Final Countdown Till Huygens Touchdown!

No kidding! Why only 1 pic since it was first release almost an hour ago?

Well.... I could tell you, but I'd hafta' kill ya'

Just because humans couldn't live there doesn't mean other intelligent beings couldn't or at least stop by Titan as a rest stop area.

Still smells fishy to me...

Originally posted by Faceless
I seriously doubt there is anything to hide on Titan it is far to uninhabitable.

Agreed. Far too uninhatitable for lifeforms like us.

Well, we will have to see if Richard Hoagland starts seeing Motel 6s' on Titan's surface then.

Originally posted by Der Kapitan
Well, we will have to see if Richard Hoagland starts seeing Motel 6s' on Titan's surface then.

I was wishing for a bit more...

yes the drainage-like rivulets have been quite a pleasant surprise to the concerned scientists who were afraid that they may be faced with a perpetual fog/mist like situation whihc now doesn't seem to be the case..
The final post descent pics have not yet been put up..I supp they will take some time but the rivulets one is taken at about 16km above the surface during the Huygens descent..this would be just after the heat re-entry phase and maybe before the parachute deployment phase..

A note on the 1st pic:

The massive dark region to the left could be a sea of sorts some experts are speculating or a marsh but whats extremely strange to me is that NONE of the rivulets seem to terminate/originate in that mass to the left..which is very strange because one would expect something like that if the rivulets and the 'sea' were of the same fluid..very strange..




[edit on 14-1-2005 by Daedalus3]

I highly doubt that they are hiding anything. There is a lot of data being sent from Saturn other than just images and it's being sent over a huge distance. Give them some time for crying out loud. This isn't like the movies where everything works easily and super fast. Do we even know if the probe landed in one peice on the surface yet? (I just got up so i'm still catching up)

One more pic from the NASA site....

Parts of the image appear Blacked out or incomplete

saturn.jpl.nasa.gov...

You'd think they could afford a colour camera

[edit on 14-1-2005 by Faceless]

Source: VG: norwegian article...

Nice find Vivek!
Hopefully there will be more angles.

Originally posted by Faceless
You'd think they could afford a colour camera

Some of the colors are added and processed from radar imaging by ground computers...

Some of the reasons for a B&W camera are because of the amount of detail that can be seen, the ease of deciphering different materials and landmasses, as well as distance.
There are other reasons but I’m dizzy.

The rocks look a bit like river stones: rounded and smmoooove.
Interesting!

The latest ground pic looks like the surface is quite dry, not marshy or hazy as some theorised....

also there's 1 very good thing I noticed about that last pic..see the stones? They're curved and oval/ellipse shaped..and Im no geologist but frankly IMHO that kind of even shaping can only be done by fluids..like pebblestones at the base of a stream...you don't find rocks like that in regions devoid of liquid..Yayie!!..liquid!!!


I wonder what kind of liquid though..

EDIT: Dammit you got that riverbed suggestion in before me!!

[edit on 14-1-2005 by Daedalus3]

Wow.... They seem to be adding images every minute now.

Here's another one.
www.esa.int...


Keep watching this link. It's getting updated as I write this..

saturn.jpl.nasa.gov...


Keep a close watch folks.... You might just find ET scampering around shouting about the Earthling flying saucer

It is theorised that Titan is rich in liquid methane.

I saw somewhere that the craft was expected to be buffeted by high winds as it came down. Isn't it plausible that the smoothness of the stones is due to these high winds effectively sandblasting the large boulders?

Again me no geologist but that would be on a larger scale then i supp..like a rock face or something..these stones don't seem to be bigger than a CD..I tell ya its due to liquid!!
Also notice how soem of the channels have the thicker portions extremely dark as compared to the thinner ones??
Could it mean that the darker regoins are inundated while the lighter portions of the channels are the shallower/dry regions??
Or doe the color difference indicate a variation in dry depth only??


soo many questions!!! Need planetary geologist urgently!!

[edit on 14-1-2005 by Daedalus3]

MAN!! that is so neat!!!!
i have been waiting for this since cassini launched,and finally we are getting the pics.
I do have to say,i was hoping for better resolution than what we have seen,but im not complaining.
anyone else notice how much these first pics look like the same quality as the USSR's pics from venus?maybe it has to do with a very heavy atmosphere,dunno.
Now,we need a Titan nuclear powered rover,talk about interesting!!