Lakes in the limelight, the 2013 image bonanza continues |
Lakes in the limelight, the 2013 image bonanza continues |
Sep 24 2013, 07:46 AM
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#16
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Member Group: Members Posts: 708 Joined: 1-April 08 From: Minnesota ! Member No.: 4081 |
"Here is an image from a few days earlier that I like because it shows almost the whole of Titan's northern lake province now in daylight. (It's one of many that are ripe for stacking and other clever stuff.)"
Agree the earlier views of the N polar lakes are striking. The September 6th images stand in stark contrast to those of Sept 2009 when plenty of tropospheric clouds appeared over the N polar lakes and seas (figure on left). The apparent lack of clouds raise questions as to 1) whether the clouds are seasonal-atmospheric phenomena and not much influenced by the lakes presence or 2) whether the lake/sea composition and minimal seasonal winds at this time are less conducive for cloud formation. The color composite images and the upper haze layers (seen in the UV3 filter) are also awesome (figure on the right). |
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Sep 26 2013, 06:11 PM
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#17
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
One late arrival - some smallish lakes from fairly close in. Is that MacKay lacus at the bottom left?
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...0/N00217222.jpg |
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Oct 15 2013, 09:55 PM
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#18
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
Another family portrait of Titan's great lakes, clockwise from top: Kraken, Jingpo, Punga, Ligeia.
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...0/N00217414.jpg |
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Oct 16 2013, 08:06 PM
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#19
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Lord Of The Uranian Rings Group: Members Posts: 798 Joined: 18-July 05 From: Plymouth, UK Member No.: 437 |
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Oct 16 2013, 09:04 PM
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#20
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
Beautiful! I was really hoping someone would do that, so my hearty thanks.
There's one area in these new views that I'm finding hard to reconcile with the earlier ISS views of the lakes. It's the area on the eastern side of Kraken Mare that in the first images resembled the foot of Italy. Looking at it now Italy appears to have curled up its toe! Here's the older view: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...Kraken_mare.jpg |
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Oct 23 2013, 02:04 AM
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#21
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Member Group: Members Posts: 708 Joined: 1-April 08 From: Minnesota ! Member No.: 4081 |
I've added a Sept 2013 image (bottom of composite figure below) of Kraken. The "toe of Italy" is about the same stage of 'falling off' as best I can tell and there hasn't been major changes from 2007. Perhaps with the ground surrounding the lake and seas saturated with methane and/or ethane http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2443...s-on-titan.html big changes are not expected.
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Oct 23 2013, 12:48 PM
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#22
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
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Oct 23 2013, 07:25 PM
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#23
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3241 Joined: 11-February 04 From: Tucson, AZ Member No.: 23 |
I can finally show off our versions of these mosaics:
T92 MONITORNA001: http://www.ciclops.org/view/7730/Dark-Lake...right-Landscape T93 MONITORNA001: http://www.ciclops.org/view/7731/Titans-No...The-Big-Picture T94 REGMAP001: http://www.ciclops.org/view/7732/Birds-Eye...e-Land-of-Lakes T94 VIMS HIRES: http://www.ciclops.org/view/7733/Titans-No...akes-Salt-Flats -------------------- &@^^!% Jim! I'm a geologist, not a physicist!
The Gish Bar Times - A Blog all about Jupiter's Moon Io |
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Oct 23 2013, 09:14 PM
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#24
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
What a bountiful harvest of wonderful views!!! There is unprecedented detail (I think) in the ISS products and the spectacular VIMS release is particularly welcome. We had evidence of a light fringe around Kraken Mare before but now we see the full extent of these possible evaporite deposits. I'm a bit surprised that the greenish background on the VIMS mosaic is described as water ice. I thought exposed water ice was rather rare on Titan.
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Oct 23 2013, 09:22 PM
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#25
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Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5172 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454 |
I think I had a conversation with somebody about that at DPS -- that there's a new calibration of VIMS data that has changed the apparent relative brightness of the surface in two windows that suddenly make water ice a possibility for that surface. I think. I better go check that with somebody. Is Jason Barnes still hanging around here?
-------------------- My website - My Patreon - @elakdawalla on Twitter - Please support unmannedspaceflight.com by donating here.
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Oct 23 2013, 09:34 PM
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#26
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
Such a reinterpretation would make sense. I think the Huygens team has always maintained that the pebbles on the surface are probably water ice. It would be good to know, one way or the other.
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Oct 23 2013, 09:36 PM
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#27
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Lord Of The Uranian Rings Group: Members Posts: 798 Joined: 18-July 05 From: Plymouth, UK Member No.: 437 |
Fantastic work Jason!
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Oct 23 2013, 10:00 PM
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#28
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Member Group: Members Posts: 131 Joined: 30-August 06 From: Moscow, Idaho Member No.: 1086 |
I think I had a conversation with somebody about that at DPS -- that there's a new calibration of VIMS data that has changed the apparent relative brightness of the surface in two windows that suddenly make water ice a possibility for that surface. I think. I better go check that with somebody. Is Jason Barnes still hanging around here? I've been lurking recently, but I show up every once in a while The greenish stuff is probably more icy than the evaporites, for sure, but isn't pure water ice, even with the 2.7/2.8 micron correction that I talked about at DPS. But it's got SOME ice, while the evaporites have none. Note that the press release was simplified from what I would have written; I don't get to have them be rigorous enough for this crowd always - VIMS Jason |
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Oct 24 2013, 06:21 PM
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#29
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Rover Driver Group: Members Posts: 1015 Joined: 4-March 04 Member No.: 47 |
There was an interesting talk by Pascal Rannou at EPSC ( http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPS...PSC2013-459.pdf - although the abstract doesn't mention results yet), showing a very nice fit to the DISR data with a combination of water ice and fractal haze particles. Apparently it shows a water ice feature at 1.5 micron.
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Oct 24 2013, 07:45 PM
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#30
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Member Group: Members Posts: 131 Joined: 30-August 06 From: Moscow, Idaho Member No.: 1086 |
The greenish stuff is probably more icy than the evaporites, for sure, but isn't pure water ice, even with the 2.7/2.8 micron correction that I talked about at DPS. Speaking of which, the paper associated with that talk is just now out in ApJ, here's a link to the copy on my website. - VIMS Jason |
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