Huygens Office Pool Bets: Friday's Options

[Nereid]

Goop, slush, Titanic ooze-quicksand, ... a hint of a small rise (solid?) in the distance; no liquid.

Well, I got it partly right: "We know that two of the instruments recorded the impact and from those signatures it is looking like we landed in a surface that was neither hard solid nor liquid - something in between.[/color]" (http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Nw/huygens_results.asp)

 

[Janitor]

There is talk on the Internet of a "shoreline" in the descent images. Are the images sharp enough to determine if the lake is liquid? Or are there craters that would allow us to estimate how many hundreds of millions of years too late we are to catch the lake before it froze solid?

That the smoother regions tend to be darker may be an indication that the lake is not frozen, I suppose. Winds would deposit the lighter colored highland material onto a frozen surface, leaving a more uniform coloration. The frozen surface could be completely hidden in a few centuries, if Titan's atmosphere can transport dust with about the same efficiency as Earth's atmosphere can.

 

[cronxeh]

man.. why can't in my freaking lifetime a probe descent 1.2 billion km away from Earth and land on a huge alien city sort of a Times Square and take picture of aliens looking at it after it lands in the middle of a street

 

[Chronos]

Science = why, Engineering = how.

 

[Phobos]

For all those not impressed with Huygen's photos - - give them a little more time to process all the images. So far, we're mainly seeing the raw stuff.

 

[meteor]

Huge mosaic and all the raw images
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/index.html

This false color image seems the coast of Spain
http://uplink.space.com/attachments//129268-triplet.700.colorized.jpg

 

[japam]

data speed

BTW, do you know the data transfer speed between Huygens and Cassini?[/QUOTE]

s3nno6, acccording to http://www.planetary.org tha data transfer speed is 480 bits per second

 

[JesseM]

s3nno6, acccording to http://www.planetary.org tha data transfer speed is 480 bits per second

for comparison, what is the Mars rover data transfer speed?

 

[Entropy]

s3nno6, acccording to http://www.planetary.org tha data transfer speed is 480 bits per second

Damn! And I thought dial up was bad.

 

[Chronos]

That doesn't sound that bad. It's about the same speed as my dial-up connection.

 

[Entropy]

Are you sure? 56k, isn't that 56,000 bits per second?

 

[JesseM]

According to http://www.planetary.org/sounds/huygens.html says they're able to get a much higher bandwidth from the Mars rovers:

Engineers on the $820 million mission increased the rover Spirit's maximum data rate to 256,000 bits per second, using NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter as a martian relay satellite.

 

[meteor]

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMHB881Y3E_index_0.html

"The first scientific assessments of Huygens' data were presented during a press conference at ESA head office in Paris on 21 January."

"Geological evidence for precipitation, erosion, mechanical abrasion and other fluvial activity says that the physical processes shaping Titan are much the same as those shaping Earth."

"Images have shown a complex network of narrow drainage channels running from brighter highlands to lower, flatter, dark regions. These channels merge into river systems running into lakebeds featuring offshore 'islands' and 'shoals' remarkably similar to those on Earth"

"In addition, DISR surface images show small rounded pebbles in a dry riverbed. Spectra measurements (colour) are consistent with a composition of dirty water ice rather than silicate rocks."

"Huygens' data provide strong evidence for liquids flowing on Titan. However, the fluid involved is methane"

"Titan's rivers and lakes appear dry at the moment, but rain may have occurred not long ago."


So, no recommendable to go fishing to those rivers...if you don't like the taste of methane

 

[Orion1]

Titan Titration...

Saturn's largest moon apparently is lashed regularly by rain made of liquid methane, forming pools, cutting river beds and eroding rocks in much the same way that forces have shaped the Earth

Black-and-white photos from the Huygens probe show a rugged terrain of ridges, peaks, dark vein-like channels and apparently dry lakebeds on the moon 744 million miles away.

On Earth, methane is a flammable gas. On Titan, it is a liquid because of the intense pressure and cold -- 274 degrees below zero.

A sensor about the size of a police officer's nightstick on the front of Huygens probed beneath the moon's crust and found a material with the consistency of loose sand.

Channels on the surface are evidence of methane rain. There are also what appear to be river systems and deltas, frozen protrusions riddled by channels, apparent dried-out pools where liquid has perhaps drained away, and stones -- probably ice pebbles -- that seem to have been rounded by erosion.

The river beds are darkened by what seem to be particles of smog that fall out of Titan's atmosphere, coating the terrain. The dirt apparently gets washed off the ridges by the methane rain to collect in the river channels.

Scientists believe the dark smog particles are formed by Titan's methane breaking up in the atmosphere.

Lebreton, the mission manager, said a next possible step in Titan exploration would be to send mobile probes, perhaps balloons to float around before landing.

Reference:
http://www.harktheherald.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=45812&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0