Jacques van Oene
January 18th 05, 04:13 PM
N° 04-2005 - Paris, 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 11h13 CET on January 14 and landed safely on its frozen ground at 13h45
CET. 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 11h00 CET at ESA's Headquarters in Paris
(rebroadcast at several other ESA establishments). See the attached form.
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), from the University of Paris/Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, France,
Martin G. Tomasko
Principal Investigator for the Descent Imager and Spectral Radiometer
(DISR), from the University of Arizona in Tucson, United States,
John C. Zarnecki
Principal Investigator for the Surface Science Package (SSP), from the Open
University at Milton Keynes, United Kingdom,
Guy Israel
Principal Investigator for Aerosol Collector and Pyroliser (ACP), from CNRS,
Service d'Aéronomie, Verrières-le-Buisson, France
Toby Owen
Cassini Interdisciplinary Scientist for the atmospheres of Titan and Saturn,
from the 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.
--
--------------
Jacques :-)
www.spacepatches.info
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 11h13 CET on January 14 and landed safely on its frozen ground at 13h45
CET. 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 11h00 CET at ESA's Headquarters in Paris
(rebroadcast at several other ESA establishments). See the attached form.
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), from the University of Paris/Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, France,
Martin G. Tomasko
Principal Investigator for the Descent Imager and Spectral Radiometer
(DISR), from the University of Arizona in Tucson, United States,
John C. Zarnecki
Principal Investigator for the Surface Science Package (SSP), from the Open
University at Milton Keynes, United Kingdom,
Guy Israel
Principal Investigator for Aerosol Collector and Pyroliser (ACP), from CNRS,
Service d'Aéronomie, Verrières-le-Buisson, France
Toby Owen
Cassini Interdisciplinary Scientist for the atmospheres of Titan and Saturn,
from the 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.
--
--------------
Jacques :-)
www.spacepatches.info