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More Titan Pictures from Huygens
2005.01.15 (Sat) 11:59
Here are a few more pictures of Titan, in case you haven't seen them yet. They include a colorized version of yesterday's side view, and a couple of panoramas made up of yesterday's raw images.
Unscrewing the Inscrutable reports on the surface conditions as measured by Huygens — it appears the landing site may be something like an icy-slushy mix of possibly methane ice. The probe isn't bobbing or moving, so it isn't liquid, but it also isn't completely solid. It also turns out that those "rocks" or "ice blocks" in the side view image are really pebble-sized (1-20 centimeters across).
From the ESA archives:
 Credit NASA/ESA
 Credit NASA/ESA (save image for full size)
 Credit NASA/ESA
[Update 1-15: From what we're reading, the problem with one of the two communications channels between Cassini and Huygens that was reported to have stopped the transmission of Doppler wind data may also have prevented half of the images gathered by Huygens from being sent back as well. If this is true, then the 363 raw triple images that we referenced earlier could be it. The ESA still hopes to make 20 panoramic images from those pictures, but they might have gaps. Maybe we're just spoiled after the Mars Rovers, but we were hoping for a lot more images.]
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% Trackback » 2005.01.15 (Sat) 13:57
"Titan Surface Data" from Unscrewing The Inscrutable
Udate: 1:52. Rough mosiac and color pic from ESA via The Two Perecnt Company Rants. Update: ESA Systems Science, Damstadt Germany, 6:03 EST AM Jan 15. Data indicates the presence of water ice, methane, ethane, acetylene, and 'possibly' other, heavier,... [More]
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