Slashdot Mirror
Pictures of Titan's Lakes
sighted writes "For decades, scientists have wondered if the thick orange haze that shrouds Saturn's giant moon Titan hid lakes of liquid methane on the surface, but there was no way to confirm it, until now. The Cassini flyby of July 22, 2006 took these striking images and were released today."
That would then be like vacationing in Bayonne, NJ or Scranton, PA and no one wants to do that.
Ehhh...the average surface temperature of Titan is estimated to be 90 Kelvin, compared to Mars at 210 Kelvin. It seems extremely unlikely that the kinds of chemical reactions necessary for any kind of life could occur.
The discovery is a "big deal" because we know something about part of our solar system we didn't know before. If you read the articles, part of the discovery is a likely methane rainfall cycle, including "methanifers" (analogous to aquifers). It's fascinating stuff, IMO.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
Having noted this, 500 metres is kind of crappy resolution for
SAR data. You'd think they'd make a closer flyby or put a better
instrument onboard. I believe 1 (one) metre resolution SAR was available
from instruments at the same altitude when cassini was designed.
NASA just cheaped out.
Cheaped out? Cassinni is the most expensive unmanned probe ever launched. I saw a to-scale model in a museum. It is a huge chunk of gadgets. Perhaps you could argue they underemphasized radar power at the expense of something else, but you cannot argue they went cheap.
Table-ized A.I.
Don't worry, the Bush administration and Exxon are working hard and diligently to warm it up.
Table-ized A.I.
HAHAHAHAHA. Oh who ever knew that quoting Jim Carey could be flamebait.
No, that's just Michael Bay.
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!