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Astronomy Picture of the Day - Titan Touchdown: Huygens Descent Movie
NASA ^ | 19 Jan, 2025 | Video Credit: ESA, NASA, JPL, U. Arizona, E. Karkoschka

Posted on 01/19/2025 10:59:30 AM PST by MtnClimber

Explanation: What would it look like to land on Saturn's moon Titan? The European Space Agency's Huygens probe set down on the Solar System's cloudiest moon in 2005, and a time-lapse video of its descent images was created. Huygens separated from the robotic Cassini spacecraft soon after it achieved orbit around Saturn in late 2004 and began approaching Titan. For two hours after arriving, Huygens plummeted toward Titan's surface, recording at first only the shrouded moon's opaque atmosphere. The computerized truck-tire sized probe soon deployed a parachute to slow its descent, pierced the thick clouds, and began transmitting images of a strange surface far below never before seen in visible light. Landing in a dried sea and surviving for 90 minutes, Huygen's returned unique images of a strange plain of dark sandy soil strewn with smooth, bright, fist-sized rocks of ice.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa
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To: Telepathic Intruder

“The preponderance of atheists in science is pretty much a modern gatekeeping thing.”
You bring up some interesting thoughts, but you omit some.
Science is about discovery of the truth where ever it leads.
The Church you referred to silenced, sometimes violently
discoveries that on the face of them dispute the bible.
Bible is not a science text.
Our world was made in 7 of God’s days. Not ours.
God made the land, sun, and planted the seeds. They took millions of our years to grow. Can’t handle that observation?
FO.
There is no such thing as an Atheist in a war firefight.
That is human nature, you don’t agree, then you aren’t human


21 posted on 01/19/2025 12:43:42 PM PST by rellic (no such thing as a moderate Moslem or Democrat )
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To: MtnClimber

Thanks for posting, that was very interesting!


22 posted on 01/19/2025 12:51:59 PM PST by Inyo-Mono
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To: rellic

“There are no atheists in foxholes” I think is the adage you’re looking for. But as far as searching for the truth, science and religion are two different things. I sometimes compare it to Picasso’s paintings vs. Picasso himself. You can study his paintings, but apart from a few insights it would be a very clumsy way of trying to know Picasso himself.


23 posted on 01/19/2025 12:58:08 PM PST by Telepathic Intruder
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To: Telepathic Intruder

“There are no atheists in foxholes”
I changed the word Foxhole to “war firefight” because
most people don’t know what that
means in a war situation.
as I age I begin to see just how few Americans
(Thankfully) have ever been in the military.
Over half of my family were in the military or married into it.
I’m Vietnam era Vet, never went in country but in my job in the air force I was crawling over H bombs at age 18
BTW I also knew how to arm them.
So I will stay with war fighter, and leave leave foxholes to animal lovers( like me)


24 posted on 01/19/2025 1:34:20 PM PST by rellic (no such thing as a moderate Moslem or Democrat )
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To: going hot

I’ve often tried to imagine what Titan on fire might look like. Would it be visible in a telescope….


25 posted on 01/19/2025 2:59:44 PM PST by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: rellic

Amen to that.


26 posted on 01/19/2025 3:01:16 PM PST by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: rellic

Christianity equates truth with God. Christianity says God cannot lie.

It was Christianity’s worship of the truth, combined with the printing press, the reformation, and the renaissance which resulted in science and the scientific revolution.

In Islam, the dominant theology came to be that Allah can change the composition of past, present, and future, at will and will do so. Allah is also the “best” liar and deceiver.

Thus a search for laws of nature in Islam came to be regarded as foolish and futile.


27 posted on 01/19/2025 6:33:21 PM PST by marktwain
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To: telescope115
Titan is visible with a good pair of binocs when the moon is down.

If it were to "light up" likely would be seen without aid.

The trick is how to get sufficient O2 there.

Maybe mother Saturn has some in it's dirt, if it has dirt.

Above my pay grade!

28 posted on 01/19/2025 8:30:23 PM PST by going hot (Happiness is a Momma Deuce.)
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To: MtnClimber

Wow! Thanks! That was awesome.


29 posted on 01/19/2025 9:04:34 PM PST by Some Fat Guy in L.A. (Still bitterly clinging to rational thought despite its unfashionability)
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