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More of Titan's secrets to be unveiled on January 21 (Forwarded)



 
 
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Old January 18th 05, 06:44 PM
Andrew Yee
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Default More of Titan's secrets to be unveiled on January 21 (Forwarded)

European Space Agency
Press Release No. 4-2005
Paris, France 18 January 2005

More of Titan's secrets to be unveiled on January 21

One week after the successful completion of Huygens' mission to the atmosphere
and surface of Titan, the largest and most mysterious moon of Saturn, the
European Space Agency is bringing together some of the probe's scientists to
present and discuss the first results obtained from the data collected by the
instruments.

After a 4 billion kilometre journey through the Solar System that lasted almost
7 years, the Huygens probe plunged into the hazy atmosphere of Titan at 11:13
CET [1013 UTC] on January 14 and landed safely on its frozen ground at 13:45 CET
[1245 UTC]. It continued transmitting from the surface for several hours, even
after the Cassini orbiter dropped below the horizon and stopped recording the
data to relay them towards Earth. Cassini received excellent data from the
surface of Titan for 1 hour 12 minutes.

More than 474 megabits of data were received in 3 hours 44 minutes from Huygens,
including some 350 pictures collected during the descent and on the ground,
which revealed a landscape apparently modelled by erosion with drain channels,
shoreline-like features and even pebble-shaped objects on the surface.

The atmosphere was probed and sampled for analysis at altitudes from 160 km to
the ground, revealing a uniform mix of methane with nitrogen in the
stratosphere. Methane concentration increased steadily in the troposphere down
to the surface. Clouds of methane at about 20 km altitude and methane or ethane
fog near the surface were detected.

The probe's signal, monitored by a global network of radio telescopes on Earth,
will help reconstruct its actual trajectory with an accuracy of 1 km and will
provide data on Titan's winds. Early analysis of the received signal indicate
that Huygens was still transmitting after 3 hours on the surface. Later
recordings are being analysed to see how long Huygens kept transmitting from the
surface.

Samples of aerosols were also collected at altitudes between 125 and 20 km and
analysed onboard. During the descent, sounds were recorded in order to detect
possible distant thunder from lightning, providing an exciting acoustic backdrop
to Huygens's descent.

As the probe touched down at about 4.5 m/s, a whole series of instruments
provided a large amount of data on the texture of the surface, which resembles
wet sand or clay with a thin solid crust, and its composition, mainly a mix of
dirty water ice and hydrocarbon ice, resulting in a darker soil than expected.
The temperature measured at ground level was about -180 degrees Celsius.

Some stunning preliminary results were presented shortly after the science teams
obtained access to their data, on 15 January. After several days of processing
and analysis of these results, the scientists will be able to deliver a better
view of this strange distant world during a press conference on Friday 21
January at 11:00 CET at ESA's Headquarters in Paris (rebroadcast at several
other ESA establishments). See the attached form. [NOTE: Not attached - A.Y.]

Participating in this event:

David Southwood
ESA's Director of Science Programmes

Jean-Pierre Lebreton
ESA's Huygens Project Scientist and Mission Manager

Marcello Fulchignoni (TBC)
Principal Investigator for the Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument (HASI)
University of Paris/Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, France

Martin G. Tomasko
Principal Investigator for the Descent Imager and Spectral Radiometer (DISR)
University of Arizona, Tucson, United States

John C. Zarnecki
Principal Investigator for the Surface Science Package (SSP)
Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

Guy Israel
Principal Investigator for Aerosol Collector and Pyroliser (ACP)
CNRS, Service d'Aéronomie, Verrières-le-Buisson, France

Toby Owen
Cassini Interdisciplinary Scientist for the atmospheres of Titan and Saturn
Institute for Astronomy, Honolulu, United States

The ESA TV service will televise the press conference live via satellite
(Eutelsat W1). For transmission details, check
http://television.esa.int

NASA-TV will broadcast the press conference across the US and as partner in the
Cassini-Huygens mission ensure live streaming. For details, see:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperation between NASA, ESA and ASI, the
Italian space agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, is managing the mission for
NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington DC. JPL designed, developed and
assembled the Cassini orbiter.

Media representatives wishing to attend are kindly requested to complete the
attached accreditation form and return it, preferably by fax, to the ESA Media
Relations Division in Paris (Fax : +33(0)1.53.69.7690).

For further information, please contact:

ESA Media Relations Division
Tel.: +33(0)1.53.69.7155
Fax: +33(0)1.53.69.7690
 




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