Cassini images mysterious Titan
Posted: Wed, Oct 27, 2004, 8:31 PM ET (0031 GMT)
Images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft as it flew past Saturn's largest moon, Titan, late Tuesday have raised as many questions about the giant satellite as they answered. Cassini passed within 1,200 kilometers of Titan on Tuesday, the closest approach by any spacecraft to the cloud-enshrouded moon. The first images returned by Cassini, taken at infrared wavelengths that can penetrate the clouds, showed a landscape of light and dark features and a notable absence of impact craters. Those images suggest some kind of tectonic processes are taking place to continually resurface the moon, but scientists have only enough data to speculate. Cassini will pass by Titan several more times during its mission around Saturn, and will deploy Huygens, a European-built probe, into Titan's atmosphere in January.
Images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft as it flew past Saturn's largest moon, Titan, late Tuesday have raised as many questions about the giant satellite as they answered. Cassini passed within 1,200 kilometers of Titan on Tuesday, the closest approach by any spacecraft to the cloud-enshrouded moon. The first images returned by Cassini, taken at infrared wavelengths that can penetrate the clouds, showed a landscape of light and dark features and a notable absence of impact craters. Those images suggest some kind of tectonic processes are taking place to continually resurface the moon, but scientists have only enough data to speculate. Cassini will pass by Titan several more times during its mission around Saturn, and will deploy Huygens, a European-built probe, into Titan's atmosphere in January.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
Space Force and NGA sign agreement on space-based intelligence
Posted: Sat, May 24 7:35 AM ET (1135 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Thursday, May 29
SpaceX Rivals React To Latest Starship Test Failure
Investor's Business Daily — 3:13 am ET (0713 GMT) After 9 SpaceX Starship launches, some have been more successful than others
Fox Business — 3:09 am ET (0709 GMT) SpaceX’s 9th Starship Flight Ends in Failure But Shows Big Progress
New York Observer — 3:09 am ET (0709 GMT) Italy set to lead in Europe’s space century, says EU Commissioner
Decode39 — 3:05 am ET (0705 GMT) Dark skies inspired Tim Peake's space wonder
BBC — 3:02 am ET (0702 GMT) |
