CodeOptimist Posted January 15, 2005 Report Share Posted January 15, 2005 For those of you who are inclined towards astronomy (as I am ), the Huygens probe successfully landed on Saturn's moon Titan yesterday. Everything worked nearly perfectly!Only a few images have been released so far, but they are marvelous:I read somewhere that there was a microphone on board the probe as well. If so, I hope a sound sample is released Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argalius Posted January 15, 2005 Report Share Posted January 15, 2005 And again a dull landscape... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufinwe Posted January 15, 2005 Report Share Posted January 15, 2005 (well, I am quite proud of this one ... it is a European probe, and although it had been sent on an American mission, the European Space Agency can be proud of it. The images are amazing ... it is the first time a picture fro so far is ever taken (on the surface of an object obviously) ... after the Moon and Mars, here comes Titan @ Arga: dull, but full of liquid evidence and methane and maybe fossilised life forms ... which we may know of in a few decades As for the sound, you may check on http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM85Q71Y3E_index_0.html .. there are two sounds of Titan, although it is not of a very good quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argalius Posted January 15, 2005 Report Share Posted January 15, 2005 @ Arga: dull, but full of liquid evidence and methane and maybe fossilised life forms ... which we may know of in a few decades ←The surface almost looks the same as the one on mars, red with rocks... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dnas Posted January 16, 2005 Report Share Posted January 16, 2005 Actually, Mars might not be as red as it looks.http://www.goroadachi.com/etemenanki/mars-hiddencolors.htm(random Google search to confirm what I seem to remember reading in some article somewhere.)Though the first photograph seem more orange-ish-gray-ish-yellow than red anyway. But that might be just my monitor. (or yours ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paal_101 Posted January 16, 2005 Report Share Posted January 16, 2005 And those "rocks" on Titan are actually globs of ice. Nice avatar by the way Argy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yiuel Posted January 17, 2005 Report Share Posted January 17, 2005 About Mars' redness, I've read a few things, but maybe the most significant proof about the "more losely looking as Earth" are the visible images taken from up above the surface. The surface shown isn't reddish (as we see it on the numerous photos in situ) buta rather yellowish orange. But there are indeed strange photos as well.Marvellous Titan. Who wants to be a Titanian? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fire Giant Posted January 17, 2005 Report Share Posted January 17, 2005 And those "rocks" on Titan are actually globs of ice. ←Exactly, and I think this is the first evidence of large amounts of water (though in frozen form) on another planet/moon in the solar system (on Mars, there is only evidence of water existing a long time ago).I have to second Curu's post regarding this mission - it was a great success for the ESA and for European Space travel (which had suffered some downs like "Beagle II" in recent times) in general. We can be proud of this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.C Posted January 18, 2005 Report Share Posted January 18, 2005 This is definitely pretty sweet. It will be neat to see what they dig up in the coming years. Does anyone know if you can see Saturn from Titan? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yiuel Posted January 19, 2005 Report Share Posted January 19, 2005 Probably not, or if you can, not as clearly as we can see the Moon. Remember that we don't see much the ground of Titan from space, we probably don't see space from Titan as well.But it would be a splendid view! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red_08 Posted January 22, 2005 Report Share Posted January 22, 2005 I'm an Astronomy lover too. These are pretty neat. (frozen rocks, frozen ground....AWESOME! jk) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Centurion_13 Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 This is cool stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fire Giant Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 This is definitely pretty sweet. It will be neat to see what they dig up in the coming years. Does anyone know if you can see Saturn from Titan?←Well, at least we won't see anything being "digged up" by Huygens any more - due to the extreme temperatures on Titan, the batteries of the probe collapsed after some hours (but that was still much later than everyone expected). What I think is really funny is the fact that the ESA put a CD with "human" music from earth into the probe, just in case some kind of aliens comes around and finds the probe on Titan (well, the aliens would use the same CD standard as we do, of course, and understand our language as well ). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodeOptimist Posted January 24, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 What I think is really funny is the fact that the ESA put a CD with "human" music from earth into the probe, just in case some kind of aliens comes around and finds the probe on Titan (well, the aliens would use the same CD standard as we do, of course, and understand our language as well ).←LOL Did anyone watch the ESA press conference/briefing on January 21st? I did - it was at 4AM local time. I woke up, watched it (NASA TV stream), and went back to bed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argalius Posted January 25, 2005 Report Share Posted January 25, 2005 Nice avatar by the way Argy ←Haha, thanks, I think I should take out the white part though, I'm just too lazy to do it Anyway, is the probe 'dead' yet? It was supposed to only work during descent isn't it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufinwe Posted January 27, 2005 Report Share Posted January 27, 2005 (absolutely ... and the ESA scientists said that it had enough batteries for two hours after landing, but they didn't know where Huygens would land. Fortunately enough, it landed on a solid place. Hence the pictures. Had it landed in a methane ocean, I am afraid we would not have had any pictures of the Surface ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argalius Posted January 28, 2005 Report Share Posted January 28, 2005 If I remember correctly the probe was designed to float on a sea too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fire Giant Posted January 28, 2005 Report Share Posted January 28, 2005 If I remember correctly the probe was designed to float on a sea too.←Right, but not for such a long time - see, the "sea" there will be like -180°C cold, and I guess the probe won't have survived long in fluid, -180°C, methan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argalius Posted January 29, 2005 Report Share Posted January 29, 2005 Well it survived the massive journey too, and I don't think it would have been much hotter then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red_08 Posted February 3, 2005 Report Share Posted February 3, 2005 I think it would be cool if it landed in an ocean of methane!That would look awesome seeing the ripples from the impact. *starts daydreaming* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.