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[op_ivy]

 

[gofreak]

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMBQO71Y3E_index_1.html
Why does a link named "HI-RES JPG" give me a pic with a resolution of 300 x 215 pixels?




?
Does the transmission work like a 56k modem, making the resolution better and better?

With most of these expeditions, first pics tend to have no-colour, be lacking in resolution etc. Not sure what the explanation for that is, but hopefully we'll have larger pics with colour later.

 

[B-B-Bomba!]

Thanks Darien. Sounds pretty mad, but I'll take your word on not bothering. Kubricks 2001 is a personal favourite.

 

[fallout]

With most of these expeditions, first pics tend to have no-colour, be lacking in resolution etc. Not sure what the explanation for that is, but hopefully we'll have larger pics with colour later.

I believe the bandwidth is the limiting factor (coupled with battery life). Since they can only transmit so much, purdy pictures for the press are kind of low on the list, next to things like scientific data.

 

[Diffense]

Titan is cool but when are we landing on Io!?

 

[fallout]

Here's a collection of all the raw data images.

 

[Templar Wizard]

a few more days and we will have the full gallery.
some great stuff so far...

 

[gofreak]

First colour image:

Other pics from the descent:

There's a 360 panoramic view from the descent here:

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/cassini_huygens/huygens_land/Picture3.jpg

CNN has speculation/description here:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/01/15/titan.images.ap/index.html

Saturn's moon Titan looks orange -- at least that's what the first refined photo from the Huygens space probe shows.

The pale orange surface is covered by a thin haze of methane and what appears to be a methane sea complete with islands and a mist-shrouded coastline.

 

[Koshiro]

That "first colour image" is FALSE colour, as said by the ESA themselves. I'm not sure how the media has gotten the idea it's true colour at all.

 

[MrPing1000]

OMG THERES A DEAD PACMAN BOTTOM LEFT!

 

[Saturnman]

It looks like... Mars. :lol

 

[gofreak]

That "first colour image" is FALSE colour, as said by the ESA themselves. I'm not sure how the media has gotten the idea it's true colour at all.

It's not exactly the colour your eye would see, but some reports do mention that (and some don't as you rightly say). Hopefully we'll get absolutely "true" colour representations soon.

 

[jett]

It looks like... Mars. :lol

Really...that's disappoiting. I thought it was really going to look "otherwordly" or something. I thought I had read it was an icy planet of sorts...

 

[Phoenix]

Really...that's disappoiting. I thought it was really going to look "otherwordly" or something. I thought I had read it was an icy planet of sorts...

There are seas of liquid methane if I understand the readings correctly so this actually looks earth-like (in a way) with beaches being swept with liquid methane.

 

[Desperado]

yeah this looks an awful lot like an earthen coast

 

[Naked Snake]

So the entire place smells like fart?

 

[fallout]

It looks like... Mars.

Heh, you just reminded me of this post over at /.'s poll of the day.

Every place we've landed has rocks.

When we finally get around to landing on Europa (despite the warnings, I know), you know what I think we'll find?

Rocks.

And maybe a little bit of ice. But rocks for sure.

 

[jett]

Science fiction has spoiled me.

 

[gofreak]

It'll be cool if we get a closer look at this liquid, just to see a lake, or river, or sea or whatever on another world. We've never seen liquid like that on another planet before.

edit:

You can listen to what the descent sounded like here (they had microphones on board to record) - just sounds static-y and windy etc: http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/huygens_alien_winds_descent.mp3

 

[Saturnman]

Heh, you just reminded me of this post over at /.'s poll of the day.

The problem, especially the Martian missions, is that they send the probes to particularly flat areas (making lander easier, I know). Mars has poles, canyons and gigantic mountains, the view must be much more interesting over there.

 

[Diffense]

High concentration of methane makes the atmospheres of uranus and neptune blue. So would liquid menthane appear blue? Would be funny to see blue seas on another world.

 

[The Shadow]

It's not exactly the colour your eye would see, but some reports do mention that (and some don't as you rightly say). Hopefully we'll get absolutely "true" colour representations soon.

Probably not. The problem with those probes is that they tend to add extra data like infrared and ultraviolet. They generally don't release images without that extra data. People usually have to color correct in photoshop or some other program to get an image that's closer to how it would look to the naked eye.

 

[Teza]

Given that most people are interested in Titan's seas (which they might compare with the primordial liquid 'soup' on Earth billions of years ago), a liquid landing would have been more useful.

Should we even be expecting high-resolution images, btw? I thought the probe was only sending back a couple of floppy disks worth of data.

 

[gofreak]

Should we even be expecting high-resolution images, btw? I thought the probe was only sending back a couple of floppy disks worth of data.

I read somewhere that there will be high resolution pics later. It was only one article though, don't know where they were getting their info from. There's about 350 pics alone, so either way, that's more than a couple of floppy disks worth of data..

 

[Teza]

I read somewhere that there will be high resolution pics later. It was only one article though, don't know where they were getting their info from. There's about 350 pics alone, so either way, that's more than a couple of floppy disks worth of data..

Well, I read this on the BBC:

"We might even have three floppy disks now," said Professor Zarnecki, referring to the previous assumption that the SSP would only collect enough data to fill a floppy disk.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4175099.stm

But I dunno whether the 'SSP' (surface science package) data accounts for all the images/measurements that the probe took....

 

[gofreak]

Well, I read this on the BBC:

"We might even have three floppy disks now," said Professor Zarnecki, referring to the previous assumption that the SSP would only collect enough data to fill a floppy disk.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4175099.stm

But I dunno whether the 'SSP' (surface science package) data accounts for all the images/measurements that the probe took....

No, it doesn't, it's just from one of the instruments, designed to take measurments re. the surface when the probe landed. They were only expecting a floppy, or whatever, because the batteries were expected to die very quickly, but they lasted much longer than expected, presumably allowing that instrument to work for longer and send more data. The rest of the data is seperate, I've no idea how much was sent from the probe in total.

 

[fallout]

Given that most people are interested in Titan's seas (which they might compare with the primordial liquid 'soup' on Earth billions of years ago), a liquid landing would have been more useful.

You have to remember that hey had absolutely no idea where this thing was going to touch down, if it was even going to touch down at all. The seas were merely hypothesized. With a melting point of around -180C, which is around the average temperature of Titan, it would make sense. But again, it was just speculation though.

The problem, especially the Martian missions, is that they send the probes to particularly flat areas (making lander easier, I know). Mars has poles, canyons and gigantic mountains, the view must be much more interesting over there.

Yeah, they had similar problems with the moon landings too. Only the last two had any scientific value IIRC.

 

[Teza]

No, it doesn't, it's just from one of the instruments, designed to take measurments re. the surface when the probe landed. They were only expecting a floppy, or whatever, because the batteries were expected to die very quickly, but they lasted much longer than expected, presumably allowing that instrument to work for longer and send more data. The rest of the data is seperate, I've no idea how much was sent from the probe in total.

Oh right. Cool ... I look forward to the high-resolution shots, then. The images thus far have been somewhat underwhelming - in my (admittedly ignorant) opinion.

You have to remember that hey had absolutely no idea where this thing was going to touch down, if it was even going to touch down at all. The seas were merely hypothesized. With a melting point of around -180C, which is around the average temperature of Titan, it would make sense. But again, it was just speculation though.

Yeah, it was ultimately speculation, but a strong enough possibility that they built Huygens to handle a liquid landing. Could they not have factored Titan's revolution into the equation and aimed for the darker areas? Maybe this wasn't feasible before Cassini's launch, but what about when it was closer to Titan?

 

[AssMan]

So can we expect some kind of alien lifeform since there seems to be some kind of ocean-like environments on Titan?

 

[Saturnman]

That ocean is at minus 170 C...

 

[Socreges]

I don't understand. How come there have been so few pictures released? Shouldn't there be more from the air?

That ocean is at minus 170 C...

I see. So, we're looking at some penguin-type creatures then?

 

[Phoenix]

That ocean is at minus 170 C...

If life on earth has taught us anything, life tends to exist in places that just defy reason.

 

[LakeEarth]

If life on earth has taught us anything, life tends to exist in places that just defy reason.

Exactly. They thought no living beings existed at the bottom of the ocean. Too much pressure, no light, it makes sense. However, all it took was a collecting device and a 10000 ft long string to prove that wrong. Titan will be much more difficult... I don't know how anything could live at -170°C, but sometimes nature finds a way.

 

[Ford Prefect]

To say that the series spirals hoplessly out of control after 2010 is an understatement. Don't read any of it...really.

Crap, are you serious? I just finished 2010 and loved it (the film was utter trash, though)... was damn ready to plunge right into 2061 or whatever the hell it was.

And the message to Earth was just a fair warning; the end of the book gave evidence that any attempts to to land on Europa (which were certainly made) were countered by laser shot to the effing face.

 

[xabre]

Re: Life

-70C = Very, very remote chance
-170C = Not a chance in hell.

 

[Hitokage]

Well, the conditions that living organisms can evolve to occupy is a different subject than the conditions necessary for life to begin. Of course, life doesn't need to take the exact same chemical form as it does on Earth.

 

[Jak140]

I don't know how anything could live at -170°C, but sometimes nature finds a way.

 

[fallout]

Yeah, it was ultimately speculation, but a strong enough possibility that they built Huygens to handle a liquid landing. Could they not have factored Titan's revolution into the equation and aimed for the darker areas? Maybe this wasn't feasible before Cassini's launch, but what about when it was closer to Titan?

Lots of problems here.

One, while a liquid landing would have been cool, I don't know how much science would have been derived from it. Most of what they care about has nothing to do with the pictures. They can get a lot more information out of the instrumentation. Yes, pictures are important, but that's not the main reason why they went there.

Two, you're referring to Titan's revolution, which I don't think matters in this. The moon is covered in gas. We know it's composition through analyzing spectrum lines and such (avoiding technical details here because it's a Sunday morning and I'll probably get them wrong). So really, there are no "darker areas" to shoot for. I'm really assuming that you're not talking about the descent, because equipping the probe with some kind of lateral thrusters or whatever would just be ridiculous, because you'd have to program it to detect where it was going.

Three, making any major software changes for a guess would be pointlessly dangerous. And while they can correct things that are wrong from Earth, I don't know how much they can actually change anyway.

 

[belgurdo]

Titan will be much more difficult... I don't know how anything could live at -170°C, but sometimes nature finds a way.

And when it swims up to the surface, bonds with our space probe, flies back to Earth, and attacks us all...that's when we worry

 

[MrPing1000]

So the entire place smells like fart?

:lol

 

[Diffense]

If scientists can't even arrange for life to arise from chemicals under contrived laboratory conditions I doubt it's going to happen randomly at -170 degree temperatures. I wonder what's the rate of reaction when molecules are made indolent by such extreme cold?

Although I always enjoy viewing the info that comes back when these probes visit other planets/satellites it just underscores how far more interesting earth is compared to anywhere else in the solar system. Sure, some other places are weird but our planet is ALIVE!