Tantalizing Clues in Pictures of Saturn's Moons 31
Aziabel writes "Titan and Dione, two of the moons orbiting Saturn, apparently aren't exactly what researchers had previously believed. Photographs taken during a flyby of the Cassini space probe this week may clarify and even overturn long-held assumptions about the surfaces of these satellites. Bright streaks on the surface of Dione, a heavily cratered moon with little atmosphere, have long been believed to be ice, noted Carolyn Porco, imaging team leader for the Cassini project from the Space Science Institute in Boulder. Images captured this week, however, appear to indicate that the bright streaks are cliffs. They may have been created by ice, but not a lot of ice remains in the area. Meanwhile, the 'ocean' on Titan may not be. Instead of a liquid body of water, the dark mass seen on the surface of the Titan may be a viscous fluid flowing onto the white 'coastline,' Parco said. Then again, the viscous fluid could be flowing down from a higher altitude, like a glacier, onto the white mass. Right now, researchers only have two-dimensional images. Stronger conclusions may be possible with the availability later of images that are more precise, or stereoscopic images that include shadows or information on altitude."
Re:DUPE (Score:2)
One is about the rings of Saturn, the other about the satellites of Saturn. Get a clue!!
And that is why (Score:1)
Re:And that is why (Score:1)
Re:Rectal Catastrophe [For moderators] (Score:2)
-1 Illegal
-1 Deceptive
We've never slashdotted cnet news.com yet and are even more unlikely to under the heading science. The site is perfectly crisp.
what is your problem??? (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, they can't figure out what these pictures are showing. It often takes years to evaluate that kind of data fully and come to conclusions. That's to be expected when embarking on new scientific territory. We may not even get the answers we seek with Huygens either. It may take many more probes to get an idea of what Titan is like; we don't even know yet what's seeping out of the crater walls on Mars.
With how much has been invested in this mission, I'm sure the scientists are going crazy to present the public with findings (or at least the PR people are)
They are getting data from publicly funded instruments and they are putting it on the web as soon as they can. They are also annotating it with their first impressions and theories. That doesn't mean that they are "going crazy", it means that you are seeing science in action: raw data, hypotheses, debates, and all that. These people are doing a great job. I really don't see what your problem is with all that.
Until then, quit confusing me.
Just don't look, then; you'll get the Discovery channel version quickly enough.
Re:Trying a little to hard (Score:2)
Point of order (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Point of order #2 (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Point of order #2 (Score:2, Funny)
Please use the correct terminology. Thanks. (Score:1)
Titan? What's that? I think you mean "Halliburtia"
Well DUH! (Score:3, Funny)
That's not a moon, that's a space station!
Errr, and the other one too!
-
OT:Well DUH! (Score:2)
He can divide??
Which goes to show.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Every time we look at these systems with a new generation of science instruments, there is a re-writing of the text books, and it will take years to untangle what Cassini is telling us now.
Great though Cassini is, I think there is an argument for doing a larger number of smaller missions, using tried-and-tested technology - for example, New Horizons to Pluto is a mere $600 million, vs the $3 billion Cassini costs, and we could have a follow up New Horizons-II mission to Uranus & several KBO's for even less..
Re:Which goes to show.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Cassini has far more scientific instruments. For example, it has radar. I don't think NH does. Casini is the most instrument-laden unmanned probe ever launched.
Re:Which goes to show.. (Score:2)
The cheap $100 mil SMART-1 mission does have a tiny radar, but it needs many polar-orbits to build up the picture..
So I guess the cheap option to the $10 bil JIMO mission, the under $1 bil europa orbiter, could have a radar, if they wanted..
Cut to the chase... (Score:2)
A linear canyon on Dione (Score:2, Interesting)
Looking at the Dione [nasa.gov] picture, I'm intrigued by the linear feature near Dione's terminator to the left, crossing a number of craters and irregular fractures on the surface (diagonal orientation, from upper left to lower right). It has an internal shadow on the upper right side suggesting it's some kind of ditch or canyon. Given that Dione's radius is 560 km, this canyon seems to be more than 1 km wide and 100 km long. Could that be a tectonic feature too, or is it the track of a meteorite barely touching Dio
Re:A linear canyon on Dione (Score:3, Informative)
Re:A linear canyon on Dione (Score:1)
Appearantly not, if I'm to believe the trajectory data for Cassini distributed with Celestia [shatters.net]. That data is certainly not reliable, as Celestia predicts Cassini will collide with Dione on October 11, 2005! However, if we assume the prediction is mostly correct with respect to when Cassini will be nearest Dione, the linear canyon (which seems to be located at 10N 40E according to the maps produced fro