Cassini Peeks Below Cloud Shroud Around Titan

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Carolina Martinez (818) 354-9382
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Don Savage (202) 358-1727
NASA Headquarters, Washington

News Release: 2004-264 October 27, 2004

Cassini Peeks Below Cloud Shroud Around Titan

Early analysis of images and other data captured during last
night's close flyby of Saturn's moon Titan by the Cassini
spacecraft reveals greater surface detail than ever before
and shows that Titan has lost much of its original
atmosphere over time.

"Titan has incredible diversity," said Dr. Dennis Matson,
project scientist for the Cassini-Huygens mission at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We are glad
that we have a full complement of instruments on this
spacecraft because it is going to take all of them to reveal
the story of Titan."

Pictures from the imaging cameras and the visual and
infrared mapping spectrometer show a complex interplay
between dark and bright material on Titan's surface. The
surface appears to have been shaped by multiple geologic
processes. Although a few circular features can be seen,
none can be definitively identified as impact craters.

"We are seeing features and patterns on the surface, and
there are processes creating these patterns, and that gives
us something to chew on for a while," said Dr. Carolyn
Porco, team leader for the imaging team, Space Science
Institute, Boulder, Colo. "We can't figure out what the
features are, but they are intriguing. This is an
environment we have never seen before. It is a very
different place and it will take some time to unravel and
piece it all together."

Cassini scientists were intrigued that the spacecraft's ion
and neutral mass spectrometer found that Titan's atmosphere
has more of the heavy isotope of nitrogen, compared to the
lighter form. They believe that when nitrogen molecules
rose to the top of the atmosphere, the lighter form was
swept away with greater efficiency than the heavier form.

Eleven of Cassini's 12 instruments were on during the flyby.
Ten instruments returned data successfully. Engineers are
working on a software glitch that caused the composite
infrared spectrometer to malfunction. The team is confident
that subsequent flybys of Titan will allow them to collect
any data not gathered last night.

Cassini swooped down to within 1,174 kilometers (730 miles)
of Titan during the close encounter. During the flyby,
ground controllers were not in contact with the spacecraft,
because it was turned away from Earth to make its
observations. The signal was re-acquired as expected at
9:25 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time yesterday (6:25 p.m. Pacific
Daylight Time).

Titan holds great fascination because it is the only known
moon in the solar system to have an atmosphere. That murky
atmosphere may be similar to that which existed on Earth
before life formed. Cassini will become a frequent visitor
to Titan, with 44 more targeted flybys planned during the
mission. In addition, its piggybacked Huygens probe, built
and managed by the European Space Agency, will be released
on Christmas Eve for a descent into Titan's atmosphere.

"A major goal of this flyby was to measure the properties of
Titan's atmosphere to see if our models to simulate the
Huygens entry and descent are accurate, and to assess the
feasibility of subsequent flybys at the 950 kilometer
altitude [590 miles]," said Dr. Earl Maize, Cassini deputy
program manager at JPL. "Preliminary data from last night's
flyby are consistent with current predictions."

More information on the Cassini-Huygens mission is available
at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and
http://www.nasa.gov/cassini .

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of
NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space
Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the
Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate, Washington, D.C.
###

In sci.astro Ron wrote:

....snip...

Titan holds great fascination because it is the only known
moon in the solar system to have an atmosphere.

Ah, would that we could stop this before it gets repeated any further
than has already happened. It's not like JPL folks are unaware that
their own lab ran Voyager 2 as it mapped the winds on Triton...
(even if you don't count the half-atmospheres like Ganymede,
which would be fair enough for a press release).

Bill Keel

"WCK" == William C Keel writes:

WCK In sci.astro Ron wrote: ...snip...
Titan holds great fascination because it is the only known moon in
the solar system to have an atmosphere.

WCK Ah, would that we could stop this before it gets repeated any
WCK further than has already happened. It's not like JPL folks are
WCK unaware that their own lab ran Voyager 2 as it mapped the winds
WCK on Triton... (...).

It gets even better. I think I heard a reporter say that Titan was
the only other body in the solar system, other than the Earth, to have
an atmosphere.

--
Lt. Lazio, HTML police | e-mail:
No means no, stop rape. | http://patriot.net/%7Ejlazio/
sci.astro FAQ at http://sciastro.astronomy.net/sci.astro.html

So where is the cat in the picture? I assume that the triangular
black patch to the left of the white patch in the middle is the
cat's head, with the two upper corners being its ears. Right?

Joseph Lazio wrote:

"WCK" == William C Keel writes:

WCK In sci.astro Ron wrote: ...snip...
Titan holds great fascination because it is the only known moon in
the solar system to have an atmosphere.

WCK Ah, would that we could stop this before it gets repeated any
WCK further than has already happened. It's not like JPL folks are
WCK unaware that their own lab ran Voyager 2 as it mapped the winds
WCK on Triton... (...).

It gets even better. I think I heard a reporter say that Titan was
the only other body in the solar system, other than the Earth, to have
an atmosphere.

Titan is the only other body in the solar system where a human could
stay on the surface without needing a pressure suit.

--
http://www.geocities.com/carla_sch/index.html

On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 07:55:57 GMT, Lewis Mammel
wrote:



So where is the cat in the picture? I assume that the triangular
black patch to the left of the white patch in the middle is the
cat's head, with the two upper corners being its ears. Right?


Schroedinger's cat said to tell you "meow!"






--
Dr.Postman USPS, MBMC, BsD; "Disgruntled, But Unarmed"
Member,Board of Directors, afa-b, SKEP-TI-CULT® #15-51506-253.
AFA-B Official Pollster & Hammer of Thor winner - August 2004
You can email me at: DrPostman(at)gmail.com

"Again, think type and _them_ make sure that your babble is understood in
the common ENGLISH language."
-ExcrementOne displays his familiarity with irony

DrPostman wrote:

On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 07:55:57 GMT, Lewis Mammel
wrote:



So where is the cat in the picture? I assume that the triangular
black patch to the left of the white patch in the middle is the
cat's head, with the two upper corners being its ears. Right?

Schroedinger's cat said to tell you "meow!"

Be that as it may, did you see the cat in the Titan picture?
I believe it's still at the head of the list on the Cassini-Huygens
home page.

Anybody?

Lew Mammel, Jr.

"Lewis Mammel" wrote in message
...


DrPostman wrote:

On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 07:55:57 GMT, Lewis Mammel
wrote:



So where is the cat in the picture? I assume that the triangular
black patch to the left of the white patch in the middle is the
cat's head, with the two upper corners being its ears. Right?

Schroedinger's cat said to tell you "meow!"

Be that as it may, did you see the cat in the Titan picture?
I believe it's still at the head of the list on the Cassini-Huygens
home page.

I'm just waiting for Hoaxland to claim it's an artificial structure showing
Bast, the Egyptian Cat goddess..

Be that as it may, did you see the cat in the Titan picture?
I believe it's still at the head of the list on the Cassini-Huygens
home page.

Anybody?

Sort of. Two of the triangular sub-regions are cat ears,
and the third the cat's nose. Which of the two end triangles
the nose is is up for debate. In any event, there's no real
cat there. It's just the human brain looking for familar
features in a strange area. We evolved to react to possible
predators hiding in trees, and a few false alarms are
preferred to missing a real predator. It's just a "isn't
that cute" soundbite of no consequence.