Hubble Telescope Shows Giant View of Saturn

An anonymous reader writes "The giant planet, Saturn, offers the best Southern view of its spectacular rings only three times a century. The Hubble Space Telescope astronomers published this seasonal glimpse today, in infrared, ultraviolet and visible spectral bands. The Hubble also first penetrated the changing face of Saturn's biochemically rich moon, Titan, which will be the ambitious target of a landing mission - the Cassini-Huygens probe in 294 days (July 1, 2004). Because Titan changes both spatially and temporally based on observations of its atmosphere, speculation of what drives these variations derives from the moon's high content of methane and other organic building blocks."

No Uranus jokes?

[Lane.exe]

Fine then, take all my fun away!

I can't wait to see the results of the Cassini landing. Titan's been one of my favorite moons ever since junior high science. The presence of so many different chemicals that are found in few other places in the universe means its going to be an interesting experiment. Who knows what we'll learn?

Re:No Uranus jokes?

[bwhaley]

Titan's been one of my favorite moons ever since junior high science.

Man, a you have a favorite moon? And it has been the same since Jr. High?

I wonder how many wedgies you got...

Re:No Uranus jokes?

[VanillaCoke420]

One of my favourites was Io.

We're all methane on the inside.

[Ignis Flatus]

Because Titan changes both spatially and temporally based on observations of its atmosphere, speculation of what drives these variations derives from the moon's high content of methane and other organic building blocks."

I'm 78% methane, myself.

22% other.

Re:We're all methane on the inside.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think Im 65% alchhol myswelf.

Rings

[Anonymous Coward]

What sort of object would have to strike a planet to produce such a spectacular debris field?

Re:Rings

[noitalever]

God

Re:Rings

[hplasm]

The rings are bits of God? Whoa!

Re:Rings

[elemental23]

Yes, millions upon millions of communion wafers ("This is my body...")

Re:Rings

[hplasm]

"...chow down, my children.."

Re:Rings

[Vacuum Sux]

An object doesn't have to strike it to break up. If a comet or such come too close it can brake up just because of the gravitational forces. The Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet [nasa.gov] was a good example of this process.

Re:Rings

[kalidasa]

A nice big Kuiper object crossing the Roche limit and getting partially captured would probably do it, no?

Re:Rings

[pmz]

...debris field?

No, it isn't debris. If you look closely, you will see Saturn's rings are made up of billions of white monoliths waiting for orders to attack the black monoliths of Jupiter. The last battle between the original fourth and fifth planets resulted in an astroid belt, but it is likely that Jupiter and Saturn will simply dissipate into a gas belt (not dissimilar to my beer gut...).

When do we get pictures of...

[Rheingold]

Mt Winston, Mt Niles, Mt Rumfoord or that cute little Tralfamadorian Salo? /me dematerializes into chrono-synclastic infundibula

Re:When do we get pictures of...

[kalidasa]

Sorry, man, but there won't be more than a dozen readers who will get the allusion to Sirens of Titan (Vonnegut), and most of us won't have mod points today. Good one, though.

Urectum

[NanoGator]

Just had an amusing thought of what the title of this article would have been if there was a pic of somebody stationed on the ISSS mooning the Hubble scope.

Temporally?

[ttfkam]

Because Titan changes both spatially and temporally...

It changes temporally? Is this the "pertains to a temple" definition? Is Titan close to the temporal artery? Or is Titan a new religious dignitary? Or perhaps they meant Titan is in temporal (time-related) flux like in some Star Trek episode?

Methinks someone needs a dictionary. I believe the poster meant, "Because Titan changes both spatially and in temperature..."

Re:Temporally?

[Red Rocket]

Or perhaps they meant Titan is in temporal (time-related) flux like in some Star Trek episode?
Yes, that one. It is, in fact, in temporal flux. You are, too. Do you have a watch or a clock with a second hand? See how it moves like that? Spooky, huh?

It's the quantum moon!

[MarkusQ]

Because Titan changes both spatially and temporally based on observations of its atmosphere...

Isn't it a little big to show quantum effects like that? Or maybe we just need to turn the power down a tad on whatever we're using to observe its atomosphere.

-- MarkusQ

Looks pretty close...

[Pirogoeth]

...to this [nasa.gov]...

Baxter

[TrippyZ]

For more information on this most famous of Saturns moons, read Titan by Stephen Baxter.

Incidentally, I was somewhat poleaxed reading the opening chapter, which features a catastrophic shuttle reentry. This seemed most prescient.

I didn't need a telescope

[Spooge Knight]

WHEN I SHOT PAC!