATCHSQUATCH

Adrynalyne Guest

Adrynalyne Guest

G.T. R.I.P February 4, 2007. You will be missed.

morlok Private E-2