Posted by Davin Flateau on 1 Feb 2005 at 4:06 am.
Filed under General, Astronomy.
Wow! It’s amazing to think that we’d ever get such detailed images of a solar system body so distant, yet so exotic.
Saturn’s moon Titan is the solar system’s second largest moon, and has a thick atmosphere teaming with organic compounds. The Cassini spacecraft, in orbit around Saturn almost 1 billion miles from the earth, launched its Huygens probe toward Titan on Christmas Day. On January 14, the probe parachted into the thick haze of Titan, giving us our first closeup views of this mysterious world. From the European Space Agency:
(Click this image for a larger view)
“This is one of the first raw images returned by the ESA Huygens probe during its successful descent. It was taken from an altitude of 16.2 kilometres with a resolution of approximately 40 metres per pixel. It apparently shows short, stubby drainage channels leading to a shoreline.”
dflateau on 8 Feb 2005 at 9:55 am: 1
That is amazing!
dflateau on 8 Feb 2005 at 3:40 pm: 2
It looks like New Orleans!
Yaya on 10 Feb 2005 at 1:00 pm: 3
I can’t believe that.