T16 RADAR SAR Swath, Land o' lakes |
T16 RADAR SAR Swath, Land o' lakes |
Jul 24 2006, 09:33 PM
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3241 Joined: 11-February 04 From: Tucson, AZ Member No.: 23 |
Much to my surprise, a chunk of the T16 Sar swath as been released:
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08630 An abundance of lakes can been seen. Some appear to be crater lakes (or sinkholes), like the lake at far left on the top cutout. That lake appears similar to Crater Lake in Oregon, with a little island in the middle (you can kinda see the attenuation of the signal surrounding the island as the methane gets deeper). Some lakes appear quite distinctive from the surrounding terrain, like the features on the right part of the bottom cutout. -------------------- &@^^!% Jim! I'm a geologist, not a physicist!
The Gish Bar Times - A Blog all about Jupiter's Moon Io |
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Jul 25 2006, 10:07 PM
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 40 Joined: 11-November 05 Member No.: 550 |
Just imagine what it would be like to be walking towards the shore, then look out over the hydrocarbon lake, with Saturn above.
We've seen plenty of artists renditions depicting such a scene....but now its reality! Super! |
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Jul 25 2006, 10:19 PM
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The Poet Dude Group: Moderator Posts: 5551 Joined: 15-March 04 From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK Member No.: 60 |
Just imagine what it would be like to be walking towards the shore, then look out over the hydrocarbon lake, with Saturn above. Yep, I can imagine that... it would be sooo beautiful... sadly, as I understand it, I think that from the lakes' altitude (i.e low) Titan's atmosphere would be far too dense and smoggy to allow you to see Saturn... Maybe if you climbed one of the mountains or (suspected) volcanic caldera you might. MIGHT just see a hint of Saturn through the clouds, but I wouldn't bet the Hab on it... -------------------- |
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Jul 25 2006, 10:41 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
In terms of Titanian skygazing, note that the ratio of sunshine (daytime) vs. saturnshine (selected nighttimes) would be much smaller than sunshine vs. moonlight ("moonshine"?!) on Earth. Something like ~6 magnitudes. It would probably be bright enough to read by saturnshine on a Titan night. However, that would probably take the form of an extremely diffuse light from the whole sky, or at least most of it. It would probably look like the view you get looking up at a cloudy sky in a city on Earth, with the clouds lit by the lights below (on Titan: haze lit from the Saturn above). It would be interesting to know if the light were in any way localized, ie, concentrated in the general part of the sky where Saturn was instead of just all over. I think it would be pretty well spread out. Now, if you had IR vision, you might see Saturn pretty distinctly as an object with fuzzy boundaries.
The polar regions of Titan would only have a side-looking view of Saturn, which would cut the light input quite a bit. So you'd have a nicer experience if there were a midlatitude lake. |
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