Wow... Two complete SAR swaths within the space of a week or so... Life is good.

Not wanting to be thought of as an ingrate, I have to wonder why T13 was released so soon? T7 over Mezzoramia took a whole year to come out, and now T13 is out before the lid has been lifted on T8 over Belet/Adiri?

Maybe NASA is planning to thrice bless the faithful with T8 release soon? Please?

Seems odd that most of the Iapetus images seem to be at a near-constant exposure time. I would have expected images to be taken at differing exposure times to suit the differing surface reflectivities, short exposure for the high(er)-albedo southern region, and long exposures to bring out details in Cassini Regio.

Cheers,

Gary

These sections of Huygens descent imaging triads (from the near-vertical camera) look like a droplet in the process of settling under gravity and draining away. Could it be either moisture (liquid methane) from the surface thrown up from the probes impact, or maybe condensation on the inside of the lens caused by cooling effect of low ambient temperature?

If the former, surely this proves that liquid does indeed lie just under the surface on the "dry lakebeds".

I'm sure these images have caused debate before, but I can't find mention anywhere.



P.S I've looked long and hard for anything that looks like an aquatic lifeform gasping for its life as its moisture drains away, but no luck i'm afraid!!

I thought T14 was going to include a SAR pass? Starting in southern Shangri-La, and heading east skirting southern Belet before dipping down and fizzing out before reaching Tsegihi.

Is this still the plan? I'm a certifiable SAR-junkie craving for a hit, so I certainly hope so

Maybe Jason was just being coy about an investigation in progress, especially given the cr@p that his bosses gave him about his public revelation on the data recorder failure during the Titan T7 SAR pass over Mezzoramia. Can't blame him of course. I certainly wouldn't risk any unathorised (though indavertant) disclosures if it meant robbing the boffins of their thunder.

Hell hath no fury like a boffin whose scoop is leaked...

Does anyone know if these images from one of the Soviet Vega probes actually show real details on the Halley nucleus, or is this just an example of creating non-existant details via overprocessing ?





Its been 2 decades since Giotto was sand-blasted and ESA released that famous "first-look" at a comet nucleus. I always wondered why other images weren't available, and then I find these on the link posted above.



Wonder if anyone has a link to any other cunningly-hidden Giotto treasure troves?

The Lunokhods (Ye-8 Soviet designation) had a Polonium-210 radiological heat source used to maintain internal temperature (though electric power was via batteries charged thru solar arrays). Check out the following if you're keen.

[email=http://www.astronautix.com/craft/lunokhod.htm]http://www.astronautix.com/craft/lunokhod.htm[/email]

Would I be correct in assuming that the Viking landers did something similar - ie use the RTGs waste heat to ward off the cold of the Martian night?

Titan flyby imagery coming through.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...eiImageID=64404

New territory to the east of Fensal Aztlan region.

POP

Thats the champagne cork....

Saw these pics in the CHARM presentation, and though they would make a good blink (yep, I'm sure its already been done before, but I can't help myself...)

Blink of Huygens DISR mosaic over SAR track

I have heard a rumour that one of the Mormons secret beliefs is that Heaven is not on another plane of existance but is on a hidden planet past the orbit of Pluto. Yeah, I know sounds kinda wierd, but who am I to judge

Anyway, with 2003 UB313 being discovered, what is the opinion of the good folks from Salt Lake City? At least they can have the certainty of knowing they have somewhere to go, though I don't think they need to pack sunglasses and tanning lotion. A nice warm jacket might be well advised.

It looks like the question regarding life on Europa has been answered. The Europa-eans (Europeans?) are alive and well and have a great number of functional SUVs. And to think that some luddites consider the Apollo moonwalkers to be environmental vandals by leaving all those wheel tracks...

Err.. this may be stupid question (here it comes...) but if my $150 digital camera can take a true(ish) colour picture in a single take, why can't space probes? (well, at least the modern ones built with digital technology).

(this is where the image-processing experts roll their eyes and curse the ignorant noobs )

WOW!! Now that is an incredible mosaic!! Hard to believe that this series was shot back in 1998. Does NASA have a whole department dedicated to hiding this stuff in dusty boxes?

Top notch stuff mate, keep it up.