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Scientists Find Huygens Probe Landing Site, Release New Animation of Titan



 
 
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  #1  
Old November 30th 05, 06:06 PM posted to sci.astro,alt.sci.planetary
external usenet poster
 
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Default Scientists Find Huygens Probe Landing Site, Release New Animation of Titan

SCIENTISTS FIND HUYGENS PROBE LANDING SITE,
RELEASE NEW ANIMATION OF TITAN
From Lori Stiles, UA, University Communications, 520-621-1877


------------------------------
Contact info at the end
-------------------------------

- Wednesday, November 30, 2005


Cassini/Huygens scientists have discovered exactly where on Saturn's
largest moon, Titan, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Huygens probe
landed
last January. Knowing the landing location will allow them to directly
compare data from Huygens with remote sensing data from NASA's Cassini
orbiter.

"Based on a truly project-wide collaboration among a number of members
of
the extended Cassini/Huygens community, we feel we are finally in a
position
to announce a definitive correlation between a section of radar data
taken
on the T8 (the Oct. 28, 2005 Titan flyby) and a DISR high-altitude
mosaic,"
Bashar Rizk of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
(LPL) and Steven Wall of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory told project
scientists earlier this month.

"DISR," or the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer, was the eyes for the
Huygens probe on its journey to Titan's surface on Jan. 14, 2005. The
Huygens landing was the most distant touchdown ever made by a
human-built
science probe. DISR took photographs during the probe's descent, and
those
photos show that Titan is more like the Earth than any other world seen
yet.
UA's Martin Tomasko, an LPL research professor, leads the international
DISR
team.

Expressed in Titan longitude and latitude, the Huygens probe landed
within
about 5 kilometers (1.4 miles) of 192.4 degrees west longitude (or
167.6
degrees east longitude) and minus 10.2 degrees south latitude, Rizk and
Wall
said. That's a mere 7 kilometers (4 miles) away from where
Cassini/Huygens
scientists predicted the probe would land, they noted.

Locating the landing site required the joint effort of members of the
radar, imaging, visual and infrared mapping spectrometer and DISR
teams, as
well as the essential participation of Larry Soderblom and Randy Kirk
of
U.S. Geological Survey astrogeology division in Flagstaff, Ariz., Rizk
and
Wall said.

The DISR team scientists analyzed landform features and albedo
(brightness)
patterns in both the radar and optical (DISR) images by making overlays
to
locate boundaries and match landform orientations and shapes. It took
considerable skill, patience and some luck.

"It's important that we know from an orbital perspective what kind of
terrain the Huygens probe landed in," Rizk said. "It allows us to
connect
what Huygens found in detail about a small patch of Titan's surface to
what
the orbiter is accumulating now. We had a pretty good notion of what
the
landing site was before, but connecting it with the radar data allowed
us to
use the magnificent, absolute knowledge of the location transferred
through
the Cassini orbiter."

Last week Rizk made a minute-long animation, Titan descent movie, from
images taken during the Huygens probe's two-and-one-half hour
alien-world
plunge. The animation is online at the DISR Website,
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/DISR/. Rizk created the animation from
Cassini
imaging, radar, and visual and infrared mapping spectrometer data as
well as
DISR data. It traces the actual descent profile that the probe took as
it
swung and spun east down to Titan's surface.

LPL Professor Jonathan I. Lunine presented the movie earlier today at
an
ESA press conference in Paris. "The combination of DISR and Cassini
remote
sensing data provide a tantalizing hint that the action of liquids
eroding
and shaping the landscape near the landing site is repeated elsewhere
in the
much larger region covered by the orbiter data," Lunine said.

The new Huygens descent animation starts at an altitude of 300 km
(about
186 miles) and moves eastward along the trajectory that the Huygens
probe
traveled on its journey to Titan's surface. Data from the imaging
system,
radar and the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer on the Cassini
orbiter are displayed in quick succession, followed by DISR mosaics
from
increasingly lower altitudes. The surface color is about what a human
observer riding on the probe would see if it were possible to see the
surface through Titan's atmospheric haze. The longitude and latitude
grid
lines are separated by 2 degrees. Near the end of its descent, the
probe
reversed direction, setting almost straight down until, finally, it
landed,
facing south on a dry lakebed strewn with ice cobbles.

Overall, the entire set of DISR observations from 150 kilometers (93
miles)
high in Titan's atmosphere through landing outlines the major role
methane
plays in shaping Titan's surface and controlling its meteorology, said
Bruno
Bezard of Observatoire de Paris, France, a co-investigator on DISR, at
the
ESA press conference.

DISR was enveloped in thick haze as soon as it began taking data at 150
kilometers (93 miles) altitude, Bezard said, and the haze reaches
undiminished all the way to the surface. The haze was so thick that
DISR's
three different cameras began discerning surface features only at about
55
kilometers (34 miles) altitude.

DISR scientists used the different camera views to reconstruct the
probe's
descent trajectory and measure wind velocities. At 50 kilometers high
(31
miles), 90 kph (60 mph) winds swept the probe eastward. But at about 7
kilometers altitude (4 miles), windspeed dropped to less than 3kph
(less
than 2 mph) and the winds changed direction. This may be a convective
region
where local winds disconnect from Titan's main jet-streams, the
scientists
said.

At 700 meters altitude (about 1/2 mile), DISR turned on a landing lamp
so
spectrometers could analyze light reflected from the near-surface
atmosphere
and the surface itself. The spectrometers measured five percent methane
in
Titan's mostly nitrogen atmosphere at 20 meters (66 feet) altitude.
That's
three times more methane than in Titan's stratosphere and confirms that
methane is condensing near Titan's surface, DISR scientists concluded.

The team had planned to measure light reflected from Titan's surface to
learn just what that surface is made of. The dark, frigid surface would
look
reddish to the human eye. It reflected no more than 15 percent to 20
percent
at infrared (longer-than-visible) light wavelengths. Light reflected
from
Titan's surface showed there are organic materials (carbon-and-hydrogen
containing compounds) and water ice, but also water ice laced with an
unknown constituent. Scientists will have to further analyze DISR data
and
organic materials manufactured in the laboratory to identify the
unknown
constituent.

But it's the DISR images of Titan's striking landscape that have
thrilled
millions of people worldwide. When DISR scientists assembled the
descent
images into panoramic mosaics, they saw bright, high terrain cut by
deep
channels and flat, darker, lower terrain that resembled a dried
lakebed. It
is Earth-like desert topography clearly marked by fluid flow.

"Titan's surface is shaped by winds, liquid and tectonic forces as on
Earth, but under exotic conditions and involving organic deposits as
well as
water ice," Lunine noted at the press conference.

There appear to be two types of channel networks. Steeply sloped main
drainage channels from 100 to 200 meters wide (about 300 to 650 feet)
and 50
to 100 meters deep (about 150 to 300 feet) branch through the bright
highlands. They are believed to have been cut by rapidly flowing rivers
of
liquid methane. A second type are the short, stubby channels that often
begin - or end - in dark circular areas. They are thought to be
spring-fed
channels.

One of DISR's most memorable images is the well-known view from Titan's
surface taken after landing. Fifteen-centimeter (six-inch) rounded
water-ice
cobbles lie scattered over a darker, fine-grained "ice gravel." It's
more
evidence for powerful erosion by flowing liquid.

The British science journal Nature will publish an issue on Huygens
probe
results, including an article on DISR results, on Dec. 8.

The Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan is a joint mission of
NASA,
the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). ESA
supplied and manages the Huygens probe that descended to Titan's
surface
Jan. 14, 2005. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for
NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. NASA funded the
Descent Imager-Spectral Radiometer, which was built by Lockheed Martin.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Contact Information
Bashar Rizk 520-621-1160
Jonathan I. Lunine +39-06-4993-4052 (in Italy)

Martin Tomasko 520-621-6969


Related Web sites
DISR -
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/DISR/
ESA - http://www.esa.int/
NASA - http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/
---------------------------------------------------------------

  #2  
Old November 30th 05, 08:12 PM posted to sci.astro,alt.sci.planetary
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Scientists Find Huygens Probe Landing Site, Release New Animation of Titan

In message .com,
writes
SCIENTISTS FIND HUYGENS PROBE LANDING SITE,
RELEASE NEW ANIMATION OF TITAN
From Lori Stiles, UA, University Communications, 520-621-1877



Last week Rizk made a minute-long animation, Titan descent movie, from
images taken during the Huygens probe's two-and-one-half hour
alien-world
plunge. The animation is online at the DISR Website,
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/DISR/. Rizk created the animation from
Cassini
imaging, radar, and visual and infrared mapping spectrometer data as
well as
DISR data. It traces the actual descent profile that the probe took as
it
swung and spun east down to Titan's surface.


I'm looking forward to seeing it, but is anyone else having problems
downloading it?
It keeps stopping and I have to restart. I'm using Mozilla 1.0.7
  #3  
Old November 30th 05, 08:51 PM posted to sci.astro,alt.sci.planetary
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Scientists Find Huygens Probe Landing Site, Release New Animation of Titan


"Jonathan Silverlight" wrote
in message ...
In message .com,
writes
SCIENTISTS FIND HUYGENS PROBE LANDING SITE,
RELEASE NEW ANIMATION OF TITAN
From Lori Stiles, UA, University Communications, 520-621-1877



Last week Rizk made a minute-long animation, Titan descent movie, from
images taken during the Huygens probe's two-and-one-half hour
alien-world
plunge. The animation is online at the DISR Website,
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/DISR/. Rizk created the animation from
Cassini
imaging, radar, and visual and infrared mapping spectrometer data as
well as
DISR data. It traces the actual descent profile that the probe took as
it
swung and spun east down to Titan's surface.


I'm looking forward to seeing it, but is anyone else having problems
downloading it?
It keeps stopping and I have to restart. I'm using Mozilla 1.0.7


It's nearly 300Mb. I downloaded it OK on one machine
using IE6 but got an error trying to play it I think
because it uses the latest version of AVI format than
the media player version I have on that machine.

George


  #4  
Old November 30th 05, 10:04 PM posted to sci.astro,alt.sci.planetary
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Scientists Find Huygens Probe Landing Site, Release New Animation of Titan

On a sunny day (Wed, 30 Nov 2005 19:12:28 +0000) it happened Jonathan
Silverlight wrote in
:

In message .com,
writes
SCIENTISTS FIND HUYGENS PROBE LANDING SITE,
RELEASE NEW ANIMATION OF TITAN
From Lori Stiles, UA, University Communications, 520-621-1877



Last week Rizk made a minute-long animation, Titan descent movie, from
images taken during the Huygens probe's two-and-one-half hour
alien-world
plunge. The animation is online at the DISR Website,
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/DISR/. Rizk created the animation from
Cassini
imaging, radar, and visual and infrared mapping spectrometer data as
well as
DISR data. It traces the actual descent profile that the probe took as
it
swung and spun east down to Titan's surface.


I'm looking forward to seeing it, but is anyone else having problems
downloading it?
It keeps stopping and I have to restart. I'm using Mozilla 1.0.7

mplayer says 'no video stream' and xine refuses to play it.
Crap file, stopped download.
  #5  
Old November 30th 05, 11:26 PM posted to sci.astro,alt.sci.planetary
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Scientists Find Huygens Probe Landing Site, Release New Animation of Titan

In message , George Dishman
writes

"Jonathan Silverlight" wrote
in message ...
In message .com,
writes
SCIENTISTS FIND HUYGENS PROBE LANDING SITE,
RELEASE NEW ANIMATION OF TITAN
From Lori Stiles, UA, University Communications, 520-621-1877


Last week Rizk made a minute-long animation, Titan descent movie, from
images taken during the Huygens probe's two-and-one-half hour
alien-world
plunge. The animation is online at the DISR Website,
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/DISR/. Rizk created the animation from
Cassini
imaging, radar, and visual and infrared mapping spectrometer data as
well as
DISR data. It traces the actual descent profile that the probe took as
it
swung and spun east down to Titan's surface.


I'm looking forward to seeing it, but is anyone else having problems
downloading it?
It keeps stopping and I have to restart. I'm using Mozilla 1.0.7


It's nearly 300Mb. I downloaded it OK on one machine
using IE6 but got an error trying to play it I think
because it uses the latest version of AVI format than
the media player version I have on that machine.


I haven't had to use a download manager since I got broadband, but I
eventually used Getright to make the process painless.
It plays on Realplayer 10.5, Windows Media Player 10, and BSPlayer 1.36,
if you want a free third party program.
Well worth it.
 




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