these are wonderful times



.
[Edited 1/16/05 11:16am]

HOW INCREDIBLE!!!!! I was watching it on the news the other day, there was a scientist crying.....truly, TRULY fascinating.

I am a science geek from waaaaay back, and I was going to post on this, but didn't in fear of getting flamed.

A taste of truth.

It's life Jim, but not as we know it

Interesting times indeed

jerseykrs said:

Sissy. Science totally rocks.

BBC WORLD had all these weird British proffessors in their Breaking News and it was such a joy to watch.

jerseykrs said:

I was going to post as well, be refrained.

This is truly amazing.
Hopefully we'll see some really good pix in the coming days.

If you look carefully in the second image, you can see David Icke waving.

Truly remarkable.
.

Awesome to see others are interested in this.

jerseykrs said:

Alot of Salons in Tampa have Science Magazines for your reading pleasure.




Just sayin'

I loved the British proffesor I spoke of earlier's remark; he said that the lovely thing about is that the actual data NEVER corresponded with their expectations; 90% is an adventure.

This must be such a kick for them.

HamsterHuey said:

Ur really nerdy.

AsianBomb777 said:

YES!

jerseykrs said:

Cunt!

i would frankly be more ashamed if

this did not peak my intrest

this is the moon of one planet of one solar system

of one star of one galaxy out of trillians

eventually

the collective closed mind will have no choice

but to open up like a flower


its going to happen

and it overjoys me to no end

beautiful....

Oh.... It's a moon.

I thought it was satellite pictures of clouds. You know like "Hurricaine Titan" or something.

First color pic



This image was returned yesterday, January 14, 2005, by the European Space Agency's Huygens probe during its successful descent to land on Titan. This is the colored view, following processing to add reflection spectra data, and gives a better indication of the actual color of the surface.
Initially thought to be rocks or ice blocks, they are more pebble-sized. The two rock-like objects just below the middle of the image are about 15 centimeters (about 6 inches) (left) and 4 centimeters (about 1.5 inches) (center) across respectively, at a distance of about 85 centimeters (about 33 inches) from Huygens. 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. The image was taken with the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer, one of two NASA instruments on the probe.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Descent Imager/Spectral team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.


[Edited 1/17/05 5:54am]

From the ESA site; http://www.esa.int/SPECIA...i-Huygens/


A boundary between high, lighter-coloured terrain and and darker lowland area on Titan

What's that mysterious fluid? Can't be water, can it?

As awesome and interesting as these pics are, why would they try so hard to get pictures of a moon? Pretty much just a giant rock floating in space.

sinisterpentatonic said:

Titan has been one of the most speculated moons in our universe. It was hard to tell what it's made of.

Titan is the largest moon of Saturn, the second largest in the Solar System (after Ganymede of Jupiter). It was discovered by Christiaan Huygens in 1655.

Titan's rotation period of about 16 days is synchronous to Saturn (meaning the same side always faces Saturn). It is the only moon in the Solar System known to have clouds and a thick, planet-like atmosphere.

NASA's Voyager 1 provided the first detailed images of Titan in 1980. They showed only an opaque, orange atmosphere, apparently homogeneous.

It was so thick that you could not see the surface. However, other data revealed exciting things. Similarly to Earth, Titan's atmosphere is mostly nitrogen but there is also methane and many other organic compounds.
Before the arrival of the ESA Huygens probe, planned for January 2005, astronomers will observe Titan using the most powerful ground-based telescopes.

Images from the WM Keck Observatory reveal methane-containing clouds near Titan's south pole. This could mean that Titan has the equivalent of a weather cycle similar to ours on Earth.

This is a major discovery which means that the atmosphere is much more dynamic than previously thought.
The NASA Cassini orbiter will clearly see these clouds, carrying out precise observations before, during and after releasing the Huygens probe.

Over the years, scientists have dramatically changed their minds about Titan's surface. In the 1990s, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope spied an area on Titan that was brighter than the rest.

More recent observations show the same feature better. What are these bright and dark patches? Some scientists believe the bright area could be a continent and the rest oceans, but no one knows for sure, yet.
The recently discovered large continent-sized feature (red) is called Xanadu. It is unclear whether Xanadu is a mountain range, a giant basin, a smooth plain or a combination of all three. It may be dotted with hydrocarbon lakes but that is also unknown.

All that is presently known is that in Earth-based images, it is the brightest region on Titan. There is no doubt, though, that the surface appears very diverse, not uniform. There are a lot of surprises waiting for us there.

Where will Huygens land? ESA scientists predict the probe will land close to the bright patch, but not on it. This could be a landing in an ocean - which would be the first splashdown landing in an ocean off the Earth!

To land on an ocean would probably mean better data from Huygens. Even if the probe lasted only a few minutes before sinking, it would at least stay in an upright position. Being the right way up is essential for sending the data back to the Cassini orbiter and to the scientists on Earth.

Moreover, some of Huygens's instruments are better prepared to analyse liquids. If Huygens lands on a solid surface instead, there is a higher risk of falling in the wrong direction and not being able to easily communicate with Cassini.

Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is a mysterious place. Its thick atmosphere is rich in organic compounds. Some of them would be signs of life if they were on our planet.

How do they form on Titan? Will they help us to discover how life began on Earth?
Titan's atmosphere is mostly nitrogen but there are also methane and many other organic compounds. Organic compounds form when sunlight destroys methane. If sunlight is continuously destroying methane, how is methane getting into the atmosphere?

On Earth today, it is life itself that refreshes the methane supply. Methane is a by-product of the metabolism of many organisms. On Earth, the simplest biological sources, such as those associated with peat bogs, rice fields and ruminant animals, continuously supply fresh gas to replace that destroyed by oxidation. Could this mean there is life on Titan?

Titan is not a pleasant place for life. It is far too cold for liquid water to exist, and all known forms of life need liquid water. Titan's surface is -180°C. According to one exotic theory, long ago, the impact of a meteorite, for example, might have provided enough heat to liquify water for perhaps a few hundred or thousand years.

However, it is unlikely that Titan is a site for life today. But scientists are still currently puzzled by the amount of methane that persists in Titan's atmosphere. Could there be oceans of methane on or under the surface?
[Edited 1/17/05 6:09am]

HamsterHuey said:

So confused as to which org clique to join.

CinisterCee said:

At my age being nerdy is a choice. So that's cool. I am a cool nerd.

I also love to collect Star Wars Lego. Darth Vader in lego-guise is amazingly fun. As is Chewbecca.

HamsterHuey, can I carry your books?

CinisterCee said:

Carry them home? So we can build the Millenium Falcon together?

Just remember; I am Chewbacca, m'kay?

You're a pretty hot nerd.

CinisterCee said:

I am planning (after the new furniture arrives) to build EVERY damn box of Lego I have.

and what to think of the sound that Huygens recorded on
the surface of Titan before it ran out of power?

it was very briefly mentioned in today's paper, but it
was only skimmed over in one or two lines. in fact, the
whole article was rather short and disappointing.

anywho, I wonder what this sound could have been since
they said scientists are not sure yet.

now, it doesn't have to be anything showstopping for me
to be interesting. Just something as "normal" as, say,
"weather" would be incredible.

think about it, recorded sound of weather on another
sphere in a distant part of our solar system.

that would be like, sooooo cool!



I bet Björk has already copyrighted it for her new album

Fascinating! Thanks Shausie!