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| Cassini data on Titan | |
| 2004-10-31 | |
| Scientists say the Cassini spacecraft is sending back evidence that Saturn's planet-size moon Titan has some familiar features, but that it still remains one of the strangest worlds. "In this short time we are beginning to see a few things that we recognize but most of what we see is very alien," Laurence Soderblom, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said Friday. Cassini reached Saturn this summer on a $3.3 billion international mission to study the planet's system for four years. Unlike the airless moons and space rocks that NASA can photograph with startling clarity, Titan, hundreds of millions of miles from Earth, has long stymied scientists because its surface is shrouded by a thick atmosphere of nitrogen and methane. That has forced scientists to create theories about the surface from observations of the hydrocarbon-laced atmosphere. Scientists believe seas or lakes of methane could form as organic compounds fall out of the atmosphere and collect on the surface. Earlier this week, Cassini sent back radar images that revealed such surface details as a round basin, narrow miles-long linear "streaks," and a cat-shaped region of what could be the moon's theorized lakes of liquid methane and ethane. Soderblom said streaks roughly parallel to the equator resemble features seen on Mars and could be produced by fluids flowing over the surface or by winds. Groove patterns also have been seen in the pictures, perhaps indicating tectonic processes. Soderblom said some patterns are beginning to resemble those on Jupiter's moon Ganymede, Saturn's satellite Enceladus and Neptune's moon Triton. "It's still early yet but things are starting to emerge and make just a minute amount of sense," Soderblom said.
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| Posted by:Steve White |
| #8 we are beginning to see a few things that we recognize but most of what we see is very alien, West Virginia is hip to this. They say Titan looks like a primal planet! Sort of like Morgantown on Saturday Night. Get to your churches and pray, pray, pray and remember the Cross you burn might be your own. |
| Posted by: Bob Byrd 2004-10-31 1:54:08 PM |
| #7 #7: And the purpose of this is to what, provide information for those who might hack the site? You can't win with ideas, so you have to try and shut up your opponent? Such tactics are indications of CLS (complete loser syndrom). Get help. |
| Posted by: Trub 2004-10-31 7:27:38 AM |
| #6 No he means John Ringo the military Science Fiction writer. Come to think of it there seems to be a passing resemblence between the Islamic terrorists and the Posleen. You have to read the books to find out.(A Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front, Hell's Faire.) |
| Posted by: Aussie Mike 2004-10-31 4:31:39 AM |
| #5 We need to break with tradition and just kill that tribe off then. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-10-31 1:25:43 AM |
| #4 online conversations with John Ringo Don't you mean Pope John Paul George Ringo? |
| Posted by: lex 2004-10-31 1:15:40 AM |
| #3 I forgot to mention: I've gotten the idea partially from online conversations with John Ringo, and partially from what little I still remember of Russian history from high school. Anyone ever notice that 90% of the problems in Iraq are being caused by the tribe traditionally used by the outside empires as tribute farmers and proxy rulers? |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2004-10-31 1:05:45 AM |
| #2 Oldspook: I think the 1200's would be an improvement; I have a half-cocked theory from time to time that the Islamic world is still suffering the aftereffects of the various Mongol and Morgul invasions, and a lot of the extremism going around today is part of the damage. |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2004-10-31 1:02:20 AM |
| #1 Compare to the 13 year old Iranian girl who was whipped and is now awaiting a savage stoning death at the hands of the Iranian clerics and their stormtrooper allies. They are still back in the 1200's. Bombing them into the stone age is a very short trip for those folks. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2004-10-31 1:48:10 AM |