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Titan's Surface Revealed

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i-can-see-my-house-from-here dept.

MattKeeler writes "NASA's running a story on the recent findings of Cassini, the satellite orbiting Titan, one of Saturn's giant moons. New images reveal details of the moon's surface and a variety of materials that cover it."

7 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. Woah by mfh · · Score: 3, Interesting

    For a millisecond, I thought I was looking at a picture of an inhabitable world. That's one misleading photo, imho... Not to mention, heavily pixilated.

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    The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
    1. Re:Woah by pyr0 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      How is the photo misleading? Also, (moderators) how is this interesting? False-color spectrographic images are pretty standard for this sort of thing. The article clearly states this fact.

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      Project Steve
  2. Source of life by underpar · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The idea of Titan holding the key to our understanding of pre-life earth has always been interesting, but a little too optimistic.

    I mean, isn't Europa the one that's supposed to develop life?

  3. Re:Busted. by Creamsickle · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Actually, that was my post that I AC'd. It is an interesting point, don't I deserve a chance to get some karma for it this time?

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    On the 0th day, God created C
  4. Re:Ethics of this Situation by Hoodsen · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Where is the ethical question? First of all, the idea that there is life on Titan is just speculation. Second, we are just taking pictures from outside the atmosphere at this point, no need to get excited just yet. Lastly, are you really saying we should base our ethics in regards to this on a science fiction television show? Think about what you are saying for a moment, not within the context of Star Trek, but within the context of real scientific possibilities that could await us.

  5. solaris by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Vast, complex hydrocarbon rafts in a methane sea... could we have an embryonic Solaris in our system? Or not so embryonic? These dreams... where do they come from...

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    make install -not war

  6. Re:Dupe?! by egumtow · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Huygens doesn't really have a landing site. It's supposed to do all its science while parachuting. If it happens to not land in a methane ocean, or whatever, and instead survives on the ground, that's a bonus. In which case its batteries would die in 1/2 hour or so.

    As the orbit parameters for Cassini are still up in the air pending future TCMs (trajectory correction maneuvers), I would guess the parameters for Huygens' "launch" are still up in the air as well - and thus adjustable.

    I don't have any official answers. But almost certainly Huygens' atmospheric entry point can be adjusted.