http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6881

And is beaming back info! Woaaa. It's a great relief. I had the black hunch that the mission would be a failure.

I can't wait to see the pictures. The first images of a planet with a thick enough atmosphere to actually contain suprises. Watched the NASA feed and they are saying the first images sohuld be up by about 1:00 PM PST (an hour and 20 minutes from this post)

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/105746main_h1-243.jpg
Looks like a change of terrain on the right - looks like land to sea to me. Any bets on which one Huygens will land in/on?

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/cassini_huygens/huygens_land/landing_01_H.jpg
Looks like it hit land. And there is ice!

That's amazing. This planet (or moon) is much more interesting than Mars.

Is the Europa? I'm surprised they had already sent something there.
That's great! We might be finding extraterrestrial life soon...! :) :cool:

Nope, Titan. Cassini is exploring the Saturnian moons. According to the latest on the ESA site, they already have at least 350 images. And if this is what the raw data looks like, I can't wait to see the finished images.

Yea, I've been following this all day. AMAZING! :cool: I'm really happy!
And it somehow feels good that at last there's an European probe somewhere first, and what a place!!

Anyone know if we are going to get some color photos?

The cameras are not colour types. However, by use of spectrscopic data and skillful interpretation they will be able to reconstruct colour imaqes. Expect the first to appear next week.

Here's a cool panorama or mosaic of the images as it came down. Some rather small and faint images. Though, from the little we can see it's incredible. Look's so much like Earth, just frozen :D

Titan Pan Image (CLICK HERE) (http://uplink.space.com/attachments//129147-TitanPan1.jpg)

Here's a color contrasted one, struggling to get a hint at more details!

http://img11.exs.cx/img11/4024/cooltitanpan5yy.jpg

I hope they release higher quality images. :)

I lightened up the image to bring up some more detail. Unfortunately, there simply wasn't enough information in the second and fourth pane to see much.

The bricks of ice are very promising. I forecast that they will discover liquid lakes of some substance...

Those images of the "bricks of ice" could almost be an aerial view of an Earthly sea port, with highways, jetties, quays and city blocks... it's tempting to think of the plain, dark area in the lower part of the images as a sea or lake, though it could just as easily be a flat, fresh cryo-lava flow. The rocky plain picture Top Mosker posted looks very like Martian - I suppose the colours might not be far off either, if we could see them.

Those images of the "bricks of ice" could almost be an aerial view of an Earthly sea port, with highways, jetties, quays and city blocks... it's tempting to think of the plain, dark area in the lower part of the images as a sea or lake, though it could just as easily be a flat, fresh cryo-lava flow. The rocky plain picture Top Mosker posted looks very like Martian - I suppose the colours might not be far off either, if we could see them.

:D :D The larger, color images might be breath-taking when they come out :D

cant wait until they do

A color image here!
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEMC8Q71Y3E_0.html

Are those snow caps?? :eek:

I was referring to the last picture in Lucas' link, by the way...
http://www.esa.int/images/Picture3_L,0.jpg

Fantastic images! :cool:
Titan looks beautiful.
I've been listening to Mike Oldfield's "The Songs of Distant Earth" [cd] all day :D

http://www.esa.int/images/sound.jpg
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEM85Q71Y3E_0.html


15 January 2005
Audio data collected by the Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument (HASI), which includes an acoustic sensor, during Huygens' descent, 14 January 2005.


1. Speeding through Titan's haze
This recording is a laboratory reconstruction of the sounds heard by Huygens' microphones. Several sound samples, taken at different times during the descent, are here combined together and give a realistic reproduction of what a traveller on board Huygens would have heard during one minute of the descent through Titan's atmosphere.
File 1 : acoustic during descent


2. Radar echos from Titan's surface
This recording was produced by converting into audible sounds some of the radar echoes received by Huygens during the last few kilometres of its descent onto Titan. As the probe approaches the ground, both the pitch and intensity increase. Scientists will use intensity of the echoes to speculate about the nature of the surface.
File 2 : radar conversion

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. Well, Titan has ice, liquid and an atmosphere, so it's looking good for the possibility of life.
I've been listening to Mike Oldfield's "The Songs of Distant Earth" [cd] all day Hmm, I was just watching 2001.

Well, Titan has ice, liquid and an atmosphere, so it's looking good for the possibility of life..
And has temperatures around minus 170 to 200 degrees celsius.

And has temperatures around minus 170 to 200 degrees celsius. Yeah, I didn't say advanced, high speed life. But I'd bet there are some chemical reactions that can be exploited by a bacteria-like organism.

Subscribing....

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/cassini_huygens/huygens_land/Picture7.png

In wonderful Technicolor®
So it's orange, eh?

Orange indeed.

Nope, Titan. Cassini is exploring the Saturnian moons. According to the latest on the ESA site, they already have at least 350 images. And if this is what the raw data looks like, I can't wait to see the finished images.
That's interesting..... sending one to Titan and not sending one to Europa? Isn't Europa "much" closer?

Well, either way sounds good...

We don't have the technology now and certainly didn't have one when Cassini was launched to drill through Europa's ice and at the same time not contaminate it.
As I've heard NASA (maybe together with ESA) is preparing to test ice drilling/probing technology in Antartica.
There is no use to go to Europa until we have the technology capable of drilling (actually it will be melting) through its' ice, stay operational and not contaminate it (anti-contamination solution is already developed).

Orange ice!?!?!? :confused:

It's apparently full of methan (not clean ice), besides there's haze.

Oh, ok.... That explains a lot.

So..... can there be a methan-based life form? Or maybe a silicon based life-form which uses methan as energy? Breathing or eating methan? Yeah, anyways......

That would probably be a very boring kind of life.......:D

Methane is green in bulk, apparently.
The orange colour is generally put down to a mixture of simple organic molecules, particularly tholins. There is probably no life on Titan; but if there were perhaps they would look like this;
http://www.orionsarm.com/xenos/Muuh.html

Here's my color enhanced version, I used photoshop AUTO-COLOR/LEVELS/CONTRAST.

http://img59.exs.cx/img59/1589/picture74sg.jpg

It look's like Titan was once a water world filled with ocean's. Arent we seeing tributaries in some of these images?

No; the liquid on Titan is or was probably methane or ethane; water is a rock there.

Hum,
Very small ics rocks from the sizes seen in the photos...
http://www.geocities.com/amigarana/huygens.html

I wonder where all the `real` rocks are?

I wish they'd have built a probe that lasted a bit longer. put a nuclear batt in it or something like they did Cassnii. Get a whole lot more pics that way.

A color image here!
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEMC8Q71Y3E_0.html

Amazing. I don't normally see things in such photos but looking at this image and if not knowing where it was one can visualize a river winding through a city with an airport to the left.

Can't wait to see what comes up in pseudo science. :D

Amazing. I don't normally see things in such photos but looking at this image and if not knowing where it was one can visualize a river winding through a city with an airport to the left.

Can't wait to see what comes up in pseudo science. :D

He has some pictures that he put together, and he said the same thing about an airport feature to the left. Of course, I noticed it, but then again, I'm a woo-woo. :D

http://anthony.liekens.net/index.php/Main/Huygens

And, I'm going to say it...

These images, so far, have really sucked. There's virtually no data in them, or a lot has been conveniently lost. ;)

If they don't improve in quality expect the woo-woo's to go nuts.

What frustrates me most is they put an image up, and then it says click here for higher quality version - AND IT'S THE SAME CRAPY 14KB IMAGE?

I wish I could trust them to not hide anything.. Even if they are not, they sure do act like it.. :rolleyes:

Orange ice!?!?!? :confused:

Don't eat the Yellow snow - :D

I am far from knowledgeble when it comes to this but I do wonder; why can'tthey get better images?

Is it too much data to send across if the pictures are high resolution? Why not snap a custom fitted Sony 5.0 megapixel on there?

They spend billions on these fragile probes and yet they never seem to put on a decent camera....any ideas?

I wonder where all the `real` rocks are?

Most of them will be buried deep in Titan's mantle. Given the overall density of the satellite, it must consist of a mixture of rock and ice - the heavier rocky material settling toward the center early in its history.

Still, it's obviously a fairly dynamic place, and large enough to have plenty of internal heat left - especially with tidal effects from Saturn flexing its core. I wouldn't be surprised if some genuine, hot, silicate magma is ocassionally erupted on the surface, or at least intuded at fairly shallow depths.

Is it too much data to send across if the pictures are high resolution? Why not snap a custom fitted Sony 5.0 megapixel on there?

When Cassini and Huygens were built in the early 1990s, digital camera weren't nearly as advanced or compact as they are today. But I think the real limiting factor is the incredible weakness of the signal received from Cassini: less than 10 nanowatts, after crossing a billion kilometers.
http://www.gb.nrao.edu/~glangsto/huygens/

Cassini was built in America, Huygens in Europe; They messed up the communicating frequencies slightly, so that Cassini and Huygens can only communicate when they are approaching each other and the signal is blue shifted. Cockup, not conspiracy.

We really need to make that interplanetary internet, i.e., the plan that is in the air, but I haven't heard no advancements after the Mars orbiter.
It involves putting relay satellites accross the Solar system, so the signal can be sent to the closest satellite and then the satellite forwards the signal to all the rest, so it works like internet, you don't have to send from Titan to Earth, instead you can send from Titan to Saturn orbit, from Saturn to Jupiter orbiting satellite, from Jupiter to Mars, from Mars to Moon, from Moon to Earth.

These images, so far, have really sucked. There's virtually no data in them, or a lot has been conveniently lost. ;)


No data. No Data Get real. These contain a wealth of data that will take months and years to convert to knowledge. Your comments have not devalued Huygens, but simply raise doubts about your own judgement.

It's simple. He thinks that there is no data, if the image doesn't show an abandoned alien base, a pyramid, an alien waving to the camera or something like that.

I think you do btsimah a mild injustice. He is that rare beast, a woo-woo with a brain. I just wish he could find the on switch.

What appalls me is the lack of imagination that can think this wonderful, fragmentary glimpse of an alien world can be said to suck. These pictures are inspiring. A river system! With ethane flowing over ice as hard as a granite on Earth. What kind of weathering occurs? What sort of sediments are formed? Are there floods and playas and wadis and a hundred other morphological features, familiar on Earth, but transformed in an alien environment? The questions these few images arouse, and the answers they will help provide, are a joy. Wake up btsimah. Smell the methane.

But what does he then mean by "conveniently lost"?

No data. No Data Get real. These contain a wealth of data that will take months and years to convert to knowledge. Your comments have not devalued Huygens, but simply raise doubts about your own judgement.

Oh please Ophiolite, grow up. They don't contain ENOUGH DATA, ENOUGH DATA. to make any sort of judgements from them. Go ahead and tell me how many degrees you have and how much smarter you are as well.

:rolleyes:

But what does he then mean by "conveniently lost"?

In my opinion, there is a chance that NASA/ESA is not releasing high quality images UNTILL they can verify the land structures are all natural. So they have released the HORRIBLY low quality images to ensure we see nothing important ourselves.

In a nutshell, I believe NASA has some sort of security classification about ETI/UFO/ETI STRUCTURES/ETI VEHICLES and do not trust them. That's what I meant by that comment.

And how is ESA under the NASA jurisdiction?

It's simple. He thinks that there is no data, if the image doesn't show an abandoned alien base, a pyramid, an alien waving to the camera or something like that.

Okay, saying no data was a bit harsh. However, I was merely trying to imply that because the images are so bad, it might as well be NO DATA. I don't know how anyone can tell weather there are clouds, or snow caps. Ground, water, liquid, rocks or anything.

And how is ESA under the NASA jurisdiction?

I have no clue about that. That's something I've never investigated. All I know is that NASA does have *some* kind of security classification in place regarding alien technology that they cannot reveal. It's obvious (to me lol) with the many eye witnesses they have, as well as their operating procedures ever since NASA'S inception.

Oh please Ophiolite, grow up. They don't contain ENOUGH DATA, ENOUGH DATA. to make any sort of judgements from them. Go ahead and tell me how many degrees you have and how much smarter you are as well.

:rolleyes:

Huygens instruments from http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEM9W82VQUD_0.html

To gather as much science as possible during its historic mission to the Saturnian system, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft is equipped with 18 instruments, 12 on the Cassini orbiter and six on the Huygens probe.

Many of these sophisticated instruments are capable of multiple functions, and the data that they gather will be studied by scientists worldwide.

Aerosol Collector and Pyrolyser (ACP) will collect aerosols for chemical-composition analysis. After extension of the sampling device, a pump will draw the atmosphere through filters which capture aerosols. Each sampling device can collect about 30 micrograms of material.

Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) can take images and make spectral measurements using sensors covering a wide spectral range. A few hundred metres before impact, the instrument will switch on its lamp in order to acquire spectra of the surface material.

Doppler Wind Experiment (DWE) uses radio signals to deduce atmospheric properties. The probe drift caused by winds in Titan's atmosphere will induce a measurable Doppler shift in the carrier signal. The swinging motion of the probe beneath its parachute and other radio-signal-perturbing effects, such as atmospheric attenuation, may also be detectable from the signal.

Gas Chromatograph and Mass Spectrometer (GCMS) is a versatile gas chemical analyser designed to identify and quantify various atmospheric constituents. It is also equipped with gas samplers which will be filled at high altitude for analysis later in the descent when more time is available.

Huygens Atmosphere Structure Instrument (HASI) comprises sensors for measuring the physical and electrical properties of the atmosphere and an on-board microphone that will send back sounds from Titan.

Surface Science Package (SSP) is a suite of sensors to determine the physical properties of the surface at the impact site and to provide unique information about its composition. The package includes an accelerometer to measure the impact deceleration, and other sensors to measure the index of refraction, temperature, thermal conductivity, heat capacity, speed of sound, and dielectric constant of the (liquid) material at the impact site.

I have no clue about that. That's something I've never investigated. All I know is that NASA does have *some* kind of security classification in place regarding alien technology that they cannot reveal. It's obvious (to me lol) with the many eye witnesses they have, as well as their operating procedures ever since NASA'S inception.
Then talk about that when/if you have a clue, because ESA has nothing to do with NASA. Or is it an international conspiracy involving the USA and ESA's 15 Member States?

In my opinion, there is a chance that NASA/ESA is not releasing high quality images UNTILL they can verify the land structures are all natural. So they have released the HORRIBLY low quality images to ensure we see nothing important ourselves.

Take notice that ALL science data from all 6 onboard instruments that was sent from the Huygens probe is about 3 floppy disks, and that's more than they expected, because the probe stayed online so long. A high quality image takes up about 14 megabytes!!
What high quality do you expect?

Besides there's still the data that Cassini got with its' own instruments.

Then talk about that when/if you have a clue, because ESA has nothing to do with NASA. Or is it an international conspiracy involving the USA and ESA's 15 Member States?

No, since when did top secret issues or crafts involve a conspiracy? Debunkers use top-secret craft's to explain UFO'S all the time, is that a conspiracy?

Secondly, yes there may very well be an agreement among some governments to hide certain evidence of ETI. No matter how you try to impune me, or attack me it won't change my opinion either.

Take notice that ALL science data from all 6 onboard instruments that was sent from the Huygens probe is about 3 floppy disks, and that's more than they expected, because the probe stayed online so long. A high quality image takes up about 14 megabytes!!
What high quality do you expect?

Besides there's still the data that Cassini got with its' own instruments.

Well, I still wish we could use video and higher quality images.

LOL, ok, whatever then. Live in your la-la-la boogie man world. That is not my concern.
Oh, by the way, perhaps you should e-mail ESA and ask if they have such an agreement, or maybe e-mail each of the 15 member state governments.

Well, I still wish we could use video and higher quality images.
Build your own spacecraft-probe then!! Come together with all the ufo people, put together your funds and blast a probe equiped with 5mp digicam where you want.

Ah, btw, remember that the signal could be picked up from any radio telescope on Earth, meaning, it should be a global treaty of all the world governments which have radio telescopes, including Russia and China to hide any ETI stuff.

So here we are:
NASA which has secret ETI regulations (which it may have)
NASA and ESA with all its' 15 member states have an agreement to hide all the ETI stuff.
the USA, Europe, Russia, Australia, China, Brazil and maybe some other countries have an agreement to hide all the ETI stuff.
WOW
I wonder why do they have such troubles agreeing on anything else.

Ah, btw, remember that the signal could be picked up from any radio telescope on Earth, meaning, it should be a global treaty of all the world governments which have radio telescopes, including Russia and China to hide any ETI stuff.

So here we are:
NASA which has secret ETI regulations (which it may have)
NASA and ESA with all its' 15 member states have an agreement to hide all the ETI stuff.
the USA, Europe, Russia, Australia, China, Brazil and maybe some other countries have an agreement to hide all the ETI stuff.
WOW
I wonder why do they have such troubles agreeing on anything else.

Try calming down first. I still don't agree with you, no matter how mad you get. You can enjoy living in you're contradictory world, where "top secret crafts" exist, yet NASA CANNOT DO ANYTHING TOP SECRET.

Go read a book.

Sure, NASA can do secret stuff, but this time it isn't just the NASA, it's more than a dozen of other countries and governments, exactly what I've been trying to transfer to your consciousness these last few posts, besides you still fail to answer my point.

btw, I'm not mad, I'm just doing this -> :rolleyes:

Sure, NASA can do secret stuff, but this time it isn't just the NASA, it's more than a dozen of other countries and governments, exactly what I've been trying to transfer to your consciousness these last few posts, besides you still fail to answer my point.

btw, I'm not mad, I'm just doing this -> :rolleyes:

Well, don't people roll their eyes when their mad? :D

But actually in accordance to The National Auronautics and Space Act (http://www.hq.nasa.gov/ogc/spaceact.html)
ESA is obligated to follow the same security guidlines we are, otherwise cooperation would not be allowed.

Let's remember, you lot: Huygens was not designed to seek out Titanian intelligence, just to sample its physical environment close up. If there is, or was, some sort of technological life on Titan - perhaps like Erburacum's Muuh creatures, a splendid feat of detailed imagination - chances are they would be far older than humanity, and we would have seen them here on Earth long before we could launch Cassini...

One can just imagine two of "them," under their lurid orange ultracold sky, sipping cyclohexane cocktails whilst exchanging wildly speculative and mutually contemptuous electronic messages:

>You must be a crazy woo-woo, you been eating di-nitrous oxide or something... how could there be anything living among all the molten ice and noxious oxygen pollution on planet BlueInferno?!

>Keep an open mind, you willfully ignorant tarball: free oxygen facilitates all kinds of high-energy chemistry, and we can only guess how complex it could get with molten ice as a solvent...


This, of course, was before BlueInferno suddenly began emitting crazily-modulated, unnatural radiation in the long part of the EM spectrum.

My point is, if there were Titanians, they would probably have discovered us first!

Of course, if they have evolved into something more than crabs :D
Ah, it can always be worse, think - Vogons

We didn't see either crabs or Vogons scuttling or slithering around Huygens when it landed - let's assume for now that there aren't any, and concentrate on analysing what we DO see in those few hundred precious pictures?

What do I have to do with it? I'm not the one here crying because of no alien base.

Take notice that ALL science data from all 6 onboard instruments that was sent from the Huygens probe is about 3 floppy disks, and that's more than they expected, because the probe stayed online so long.

Huh? And this was built in the early 90's? What kind, and how much data, is there that is either condensed into, or was only able to take, 4 megabytes worth? So much for high technology, I guess. I would have expected no less than a couple gigabyte worth of data, at the very least, but 3 floppy disks!? Anyone wanna go into some detail about this to help the ignorant?

- N

What do I have to do with it? I'm not the one here crying because of no alien base.

Sorry. I didn't mean to be rude.

Besides... who is to say that alien architecture would even look recognizably artificial to our eyes, seen from a great height and distance? Especially against a landscape which we've never seen before, either. :confused:

Huh? And this was built in the early 90's? What kind, and how much data, is there that is either condensed into, or was only able to take, 4 megabytes worth? So much for high technology, I guess. I would have expected no less than a couple gigabyte worth of data, at the very least, but 3 floppy disks!? Anyone wanna go into some detail about this to help the ignorant?
- N
The problem (I think it was stated previously) is not that they couldn't have mounted a larger storage, no, it's about how you transfer your info across these vast distances. (the solutioun is my mentioned interplanetary internet which is in development at least reaching Mars)
Besides the probe stayed online for a few hours, it wouldn't have had the chance to record GBs of data. It's not 3d modeling, you know. Numbers don't take up much space.

Oh please Ophiolite, grow up. They don't contain ENOUGH DATA, to make any sort of judgements from them. :
Are you serious? If we have stream beds then we have streams, we have erosion, we have rainfall, we have sedimentation. All of these things could be plausibly predicted before the landing, but they were wholly hypothetical. Now we know. And all of that and the resultant implications, from just one of the photographs. What on Earth (or on Titan) to you mean by saying they lack sufficient data to make judgements?

Go ahead and tell me how many degrees you have and how much smarter you are as well.
I'm not sure what the relevance of this is. Regretably I hold only a single degree, in geology. So, I feel I know the wealth of 'judgements' that can be made based upon these data.
I have no idea if I am 'smarter' than you or not. I believe your logic is often faulty and you are insufficiently skeptical, a pre-requisite for good science. It is, however, quite irrelevant which of us is smarter. That will not alter the fact that from as few as three photographs we can learn, have already learned, a huge amount.

btimsah, may I take the absence of a response as tacit acknowledgement of your error on this occasion?

Regretably I hold only a single degree, in geology.

Then you know more in that field than I do. ;) I only did 60 points at 2nd-year degree level in geology and planetary science - so far.

btimsah, may I take the absence of a response as tacit acknowledgement of your error on this occasion?

No, those images are horrible. It's great they got the probe to photograph what it did, however the quality sucks.

Even if you disagree, don't like it, I don't care. Do me a favor, pretend these images were of a UFO that you could not identify. You would claim they are too fuzzy to conclude anything... blah blah. Maybe that will help you.

It was not a national geographic photo shot but a scientific investigation with a limited budget. The images a clear and crisp under the circumstances. Remember Titan is covered in a thick haze or fog that scatters the light, reducing the contrast of the images.

Latest comp from downward pointing cameras. The probe landed somewhere in the bottom right of the image. Erosion channels can clearly be seen. The age of the channels are unknown and do not imply that there is currently rain on titan.
<img src="http://www.spacedaily.com/images/saturn-titan-mosaic-2-desk-1024.jpg">



The probe landed on something with the consistency of wet or muddy soil, this was inferred from the accelerometer readings.

Another striking feature in these images are the white streaks seen over the lowland regions. They are thought to be methane mist because they changed over time.

When the probe landed some of the instruments hot parts contacted the soil releasing a large amount of methane. I think it can be seen in the 96 frame movie of the surface, but that is just my speculation, it may have be seen with another instrument.

THe above image will increase in quality as the side pointing images are comped into it. I am looking forward to the combined elevation and images maps.

I have read a few reports today that the complete data set was stolen from the ESA server. Am actively looking for it on the net and will post it here if I find it.

Then you know more in that field than I do. ;) I only did 60 points at 2nd-year degree level in geology and planetary science - so far.
Ah, but knowing and understanding are two subtly different things. :) I hope my understanding is increasing each day. When I did my degree (graduating 1970) plate tectonics was still rejected by a handful of old hands; we had some hazy photographs of cratered terrain on Mars (btimsah would lhave said they sucked!); Pioneer and Voyager weren't even gleams in the exhaust gas of a Titan IIIc; and we thought we would be colonising the Solar System by the end of the century.
One thing that has not changed is my regretable tendency to anger at displays of stupidity. We have these wonderful photographs from an alien world, brimful of information and btimsah thinks they suck and contain no information. Very sad.
On a side note where are you studying?

Ah, but knowing and understanding are two subtly different things. :) I hope my understanding is increasing each day. When I did my degree (graduating 1970) plate tectonics was still rejected by a handful of old hands; we had some hazy photographs of cratered terrain on Mars (btimsah would lhave said they sucked!); Pioneer and Voyager weren't even gleams in the exhaust gas of a Titan IIIc; and we thought we would be colonising the Solar System by the end of the century.
One thing that has not changed is my regretable tendency to anger at displays of stupidity. We have these wonderful photographs from an alien world, brimful of information and btimsah thinks they suck and contain no information. Very sad.
On a side note where are you studying?

Oph, they contain very little information. Denying this, or getting mad at me because I stated that does not make it untrue. They contain information, just not much. I would have preferred higher quality images. PERIOD.

Back on topic...

It landed in Titanian mud:
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEM5YW71Y3E_0.html

Interesting I suppose when you see the temperature is -180 degrees.

methane mud or something simmilar.
nobody said it was from water

Oph, they contain very little information. Denying this, or getting mad at me because I stated that does not make it untrue. They contain information, just not much. I would have preferred higher quality images. PERIOD.

Dude, they are photos of another world. A world where no human has even set foot. Considering we had never seen the surface of Titan I would say they contain an amazing amount of information. This is real life, not hollywood. They don't get to retake shots if they f**k up, its a million km away. I for one am in awe of not just the photos, but the whole achievement.

ditto to that! I really don't understand all these alienraped bitchers moaning about low quality. Cassini-Huygens did an amazing achievement and my blood thrills just thinking about the Titan mission and the results. But there will be many more results, when full analysis on the data is done.

Yeah, but I still wish they were higher quality.

Don't we all. Still, as Avatar said, it's a thrilling accomplishment. I would definitely call the mission a success - especially after the disappointment European science suffered with Beagle 2 a year ago!

Don't we all. Still, as Avatar said, it's a thrilling accomplishment. I would definitely call the mission a success - especially after the disappointment European science suffered with Beagle 2 a year ago!

I agree, I was not calling the mission a failure. I just want 15 video cameras posted around the planet, live. :D

I agree, I was not calling the mission a failure. I just want 15 video cameras posted around the planet, live. :D
Screw that! If we can accomplish that feat, I want a space house somewhere near Betelgeuse.

Screw that! If we can accomplish that feat, I want a space house somewhere near Betelgeuse.
I can rent you mine, once the Aldeberan bagel shooting season is over. ;)

One step at a time: I'd settle for a balloon villa in the Saturnian sky.

I want a space house somewhere near Betelgeuse.

Bad location. It’s going to go supernova soon; perhaps within 10,000 years time…

Do you not want to live forever?

Contrary to popular belief, images dont contain or relay as much information about anything nearly as much as all the other instruments. They are pretty much there to take pretty pictures for the public so that they will be happy and give more money.

Yes, the are low quality pictures. But you should really be saying, thank god they put even that on the lander. It wasnt even supposed to survive on the surface longer than 5 minutes.. and look what it did!

Bad location. It’s going to go supernova soon; perhaps within 10,000 years time…

Do you not want to live forever?

Of course, the aging problem will be solved. I figure, hang out there for a few thousand years, watch the fireworks, and head head towards orion's belt.

This thread has gone rediculously off topic. Come on ESA... give us something to work with...

The official reporting of ESA point to rivers of methane...now dry
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/index.html

Hum,
I had it put down as a tidal basin, at first, until i worked out the tide time-table.
It seems to me now that the channels are the result from natural aquifers and springs.

< Rotating Panorama >

http://www.geocities.com/goarana667/hygenspanorama.htm

< /Rotating Panorama >

Very exciting!!!

Imagine a planet where it rains methane, rivers and oceans filled with methane. So, now we know that there is no Oxygen in on Titan otherwise it would have exploded but what i wonder is
What is the source of Methane on Titan? :confused:

What is the source of Nitrogen on Earth? ;)

Hum,
It probably has to do with the early formation of the solar system, beyond a certain distance you have a `tar layer` (between juypiter/saturn) where the volatile compounds condense out.
Also methane is a very simple compound of hydrogen and carbon that the early primordial cloud had lots of, and could be combined during early planetary formation etc...

There is probably a lot more primordial methane and other hydrocarbons deep within the Earth than we normally reckon. I doubt that living organisms are the only major source of methane here - especially since the gas giants are laden with it.

Thanks for that panoramic link, Blobrana. You referred to working out the tidal timetable for Titan - I would be interested to see your results. Such tides must be very complex, with all the smaller moons passing Titan in their different orbits - but do any of them have sufficient gravity to produce a significant tide?