[X] My Assistant

[alan]

Solar system simulator shows an encouter under 500,000 km on June 6. Will there be a good view of the south pole on this pass?

[volcanopele]

Funny you should ask:

http://volcanopele.blogspot.com/2005/06/re...encounters.html

The answer is yes, we will, weather-permitting, get a good look at the south polar region.

[Decepticon]

http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/wspace?t...porbs=1&brite=1

[volcanopele]

Images from yesterday are on the ground and are showing up as "existing" on the JPL Raw images page, but the images themselves aren't there. We have two more image sequences scheduled for today and tomorrow so higher resolution stuff to come.

Images so far are looking good though...

[tedstryk]

Images from yesterday are on the ground and are showing up as "existing" on the JPL Raw images page, but the images themselves aren't there.  We have two more image sequences scheduled for today and tomorrow so higher resolution stuff to come.

Images so far are looking good though...

They are posted! Check out this one - it is part of a great multispectral image set of Titan!

[dilo]

Let's start with a approach animation:
http://img151.echo.cx/img151/155/approach4ry.gif
then a false color enhanced image using MT3,B3 and UV filters:

notice the famous "Odd Spot" near the center of image...

[edstrick]

I grabbed the last of the Rev 009 Titan full frame pics with the best surface visibility from the raw images site and ran a couple bandpass-filter enhancements on it to bring out details.

Attached are 3 files, the original raw image, as usual with Titan, enough to make me want to clean my glasses.

The XXXX_e.jpg enhancement used a 81 pixel max filter size and an anlysis box covering the disk but not much of the limb to bring out fine scale disk details. Of course, it brings out in horrific detail the JPG artifacts in the online image, but not much I can do about that. These views will clearly provide the best overall view of Xanthe we've gotten so far. The "Smile" which is the southern boundary of the 5 micrometer wavelength redspot is clearly only a half circle, with no trace of continuity to the north (north is at about 55:00 clock angle).

The XXXX_e2.jpg image was enhanced with a 27 pixel max filter size and an analysis box including the entire limb. Much interesting detail is visible in limb haze layering. The north polar haze cap is beyond the limb at 5:00 clock angle, while a detached haze layer seems to be present from the equator (2:00 to 6:00) and somewhat north, but not at mid northern limb latitudes. This layer disappears at 1:00 and 7:00, though a sharp lower limb haze is visible at 7:00 which disappears at 8:00 clock angle. Further south, at 9:00 and 12:00 clock angles, a detached limb haze again becomes visible, and it TAPERS southward, becomming more visibly detached from the lower limb haze or whatever, disappearing in the 10:00 to 11:00 clock angle of the image at the southernmost latitudes.

Lot of structure in the limb hazes with latitude that will bear analysis.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[dvandorn]

...The "Smile" which is the southern boundary of the 5 micrometer wavelength redspot is clearly only a half circle, with no trace of continuity to the north (north is at about 55:00 clock angle).

Looks like an impact crater that's been half-covered (or half-erased) by some process(es) yet unknown. But the half that remains really has the classic form of a crater.

Of course, that's just what it looks like to me. Could be a bunch of things. But impacts are one of the few ways (and by far and away the most common way) in which nature makes such big circular features, and the half that we see looks like a perfect half-circle.

Now, if it *is* an impact crater, and the northern half has bene submerged or overridden by some resurfacing process, maybe it's the resurfacing process, and not the remnant crater form, that's causing the redspot. The crater wall might just be controlling the extent of the redspot "condition" geographically -- for example, if there's a cryovolcanic "flow" encroaching into a crater, gasses emitted at the flow front could continue along the same direction, hit the far crater wall, and be ducted upwards into an upwelling that results in the redspot condition we're seeing.

-the other Doug

[edstrick]

The sharpness and high contrast of the Smile with it's surroundings suggests youngness. But then it totally stops and what appears entirely unrelated light and dark markings cover where it' s northern half would be. I have a strong feeling ... mentally putting odds of 70:30 on it's NOT being a crater. We just can't tell yet.

[Decepticon]

Wow ! Lots more.

http://saturn1.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/ima...heQ=0&storedQ=0

[volcanopele]

Very nice! Looks like a pin-wheel at the south pole.

[tedstryk]

Looks like some terminator shadows, whether in the clouds or on the surface.
http://saturn1.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/ima...1/W00007189.jpg
http://saturn1.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/ima...1/N00035096.jpg

[volcanopele]

I think those are just surface markings. Those we can match up to T0 features appear to be consistent, despite the change in illumination angle.

[tedstryk]

Here is an enhancement....I can't wait to see a non-jpeged processing of this image and those like it!

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[volcanopele]

I'm working on these as I type