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Jobbo said:
Yes I see what you mean but I think it's just pixilation distortion from frame to frame.
Huygens sends postcards and sounds from Titan
The Huygens probe which landed on Saturn's giant moon, Titan, on Friday has carried out its audacious mission far more successfully than anyone had expected, sending back extraordinary images and sounds. The data will take time to interpret properly, but the early signs are that Titan's surface is unique.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6885
The Huygens probe which landed on Saturn's giant moon, Titan, on Friday has carried out its audacious mission far more successfully than anyone had expected, sending back extraordinary images and sounds. The data will take time to interpret properly, but the early signs are that Titan's surface is unique.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6885
A
Anonymous
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That link also gives access to all the raw image data received: 37 pages of it! Starting here:Volshebnik said:Huygens Lands with asource: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-release-details.cfm?newsID=533
http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/titanraw/index.htm
Cassini finds high-speed dust streaming from Saturn
The Cassini spacecraft has found high-speed streams of dust zipping away from Saturn, astronomers revealed on Wednesday. Similar dust streams have been found emanating from Jupiter, but this is a first for the ringed planet.
"It was suspected that such a phenomenon could be observed there," says the new study's lead author, Sascha Kempf, at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany. "What was not expected, when Cassini was quite far away from Saturn, was the speed and size of the grains."
The probe first felt the particles pelting its dust detector on 15 January 2004 when it was still about 70 million kilometres away from the planet. The bursts became more intense as Cassini drew closer to Saturn, suggesting that the particles came from the planet and were not just interplanetary dust patches.
Kempf and his colleagues believe the dust comes from Saturn's wide A ring. Cassini is unable to dive through this dense, bright ring - it would probably be destroyed - so the dust streams provide a convenient way to analyse the ring's particles from a distance.
Moon dust
In 1992, the Ulysses spacecraft detected dust streaming from Jupiter. Later in the 1990s, the Galileo probe pinpointed the source of the dust streams - the volcanic moon, Io.
Scientists initially suspected that the particles streaming from Saturn originated in the dust clouds around two of the planet's icy moons, Dione and Rhea. But the dust particles' speed and size did not support this idea.
The flecks of dust from Saturn are tiny, measuring between 2 and 50 nanometres. The spacecraft's dust analyser was principally designed to measure the larger particles in Saturn's E ring, but the tiny particles' high speed allowed the analyser to detect them.
The dust particles are accelerated to speeds above 100 kilometres per second. This is because solar radiation causes some particles in the outer regions of the A ring to become positively charged. These are then accelerated outwards by electrical fields generated by the interaction of the charged particles and the planet's magnetic field.
Scientists now hope to use Cassini's instruments to learn more about the origin and composition of the particles flowing away from Saturn.
The cumulative dust loss is probably negligible compared to the masses of both the giant planets. Jupiter probably loses between 20 grams and 1 kilogram of dust per second, for example.
Earth dust
"The new finding tells us that such dust streams are a common phenomenon for giant planets," Kempf told New Scientist.
In fact, the Earth may even have dust particles streaming away from it, says Eberhard Grün, who leads the cosmic dust analyser group at the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg. Because of the Ulysses and Galileo observations of Jupiter, we know less about the Earth's dust environment than we know about Jupiter's, he says.
Cassini's next major milestone will be a return to Saturn's giant moon, Titan, on 15 February 2005, a month after the European Space Agency's Huygens probe successfully touched down.
Journal reference: Nature (vol 433, p 289)
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6902
The Cassini spacecraft has found high-speed streams of dust zipping away from Saturn, astronomers revealed on Wednesday. Similar dust streams have been found emanating from Jupiter, but this is a first for the ringed planet.
"It was suspected that such a phenomenon could be observed there," says the new study's lead author, Sascha Kempf, at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany. "What was not expected, when Cassini was quite far away from Saturn, was the speed and size of the grains."
The probe first felt the particles pelting its dust detector on 15 January 2004 when it was still about 70 million kilometres away from the planet. The bursts became more intense as Cassini drew closer to Saturn, suggesting that the particles came from the planet and were not just interplanetary dust patches.
Kempf and his colleagues believe the dust comes from Saturn's wide A ring. Cassini is unable to dive through this dense, bright ring - it would probably be destroyed - so the dust streams provide a convenient way to analyse the ring's particles from a distance.
Moon dust
In 1992, the Ulysses spacecraft detected dust streaming from Jupiter. Later in the 1990s, the Galileo probe pinpointed the source of the dust streams - the volcanic moon, Io.
Scientists initially suspected that the particles streaming from Saturn originated in the dust clouds around two of the planet's icy moons, Dione and Rhea. But the dust particles' speed and size did not support this idea.
The flecks of dust from Saturn are tiny, measuring between 2 and 50 nanometres. The spacecraft's dust analyser was principally designed to measure the larger particles in Saturn's E ring, but the tiny particles' high speed allowed the analyser to detect them.
The dust particles are accelerated to speeds above 100 kilometres per second. This is because solar radiation causes some particles in the outer regions of the A ring to become positively charged. These are then accelerated outwards by electrical fields generated by the interaction of the charged particles and the planet's magnetic field.
Scientists now hope to use Cassini's instruments to learn more about the origin and composition of the particles flowing away from Saturn.
The cumulative dust loss is probably negligible compared to the masses of both the giant planets. Jupiter probably loses between 20 grams and 1 kilogram of dust per second, for example.
Earth dust
"The new finding tells us that such dust streams are a common phenomenon for giant planets," Kempf told New Scientist.
In fact, the Earth may even have dust particles streaming away from it, says Eberhard Grün, who leads the cosmic dust analyser group at the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg. Because of the Ulysses and Galileo observations of Jupiter, we know less about the Earth's dust environment than we know about Jupiter's, he says.
Cassini's next major milestone will be a return to Saturn's giant moon, Titan, on 15 February 2005, a month after the European Space Agency's Huygens probe successfully touched down.
Journal reference: Nature (vol 433, p 289)
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6902
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- Aug 18, 2002
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Jobbo said:
Thats OK but try this one - I think they ran some extra processing to bring out the detail. Its not 100% clear but there is certainly something odd there.
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- Jan 9, 2004
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- 1,303
Spread the word! The greys are THERE as well! 
More Titan secrets to be unveiled
Scientists are set to unveil new details of data sent back by the Huygens probe from Saturn's moon Titan.
On 14 January, the spacecraft plunged through the moon's atmosphere, sending scientific data - including stunning images - back to ground controllers.
Teams have now had a week to analyse this information and will outline their findings at a meeting in Paris, France.
Full story;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4193043.stm
Scientists are set to unveil new details of data sent back by the Huygens probe from Saturn's moon Titan.
On 14 January, the spacecraft plunged through the moon's atmosphere, sending scientific data - including stunning images - back to ground controllers.
Teams have now had a week to analyse this information and will outline their findings at a meeting in Paris, France.
Full story;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4193043.stm
OneWingedBird
Beloved of Ra
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2003
- Messages
- 15,431
You b*stards. I was all excited for a few seconds there
Methane rain feeds Titan's rivers
Liquid methane rain feeds river channels, lakes, streams, and springs on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan, images from the Huygens probe show.
Scientists have also recovered much data from Huygens that had been thought lost due to a communications failure.
Full report;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4193043.stm
Liquid methane rain feeds river channels, lakes, streams, and springs on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan, images from the Huygens probe show.
Scientists have also recovered much data from Huygens that had been thought lost due to a communications failure.
Full report;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4193043.stm
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- Aug 18, 2002
- Messages
- 19,407
melf said:Emperor said:
at least they arnt space badgers
Hold on melf............
I'm just getting some preliminary infomration from NASA - the data is still pretty raw but you may have spoken too soon - CLICK HERE!!!
Emperor said:melf said:Emperor said:
at least they arnt space badgers
Hold on melf............
I'm just getting some preliminary infomration from NASA - the data is still pretty raw but you may have spoken too soon - CLICK HERE!!!
So the greys are in collaboration with the space badgers?!! I must admit i had my suspicions! :shock:
A
Anonymous
Guest
I wouldn't worry too much.
Unless, of course, we find evidence that the squirrels are involved. :hah:
Unless, of course, we find evidence that the squirrels are involved. :hah:
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2002
- Messages
- 19,407
Don't tempt me 
-----------------
Anyway some awesome (and real) images:
Islands, rivers and methane springs:
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM48881Y3E_index_0.html
And a related report:
-----------------
Anyway some awesome (and real) images:
Islands, rivers and methane springs:
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM48881Y3E_index_0.html
And a related report:
Search for life signal on Titan
Scientists will comb data sent back from Titan by the Huygens probe for the chemical signature of life in a bid to identify the moon's source of methane.
Methane is constantly destroyed by UV light so there must be a source within Titan to replenish the atmosphere.
Life is a possible - though some think unlikely - source of this hydrocarbon along with geological processes.
The surface is too cold for biology, but microbes could survive in an ocean within Titan, a senior scientist says.
Methane can also be released from a trapped form called clathrate and produced by a geological process called "serpentinisation". Neither of these involve biology.
Dominated by nitrogen, methane and other organic (carbon-based) molecules, Titan is thought to resemble a deep-frozen version of Earth 4.6 billion years ago.
Liquid methane rains down on Titan into river channels carved between hills of water ice. Reservoirs of this hydrocarbon probably lie on or just below the surface.
But UV light would destroy all the methane on Titan within 10 million years if it were not being constantly renewed.
"We cannot say there is absolutely no chance for life," Dr Francois Raulin, one of three interdisciplinary scientists on the Huygens mission told the BBC News website.
"There is no chance for life on the surface because it is too cold and there is no liquid water.
"However, models of Titan's interior show there should be an ocean about 100km deep at around 300km below the surface."
If the models are correct, this ocean would be composed mostly of liquid water with about 15% ammonia at a temperature of about -80C, said Dr Raulin.
"We have liquid water, organics not so far away; we have everything on Titan to make life," he explained.
Work in progress
If methane-producing microbes had colonised this habitable zone, scientists might detect its chemical signature by looking at the relationship of two forms (or isotopes) of the element carbon - C12 and C13.
Living cells preferentially incorporate C12. So compounds produced by living things should be depleted of "heavier" isotopes such as C13; they are said to have a high C12/C13 ratio.
Scientists should be able to measure this ratio in data sent back by the Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GCMS) instrument on Huygens.
"The GCMS can directly detect the C12/C13 carbon ratio. We haven't done that yet, but we're working on it," said Sushil Atreya, a professor of planetary science at the University of Michigan, US, and a GCMS team member.
"It's one factor we can take into account to figure out how methane is getting replenished."
However, Professor Atreya favours the geological process of serpentinisation as a more likely source of the Saturnian moon's methane.
In serpentinisation, geothermal activity generates methane through the oxidation of metals such as iron, chromium and magnesium which could be contained in crustal rocks below Titan's surface.
Another possibility is that methane molecules are trapped in a water-ice matrix called clathrate (or methane hydrate).
Dr Raulin also considers these geological processes as viable sources of methane on Titan.
On 14 January, the spacecraft plunged through the moon's atmosphere, sending scientific data - including stunning images - back to ground controllers.
It landed on Titan at around 1138 GMT at a leisurely speed of around 5m/s and transmitted a signal until at least 1555 GMT.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4196261.stm
Scientists will comb data sent back from Titan by the Huygens probe for the chemical signature of life in a bid to identify the moon's source of methane.
Methane is constantly destroyed by UV light so there must be a source within Titan to replenish the atmosphere.
Life is a possible - though some think unlikely - source of this hydrocarbon along with geological processes.
The surface is too cold for biology, but microbes could survive in an ocean within Titan, a senior scientist says.
Methane can also be released from a trapped form called clathrate and produced by a geological process called "serpentinisation". Neither of these involve biology.
Dominated by nitrogen, methane and other organic (carbon-based) molecules, Titan is thought to resemble a deep-frozen version of Earth 4.6 billion years ago.
Liquid methane rains down on Titan into river channels carved between hills of water ice. Reservoirs of this hydrocarbon probably lie on or just below the surface.
But UV light would destroy all the methane on Titan within 10 million years if it were not being constantly renewed.
"We cannot say there is absolutely no chance for life," Dr Francois Raulin, one of three interdisciplinary scientists on the Huygens mission told the BBC News website.
"There is no chance for life on the surface because it is too cold and there is no liquid water.
"However, models of Titan's interior show there should be an ocean about 100km deep at around 300km below the surface."
If the models are correct, this ocean would be composed mostly of liquid water with about 15% ammonia at a temperature of about -80C, said Dr Raulin.
"We have liquid water, organics not so far away; we have everything on Titan to make life," he explained.
Work in progress
If methane-producing microbes had colonised this habitable zone, scientists might detect its chemical signature by looking at the relationship of two forms (or isotopes) of the element carbon - C12 and C13.
Living cells preferentially incorporate C12. So compounds produced by living things should be depleted of "heavier" isotopes such as C13; they are said to have a high C12/C13 ratio.
Scientists should be able to measure this ratio in data sent back by the Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GCMS) instrument on Huygens.
"The GCMS can directly detect the C12/C13 carbon ratio. We haven't done that yet, but we're working on it," said Sushil Atreya, a professor of planetary science at the University of Michigan, US, and a GCMS team member.
"It's one factor we can take into account to figure out how methane is getting replenished."
However, Professor Atreya favours the geological process of serpentinisation as a more likely source of the Saturnian moon's methane.
In serpentinisation, geothermal activity generates methane through the oxidation of metals such as iron, chromium and magnesium which could be contained in crustal rocks below Titan's surface.
Another possibility is that methane molecules are trapped in a water-ice matrix called clathrate (or methane hydrate).
Dr Raulin also considers these geological processes as viable sources of methane on Titan.
On 14 January, the spacecraft plunged through the moon's atmosphere, sending scientific data - including stunning images - back to ground controllers.
It landed on Titan at around 1138 GMT at a leisurely speed of around 5m/s and transmitted a signal until at least 1555 GMT.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4196261.stm
Timble2
Imaginary Person
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- 6,047
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- In a Liminal Zone
Weird biochemistry
Anything with this sort of biochemistry is going to be very odd from our point of view.
Life on Titan - Nature
Anything with this sort of biochemistry is going to be very odd from our point of view.
Life on Titan - Nature
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- Aug 18, 2002
- Messages
- 19,407
Re: Weird biochemistry
I'd still imagine Kirk might have a shot at wooing them though
Good article - I suppose xeno-biology will really take off now
Timble said:
I'd still imagine Kirk might have a shot at wooing them though
Good article - I suppose xeno-biology will really take off now
Technical coup rescues Titan wind experiment
In a remarkable technical coup, astronomers working from Earth have measured the winds of Saturn's moon, Titan.
They listened in to a faint radio signal emitted by the European Space Agency's Huygens probe as it descended through Titan's atmosphere on 14 January. Analysing tiny shifts in the signal's frequency betrayed the probe's motion.
The Cassini orbiter should have picked up this signal for analysis, but a missing command meant that one of its receivers was not switched on. The wind experiment would therefore have been a total failure but for the huge technical advances in the sensitivity of radio telescopes since the mission was launched in 1997.
Huygens was more than a billion kilometres away, and its transmitters had roughly the power of a mobile phone. But the signal came through clearly to several radio telescopes on Earth, including Green Bank in West Virginia, US, and the Parkes dish in Australia.
Doppler shift
The clarity allowed astronomers to monitor the frequency of the 2 gigahertz signal to within about one hertz. That is good enough to detect a doppler shift caused by motion of less than 20 centimetres per second, about the speed of a hurrying tortoise.
The measurements taken begin 150 kilometres above Titan's surface, where Huygens was blown eastwards at more than 400 kilometres per hour. That roughly fits with earlier measurements of the winds at 200 kilometres altitude, made over the past few years using Earth-based telescopes.
At ground level, the doppler shifts show gentle winds of a few metres per second, again roughly in line with expectations.
But in between there was something new: between 60 and 80 kilometres, Huygens was buffeted by rapidly fluctuating winds, which the team put down to vertical wind shear. "It's a bit of a surprise," says Michael Bird of the University of Bonn, Germany, who leads the doppler wind experiment. "It's something for the theoreticians to get to work on."
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6992
In a remarkable technical coup, astronomers working from Earth have measured the winds of Saturn's moon, Titan.
They listened in to a faint radio signal emitted by the European Space Agency's Huygens probe as it descended through Titan's atmosphere on 14 January. Analysing tiny shifts in the signal's frequency betrayed the probe's motion.
The Cassini orbiter should have picked up this signal for analysis, but a missing command meant that one of its receivers was not switched on. The wind experiment would therefore have been a total failure but for the huge technical advances in the sensitivity of radio telescopes since the mission was launched in 1997.
Huygens was more than a billion kilometres away, and its transmitters had roughly the power of a mobile phone. But the signal came through clearly to several radio telescopes on Earth, including Green Bank in West Virginia, US, and the Parkes dish in Australia.
Doppler shift
The clarity allowed astronomers to monitor the frequency of the 2 gigahertz signal to within about one hertz. That is good enough to detect a doppler shift caused by motion of less than 20 centimetres per second, about the speed of a hurrying tortoise.
The measurements taken begin 150 kilometres above Titan's surface, where Huygens was blown eastwards at more than 400 kilometres per hour. That roughly fits with earlier measurements of the winds at 200 kilometres altitude, made over the past few years using Earth-based telescopes.
At ground level, the doppler shifts show gentle winds of a few metres per second, again roughly in line with expectations.
But in between there was something new: between 60 and 80 kilometres, Huygens was buffeted by rapidly fluctuating winds, which the team put down to vertical wind shear. "It's a bit of a surprise," says Michael Bird of the University of Bonn, Germany, who leads the doppler wind experiment. "It's something for the theoreticians to get to work on."
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6992
Some more image updates
http://www.nasa.gov/cassini
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/
http://www.nasa.gov/cassini
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/
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- Aug 18, 2002
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- 19,407
A
Anonymous
Guest
I was hoping to find a link between the 1980 images and episode IV of Star Wars... but 'A New Hope' was released in 1977, and could not have been influenced by the moon. :?
Here's a link to one of the original RAW images of Mimas:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/i ... geID=29856
You can see that Mimas isn't qute speherical, also the unlit hemisphere is slightly illuminated by "Saturn Shine"
Another view of Mimas:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/i ... geID=29828
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/i ... geID=29856
You can see that Mimas isn't qute speherical, also the unlit hemisphere is slightly illuminated by "Saturn Shine"
Another view of Mimas:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/i ... geID=29828
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2002
- Messages
- 19,407
I got handed these links to piccies of Mimas too:
www.astronomija.co.yu/suncsist/planete/ ... /mimas.jpg
www.ssc.uwo.ca/geography/spacemap/miindex1.jpg
www.astronomija.co.yu/suncsist/planete/ ... /mimas.jpg
www.ssc.uwo.ca/geography/spacemap/miindex1.jpg
The Planetary Society is a fantastic place for news and other information on the solar system. http://www.planetary.org/
They have a great article on Cassini describing the mission in detail, with dates of satellite flybys, including non-targeted flybys:
http://www.planetary.org/saturn/cassini_tour.html
They have a great article on Cassini describing the mission in detail, with dates of satellite flybys, including non-targeted flybys:
http://www.planetary.org/saturn/cassini_tour.html
Cassini's Radar Spots Giant Crater on Titan
A giant impact crater the size of Iowa was spotted on Saturn's moon Titan by NASA's Cassini radar instrument during Tuesday's Titan flyby.
Cassini flew within 1,577 kilometers (980 miles) of Titan's surface and its radar instrument took detailed images of the surface. This is the third close Titan flyby of the mission, which began in July 2004, and only the second time the radar instrument has examined Titan. Scientists see some things that look familiar, along with scenes that are completely new.
full report
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-r ... newsID=543
Saturn's Moons Titan and Enceladus Seen by Cassini
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has had a busy week, snapping stunning new images of two of Saturn's moons -- smoggy Titan on Feb. 15 and wrinkled Enceladus on Feb. 16.
Visible in radar images released today are a crater, channels, and terrain similar to the area where the European Space Agency's Huygens probe landed on Jan. 14.
more info on the surface
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-r ... newsID=546
A giant impact crater the size of Iowa was spotted on Saturn's moon Titan by NASA's Cassini radar instrument during Tuesday's Titan flyby.
Cassini flew within 1,577 kilometers (980 miles) of Titan's surface and its radar instrument took detailed images of the surface. This is the third close Titan flyby of the mission, which began in July 2004, and only the second time the radar instrument has examined Titan. Scientists see some things that look familiar, along with scenes that are completely new.
full report
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-r ... newsID=543
Saturn's Moons Titan and Enceladus Seen by Cassini
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has had a busy week, snapping stunning new images of two of Saturn's moons -- smoggy Titan on Feb. 15 and wrinkled Enceladus on Feb. 16.
Visible in radar images released today are a crater, channels, and terrain similar to the area where the European Space Agency's Huygens probe landed on Jan. 14.
more info on the surface
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-r ... newsID=546