Huygens News Thread, News as and when we find it Options

[djellison]

Yeah - a thick atmosphere might give a slight bit of motion to the image - perhaps super -res imaging on it

Doug

[David]

looks like a delta to me

I can't believe that. No delta on earth has outflow channels that get smaller as you go downstream.

other possibilities that are coming up are volcanic outflow channels

Maybe, but I find it hard to see volcanic outflow coming off what looks like multiple watersheds. This looks like a typical earthly drainage pattern.

and rain drainage from the last equinox rainy season

We know enough about Titan now to know if it has rainy seasons? You're pulling my leg, right?

That surface picture -- well, I was wrong about the oozy tar pits. At least, we didn't land in any. But what's that off on the horizon? Does it look curved because of (1) the optics, (2) because there's some kind of humped formation out there? Oh for a rover!!!

[Bill Harris]

A shoreline? River channels?

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/cassini/050114pic1.html

OMG, that is a classic fourth-order dendritic drainage pattern. That is a river. Idea of the scale of this pic?

--Bill

[David]

A shoreline? Out there? Okay, it's bitterly cold and not water at all ... but I love the sea and I love lakes, too. I hope *so* this turns out to be a liquid! I'm so thrilled, guys!

Not even Europa has a shoreline!

I would dearly, dearly love for that to be a shoreline and a lake or sea -- just so you know where my biases lie -- but unfortunately I think I see a crater or two in the "lake". If I'm right about the drainage, then the "lake" has to be significantly higher than the surrounding terrain. Could it be, say, the lobe of a (cryo-?)volcanic outflow?

[tedstryk]

It sure reminds me of the Venera 9 pan. Superficial, but it looks like it. As for the channels...that depends...might this be some sort of a murky delta? That would explain the large channels breaking into a bunch of small ones. The features in the lake could be craters on the lakebed poking through the surface, or, if they are not craters, they may be islands or sand/mud bars,

[SFJCody]

Triplets posted!

[David]

It sure reminds me of the Venera 9 pan. Superficial, but it looks like it.

I think to some extent that has to do with looking out on a kind of bleak overcast landscape on both Venus and Titan. But the details are quite different; on Venus, we had a wholly rocky surface split into sharp-edged slabs; here we're looking at a "sandy" plain (who knows what that stuff is actually) strewn with rounded boulders. It's more reminiscent of Mars, though the rocks are not shaped like the usual volcanic and impact debris we see on the Martian plains.

[Roby72]

Cody, what did you mean with triplets ? Image mosaics ? where could it found ?

[SFJCody]

Click on the link above.

[azstrummer]

Wow, quite a hazy trip down it appears. Some of those views in the triplets could easily be delta areas on the Earth.

[David]

Triplets posted!

Is number 671, top, a view from low altitude looking across the channels toward the horizon? That's the impression I get. If so, I should like to see it with a bit of enhancement -- it should be very interesting.

Cody, what did you mean with triplets ? Image mosaics ? where could it found ?

Just click on the word "Triplets".

[YesRushGen]

HOLY COW.

I'm completely speechless with the few images we have so far. We need a longer duration mission to Titan. NOW!!!

I'm guessing it will not take the scientists very long to start lobbying for one.

Anyhow, once these images are processed, and Huygens' position is determined accurately, will we be able to Have Cassini reimage the landing area in high resolution so that we can correlate ground truth with Cassini's observations? Doing so would allow better inferences about OTHER areas that Cassini observes.

[volcanopele]

wow, I just got back from looking at those

Certainly fluids had a hand in this terrain and we landed in material best described as creme broule (I know I misspelled that)

[David]

HOLY COW.

I'm completely speechless with the few images we have so far. We need a longer duration mission to Titan. NOW!!!

I shan't be satisfied with anything less than a half-dozen orbiters and two or three rovers.

Seriously, it's going to be tough lobbying for another Titan lander though we clearly need one. At the press conference they were saying that they don't expect to see another one in their lifetimes (and those guys aren't that much older than me! ). This is going to have to be very, very carefully packaged and sold, and unfortunately has to compete with better-funded and flashier programs.

[SFJCody]

Compare these...







[The one in the centre]