WYikes... The bottom picture could easily be mistaken for earth. Reminds me of Newfoundland.
Posted on 01/14/2005 2:05:33 PM PST by JeffersonRepublic.com
DARMSTADT, Germany -- The first pictures revealing the surface of Saturn's moon, Titan, were shown from Europe's Huygens probe showing what look like drainage channels on the surface of what until today has been a planet totally hidden from view.
The first image, taken from an altitude of 16 kilometers, has a ground resolution of about 40 meters, said Martin Tomasko, principal investigator for Huygens' Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR). Tomasko said that Huygens research teams now have about 350 pictures to work with. [Scroll to the bottom of this story to see raw image files of the Titan descent taken by Huygens.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
It seems as if, it's a US probe that might have been sold to the Europeans.
Please explain what I'm missing.
It extends its pinkie while sipping wine?
It was planned, designed, built, tracked, and controlled by the Europeans. By the "has US equipment on board" standard, everything we send up is Japanese or Taiwanese.
I'm just assuming on this one, but we can probably add "paid for" to your list...i would say that is the deciding factor.
If it doesn't shave its legs or pits, you know for sure it's european.
The Cassini orbiter was built by the fine folks at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA/JPL). The Huygens probe is a product of the European Space Agency (ESA) and was built by Alcatel. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a joint effort. Think of the ESA probe as a relatively free bonus.
WYikes... The bottom picture could easily be mistaken for earth. Reminds me of Newfoundland.
From http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html
My understanding is out of the 18 instruments on the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft 14 are from NASA, not Europe, Japan or Taiwan. I hear Huygen is designed by Europe, but with the know how of NASA. In fact the data currently being reported is because of DISR (NASA).
Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) can take images and make spectral measurements using sensors covering a wide spectral range. A few hundred metres before impact, the instrument will switch on its lamp in order to acquire spectra of the surface material.
Creepy pic..
This moon looks alive. It's a great achievement for ESA and NASA. Maybe ESA can do it next time on their own without US taxpayers money.
That is why I chose the one where the probe is on the surface. It is hard to figure out what is what from the pictures taken during the descent.
Sadly the media hasn't mentioned what Casinni has been doing. While watching various news shows today (all broadcast, I have no cable) I was really impressed by how much the media ignores this kind of news. It struck me that the news producers are probably too ignorant to appreciate the significance of todays events. They are too into celebrity journalism. The MSM needs science advocacy elements like Jules Bergman and yes, dare I say it, Walter Concrete.
Truly amazing.
Looks like the New Jersey shore around Long Branch before all the damn humans moved in.
Looks like the Horta:
More info on Nasa TV now. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/ I'm still in my PJ's...lol.
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