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Author Topic: Looming out of the darkness
Jimmy Brogan
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posted 27 April 2004 02:53 AM      Profile for Jimmy Brogan   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
After travelling across the Solar System for 7 years the Cassini-Huygens probe is only two months from matching orbits with Saturn. As it closes in on the giant planet it is starting to send back some striking pictures hinting at the spectacle to come in July.

Cassini-Huygens home page

[ 27 April 2004: Message edited by: JimmyBrogan ]


From: The right choice - Iggy Thumbscrews for Liberal leader | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged
Agent 204
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posted 01 May 2004 09:19 AM      Profile for Agent 204   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I think the coolest part is landing a probe on Titan.
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Willowdale Wizard
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posted 01 May 2004 11:32 AM      Profile for Willowdale Wizard   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
yep, titan rocks.

quote:
Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and the second largest moon in the solar system, rivaled only by Jupiter's moon Ganymede. Although Titan is classified as a moon, it is larger than the planets Mercury and Pluto. Titan's air is predominantly made up of nitrogen with other hydrocarbon elements which give Titan its orange hue. These hydrocarbon rich elements are the building blocks for amino acids necessary for the formation of life. Scientists believe that Titan's environment may be similar to that of the Earth's before life began putting oxygen into the atmosphere.

Scientists believe lakes of ethane exist that contain dissolved methane. Titan's methane, through continuing photochemistry, is converted to ethane, acetylene, ethylene, and (when combined with nitrogen) hydrogen cyanide. The last is an especially important molecule; it is a building block of amino acids.



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Jimmy Brogan
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posted 18 May 2004 03:16 AM      Profile for Jimmy Brogan   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 

quote:
As Cassini nears its rendezvous with Saturn, new detail in the banded clouds of the planet's atmosphere are becoming visible.

Cassini began the journey to the ringed world of Saturn nearly seven years ago and is now less than two months away from orbit insertion on June 30. Cassini?s narrow-angle camera took this image on April 16, 2004, when the spacecraft was 38.5 million kilometers (23.9 million miles) from Saturn.

Dark regions are generally areas free of high clouds, and bright areas are places with high, thick clouds which shield the view of the darker areas below. A dark spot is visible at the south pole, which is remarkable to scientists because it is so small and centered. The spot could be affected by Saturn's magnetic field, which is nearly aligned with the planet's rotation axis, unlike the magnetic fields of Jupiter and Earth. From south to north, other notable features are the two white spots just above the dark spot toward the right, and the large dark oblong-shaped feature that extends across the middle. The darker band beneath the oblong-shaped feature has begun to show a lacy pattern of lighter-colored, high altitude clouds, indicative of turbulent atmospheric conditions.

The cloud bands move at different speeds, and their irregularities may be due to either the different motions between them or to disturbances below the visible cloud layer. Such disturbances might be powered by the planet's internal heat; Saturn radiates more energy than it receives from the Sun.



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Ubu
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posted 18 May 2004 02:36 PM      Profile for Ubu        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
What a bizarre shadow on the opening photo of Saturn. How does the light reach the edge of the ring on the far left of the image? Are there any optical experts with an explanation... if it were refraction or something, wouldn't the edge of the shadow be less sharp?
From: position is relative | Registered: Oct 2003  |  IP: Logged
Ubu
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posted 18 May 2004 02:37 PM      Profile for Ubu        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Oh, I guess the light must be coming from the bottom right, rather than the right. That would do it.
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DrConway
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posted 18 May 2004 03:06 PM      Profile for DrConway     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Pretty! I think that rendition of Titan may be a bit unrealistic, though, as I doubt there'd be enough sunlight to light up Titan's surface quite that well.

(Especially with the cloud cover and all)


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Albireo
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posted 18 May 2004 03:14 PM      Profile for Albireo     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The up-close images of Saturn, Titan et al promise to be fantastic.
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Rufus Polson
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posted 19 May 2004 08:05 PM      Profile for Rufus Polson     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Generally these spectacular pictures of Saturn, Titan etc. are what the newscasts used to call "digitally enhanced", or what people messing with family pictures would call "Photoshopped".

Or in Linux I suppose you'd call them "Gimped".


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Newbie
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posted 20 May 2004 02:28 PM      Profile for Newbie     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Are you telling me these pictures of Mars aren't authentic?


From: Toronto, Ontario | Registered: May 2003  |  IP: Logged
Jimmy Brogan
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posted 20 May 2004 05:23 PM      Profile for Jimmy Brogan   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
"Oh, there's the ka-boom".
From: The right choice - Iggy Thumbscrews for Liberal leader | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged
The Oatmeal Savage
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posted 20 May 2004 07:03 PM      Profile for The Oatmeal Savage   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
UBB CODE IS YOUR FRIEND

'95 Worlds and Counting', well worth watching if you can catch it on the Discovery channel.

[ 20 May 2004: Message edited by: audra trower williams ]


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pogge
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posted 20 May 2004 07:31 PM      Profile for pogge   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Just restoring the formatting on the Topics page.
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Jimmy Brogan
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posted 30 June 2004 05:53 PM      Profile for Jimmy Brogan   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Crucial orbit insertion burn tonight.

So many things could go wrong at this stage there's nothing to do but cross fingers and hope.


From: The right choice - Iggy Thumbscrews for Liberal leader | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged
Jimmy Brogan
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posted 01 July 2004 12:03 PM      Profile for Jimmy Brogan   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Whew!
From: The right choice - Iggy Thumbscrews for Liberal leader | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged
Jimmy Brogan
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posted 29 August 2004 06:05 AM      Profile for Jimmy Brogan   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Eat your heart out Galileo

And again


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aRoused
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posted 29 August 2004 09:35 AM      Profile for aRoused     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
DrConway: If the (quite literally) 'back of the envelope' calculation I just did is right, the light level on Titan excluding things like clouds should be roughly half what it is on Earth. The difference is that that light is reflecting off Saturn instead of coming directly from the Sun.

The *sunlight* reaching Saturn is 1% of that reaching Earth, as Saturn is roughly 10x further away. Half the light reflects off Saturn (albedo = 0.5), and Saturn subtends an angle 10x larger as seen from Titan as the Sun subtends when seen from Earth (5.6 deg vs. 0.5 deg). So the area of Saturn should cancel out the effect of the greater distance from the Sun, and the effect should be like having 100 0.5%-brightness Suns in the sky: 50% as much light.

Naturally this only applies when Saturn is 'full'.

Or did I get something wrong?


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DrConway
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posted 29 August 2004 11:56 AM      Profile for DrConway     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I trust you.
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Willowdale Wizard
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posted 08 January 2005 06:31 AM      Profile for Willowdale Wizard   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
(imitating submariners) seven days to titan ... (bass voice) seven days to titan (mezzosoprano) seven days to titan.


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Albireo
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posted 13 January 2005 06:15 PM      Profile for Albireo     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Tonight 's the night...
quote:
The Huygens space probe will begin the most important stage of its seven-year journey when it hits Titan's atmosphere at about 9:00 GMT on Friday 14 January.

The probe was carried to Saturn by the Cassini spacecraft, which released Huygens on 25 December 2004. Huygens has lain dormant for the past 20 days as it cruised towards Titan at about 21,000 kilometres per hour.

When it flies through Titan's thick clouds the probe will determine the composition of the atmosphere, measure the wind speed and take about 750 pictures, along with a range of other scientific readings. All will be relayed to the Cassini mother ship, and then sent to Earth.

Titan is the only moon in our Solar System with a significant atmosphere, and scientists believe that it may be likened to a colder version of an early Earth. But the hydrocarbon smog around Titan has concealed what lies on the surface, so if Huygens survives its trip it may also find seas of liquid ethane, thick tar or icy rock on the -180 °C moon.


The Space.com coverage has a link to Nasa TV, where you can watch a live webcast, starting at 12am Pacific, 3am Eastern, or 4am babble time.

[ 13 January 2005: Message edited by: Albireo ]


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Jimmy Brogan
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posted 14 January 2005 01:30 AM      Profile for Jimmy Brogan   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Will the mystery moon give up its secrets? Some good sci-fi starts off just like this.
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Agent 204
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posted 14 January 2005 07:42 AM      Profile for Agent 204   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Looking good so far...
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Albireo
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posted 14 January 2005 11:53 AM      Profile for Albireo     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
And, apparently, touchdown!
quote:
A signal from the craft picked up by Earth-based radio telescopes during the descent continued hours after the landing was supposed to have taken place, indicating that Huygens was safely on the surface.

Scientists believe it touched down on land rather than splashed into a lake or sea of liquid hydro-carbons.

But they will not know until later today if the probe’s instruments are working properly, when confirmation of the landing is relayed to the European Space Agency Operations Control Centre (Esoc) in Darmstadt, Germany, at about 4pm.

The first black and white images from Titan are not due to arrive until later this evening.


[Note: Scottish source, so "4pm" should be already, and "this evening" is within a few hours.]

[ 14 January 2005: Message edited by: Albireo ]


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aRoused
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posted 14 January 2005 12:14 PM      Profile for aRoused     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
ESA website currently says 1615 UTC for touchdown, ie right as I'm writing this, and then of course there's the time for the signal to travel back here, so we've got a few hours to wait.

Hee, I'm so excited, and I just can't fight it.

Edit: link

The Scotsman seems to have confused 'received carrier signal' with 'touchdown'.

landing timeline

So if it all worked, the signal's being sent right nowish.

[ 14 January 2005: Message edited by: aRoused ]


From: The King's Royal Burgh of Eoforwich | Registered: Dec 2001  |  IP: Logged
aRoused
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posted 14 January 2005 12:25 PM      Profile for aRoused     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Hee. It's 4:23 UT as I write this, and ESA has just put up a placeholder 'SUCCESS' webpage. Read it if you get the chance--it's classic:

quote:
The probe began transmitting data to Cassini four minutes into its descent and continued to transmit as long as it survived. [IF APPLICABLE, ADD: The first indication that Huygens was transmitting was obtained from the Green Bank telescope, West Virginia, USA, which picked up a faint radio signal from Huygens at 11:?? CET.] Cassini started relaying data to Earth at 16:24 CET, which were picked up by NASA’s Deep Space Network and sent to ESOC in Germany, where the scientific analysis takes place.

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Albireo
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posted 14 January 2005 01:36 PM      Profile for Albireo     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
OK, well, now they say it's for real:
quote:
ESA’s Huygens probe has successfully descended through the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, and safely landed on its surface.

The first scientific data arrived at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, this afternoon at 17:19 CET. Huygens is mankind’s first successful attempt to land a probe on another a world in the outer Solar System.
...

Preliminary data indicate that the probe landed safely, likely on a solid surface.

The probe began transmitting data to Cassini four minutes into its descent and continued to transmit data after landing at least as long as Cassini was above Titan’s horizon. The certainty that Huygens was alive came already at 11:25 CET today, when the Green Bank radio telescope in West Virginia, USA, picked up a faint but unmistakable radio signal from the probe. Radio telescopes on Earth continued to receive this signal well past the expected lifetime of Huygens.

Huygens data, relayed by Cassini, were picked up by NASA’s Deep Space Network and delivered immediately to ESA’s European Space Operation Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, where the scientific analysis is currently taking place.



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Jimmy Brogan
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posted 14 January 2005 01:46 PM      Profile for Jimmy Brogan   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
What a feat!
From: The right choice - Iggy Thumbscrews for Liberal leader | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged
Albireo
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posted 14 January 2005 04:59 PM      Profile for Albireo     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The surface of Titan at the landing site:


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aRoused
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posted 14 January 2005 05:05 PM      Profile for aRoused     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Sweet photo, thanks!

The 'for real' was the same 'placeholder' I mentioned earlier.

So glad it didn't hit a liquid body on touchdown.


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Doug
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posted 14 January 2005 06:49 PM      Profile for Doug   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
But it DID take pictures from above of what looks like a shoreline with streams flowing into it. WOW!
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DrConway
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posted 15 January 2005 01:30 AM      Profile for DrConway     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Rivers of ammonia or methane, I bet. Brrrrr! (When those gases are liquid, you KNOW things are cold )
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Jimmy Brogan
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posted 15 January 2005 02:26 AM      Profile for Jimmy Brogan   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 

quote:
This is one of the first raw images returned by the ESA Huygens probe during its successful descent. It was taken from an altitude of 16.2 kilometres with a resolution of approximately 40 metres per pixel. It apparently shows short, stubby drainage channels leading to a shoreline.

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


This Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer sounds like it could produce some terrific data:

quote:
The Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) is the optical instrument that makes measurements at solar wavelengths aboard the Huygens Probe of the Cassini mission. This instrument is being developed in a collaborative effort by scientists from the US, France, and Germany. DISR measures solar radiation using silicon photodiodes, a two-dimensional silicon Charge Coupled Device (CCD) detector and two InGaAs near-infrared linear array detectors. The light is brought to the detectors using fibre optics from many separate sets of foreoptics that collect light from different directions and in different spectral regions. In this way the instrument can make a suite of measurements which are carefully selected to answer key questions concerning the nature of the surface and the composition, meteorology, thermal balance, and clouds and aerosols in the atmosphere of Titan.

Geektacular!!!!

[ 15 January 2005: Message edited by: JimmyBrogan ]


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verbatim
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posted 15 January 2005 02:29 AM      Profile for verbatim   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Apparently the secondary data channel failed in some way, and so the windspeed indicator data may have been lost. What I find absolutly fucking freaky is that there is a microphone on Huygens! Once they sort the data, we might be able to actually listen to a recording of Titan. Man, this is awesome! Truly.
From: The People's Republic of Cook Street | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Jimmy Brogan
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posted 22 January 2005 12:22 AM      Profile for Jimmy Brogan   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Probe finds inflammable methane rain lashes Titan's moon

quote:
PARIS - The European probe that landed on Titan has found that liquid methane rain lashes Saturn's largest moon, a freezing, primitive but active world of ridges, peaks, river beds and deserts scoured by the same forces of erosion as on Earth, scientists said today.

Methane is a highly flammable gas on Earth, but on Titan it is liquid because of the intense pressure and cold.

"There is liquid that is flowing on the surface of Titan. It is not water ? it is much too cold ? it's liquid methane, and this methane really plays the same big role on Titan as water does on Earth," mission manager Jean-Pierre Lebreton told a news conference.


quote:
But unlike Earth, where water constantly circulates back into the atmosphere, Titan's methane never evaporates back into airborne smog.

"There must be some source of methane inside Titan which is releasing the gas into the atmosphere. It has to be continually renewed, otherwise it would have all disappeared," said Owen.


Could there be biology that's replacing the methane?


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verbatim
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posted 22 January 2005 02:36 AM      Profile for verbatim   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by JimmyBrogan:

Could there be biology that's replacing the methane?



That's the very exciting possibility. Methane doesn't just spontaneously assemble, so there's some process doing it. The ESA folks are talking about sending a Mars Rover type vehicle there next. It would be truly hilarious if they designed it to be methane-powered!

From: The People's Republic of Cook Street | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Agent 204
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posted 22 January 2005 12:15 PM      Profile for Agent 204   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Unfortunately, for it to be methane powered they'd also need oxygen. Might still be possible- they could send down a rover with an oxygen tank and run it on methane-oxygen fuel cells. Kind of the reverse of the way such a machine would work on Earth- it would carry its oxidizer and get the fuel from the atmosphere. I don't know how long it could run on the amount of O2 it could carry, though.

[ 22 January 2005: Message edited by: Mike Keenan ]


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Willowdale Wizard
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posted 09 February 2005 06:45 PM      Profile for Willowdale Wizard   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
perhaps not as sexy as titan, but saturn's got a pretty hot ass.

quote:
Saturn represents the first case of a warm polar cap ever detected in the Solar System.

Saturn's southern pole should be warmer currently because it has been exposed to 15 years of continuous sunlight, having just reached its summer Solstice late in 2002. But the discrete boundaries where temperatures suddenly jump are a surprise for scientists.

The tropospheric temperature increases toward the pole abruptly near 70 degrees latitude from 88 to 89 Kelvin (-185 to -184 Celsius) and then to 91K (-182C) right at the pole.

Near 70 degrees latitude, the stratospheric temperature increases even more abruptly from 146 to 150K (-127 to -123C) and then again to 151K (-122C) right at the pole.



From: england (hometown of toronto) | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged
Willowdale Wizard
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posted 05 August 2005 09:55 AM      Profile for Willowdale Wizard   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
titan's southern hemisphere is "dry as a bone"

quote:
An extensive search for tell-tale infrared reflections has now revealed no sign of lakes or seas on Titan. Scientists who made the measurements using the Keck II telescope in Hawaii suggest the flat surfaces previously spotted on Titan are more likely to be solid and dry.

From: england (hometown of toronto) | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged
Willowdale Wizard
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posted 31 August 2005 07:49 AM      Profile for Willowdale Wizard   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
more weird stuff from saturn's moons:

quote:
The latest images of Enceladus, one of the innermost moons of Saturn, also reveal another distinguishing feature of this celestial body - it has an atmosphere.

Enceladus is only 500km (310 miles) in diameter, which means it could just fit on a map of England, and in theory such a small moon should not have a big enough gravitational pull to keep its atmosphere from disappearing into space. But scientists believe they have discovered why the atmosphere of Enceladus seems to be a permanent feature - it is being constantly regenerated by a mysterious source of heat buried deep beneath the moon's south pole.



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Jimmy Brogan
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posted 12 September 2005 06:09 PM      Profile for Jimmy Brogan   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Earth and Saturn's moon Titan show striking similarities because both occupy "sweet spots" in our Solar System

quote:
The researcher then turned to three bodies in the outer Solar System: Ganymede, Titan and Triton. The chemistry is different, but similar principles apply.

Jupiter's moon Ganymede, the closest of the three to the Sun, is similar in size to Titan, but lacks the methane and nitrogen that drive liquid processes on the saturnian moon: "It's a kind of baked out version of Titan," said Lunine.

Neptune's moon Triton, much further from the Sun than both Ganymede and Titan, possesses methane and nitrogen. But its small size caused them to freeze, ending any prospect of geological activity.

Scientists have been revealing new details about Titan at the meeting in Cambridge. Ralph Lorenz of the University of Arizona, said that the river channels and flows on Titan are fashioned by "monsoon" events.

'Catastrophic rains'

It takes a relatively long time for methane to build up to a point where it can rain down on Titan's surface. Scientists, therefore, think rains are only occasional, but catastrophic, when they occur.

Evidence also suggests Titan is constantly being resurfaced by a fluid mixture of water and ammonia spewed out by volcanoes and hot springs, explaining why Titan is not littered with impact craters like its neighbours



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Jimmy Brogan
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posted 01 December 2005 08:41 PM      Profile for Jimmy Brogan   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Huygens team releases final report

quote:
Huygens' findings "really reveal an extraordinary world resembling Earth," said scientist Jean-Pierre Lebreton. "But there are differences," he added. The natural, chemical processes responsible for the origins of life on Earth likely froze on Titan, said scientist Francois Raulin of the University of Paris.

"This bold initiative has proved brilliantly successful," said planetary scientist Tobias Owen of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, in a commentary accompanying the papers in Nature. But a number of mysteries about Titan remain for scientists:

• Chemical analysis shows that methane must be replenished on Titan every 10 to 20 million years, likely through volcanic eruptions. But no eruptions have been observed. An ocean of liquid methane may hide under the moon's crust.

• A "mysterious component" that scientists couldn't recreate in the lab is mixed with icy surface materials on the moon, said scientist Bruno Bezard.

• The probe spun the wrong way, clockwise, as it landed, for still-unknown reasons.


Pack a sweater.


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Albireo
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posted 09 March 2006 05:04 PM      Profile for Albireo     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Bump.

Water discovered on Saturnian moon?

Now Cassini has taken images of Saturn's moon Enceladus that may indicate a sea of liquid water under ice:

quote:
The surprising discovery, made by the Cassini spacecraft, shows evidence of liquid water reservoirs that erupt from geysers (natural hot-springs) on Saturn's moon Enceladus.

"High-resolution Cassini images show icy jets and towering plumes ejecting large quantities of particles at high speed," a NASA press release stated Thursday.

Carolyn Porco, Cassini's imaging team leader said Thursday that the discovery was a "smoking gun" that proved water existed on the planet.

"We realize that this is a radical conclusion – that we may have evidence for liquid water within a body so small and so cold," Porco said.

"However, if we are right, we have significantly broadened the diversity of solar system environments where we might possibly have conditions suitable for living organisms."



(Image from NASA via USA Today.)

[ 09 March 2006: Message edited by: Albireo ]


From: --> . <-- | Registered: Sep 2002  |  IP: Logged
Nanuq
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posted 09 March 2006 09:57 PM      Profile for Nanuq   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Don't know if anyone posted this yet but apparently the key to finding life on other planets is to use a set of 3-d glasses.
From: Toronto | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
tvarga
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posted 09 March 2006 10:25 PM      Profile for tvarga     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I am absolutely verklempt! To think that the most potentially biologically active bodies in our planetary system would be moons, and not our long-worshipped planets (except one), sparks that child's sense of awe that was not introduced to me until adulthood.

Yet NASA's 2007 budget calls for more expensive and less-scientifically worthwhile manned missions. Robotic missions cost so much less, like the Mars Pathfinder which had a budget less that many Hollywood movies. It captivated much of the world, and taught us plenty.

"Anything that generates a sense of awe may be a source of spirituality. Science does this in spades." (Michael Shermer)


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tvarga
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posted 09 March 2006 10:29 PM      Profile for tvarga     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Nanuq:
Don't know if anyone posted this yet but apparently the key to finding life on other planets is to use a set of 3-d glasses.

This would be funny if it weren't so... well, it is funny!

[ 09 March 2006: Message edited by: tvarga ]


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