Astronomy Domine
Yippee!
Yes, I am just a little bit excited. It took seven years of travel, plus a three day free fall, but Huygens is on Titan. This marks the first time a man made object has traveled so far to land on another world.
Huygens has been hanging out with it's buddy, Cassini, for quite some time, but they have parted company to carry on with each of their own research. Cassini will continue to travel around and around Saturn, passing through the rings to take a closer look, as well as performing many other experiments and taking lot's of photos in visible light, and light in a few other wavelengths. Huygens will now sit on Titan, doing experiments, until it runs out of energy. Then, it will sit there probably for ever.
Titan has been an interest and a puzzle to scientists for a long time, being that up until today, they had never seen the surface! The moon is surrounded by a very thick and hazy nitrogen atmosphere. Radar from Earth has traveled through this haze to map the surface, but we still never new what we were looking at. Now, as soon as the data sent back by Huygens is examined, we will most likely be able to determine is the highly reflective areas on the surface (as seen by the radar) are actually nitrogen or methane lakes or oceans. There is also a theory that Titan is volcanic, but not with fire, but with ice. We may soon know the answer to this theory, plus many, many more questions. And, we will probably come up with twice as many more questions to be answered!
Way to go NASA and the ESA!!!!
(Footnote, added 15Jan2005)
Finally got onto the Cassini website, and wow, do they have some cool pictures! I am sure the scientists working on this project (and even those not) are absolutely vibrating with excitement!
Yes, I am just a little bit excited. It took seven years of travel, plus a three day free fall, but Huygens is on Titan. This marks the first time a man made object has traveled so far to land on another world.
Huygens has been hanging out with it's buddy, Cassini, for quite some time, but they have parted company to carry on with each of their own research. Cassini will continue to travel around and around Saturn, passing through the rings to take a closer look, as well as performing many other experiments and taking lot's of photos in visible light, and light in a few other wavelengths. Huygens will now sit on Titan, doing experiments, until it runs out of energy. Then, it will sit there probably for ever.
Titan has been an interest and a puzzle to scientists for a long time, being that up until today, they had never seen the surface! The moon is surrounded by a very thick and hazy nitrogen atmosphere. Radar from Earth has traveled through this haze to map the surface, but we still never new what we were looking at. Now, as soon as the data sent back by Huygens is examined, we will most likely be able to determine is the highly reflective areas on the surface (as seen by the radar) are actually nitrogen or methane lakes or oceans. There is also a theory that Titan is volcanic, but not with fire, but with ice. We may soon know the answer to this theory, plus many, many more questions. And, we will probably come up with twice as many more questions to be answered!
Way to go NASA and the ESA!!!!
(Footnote, added 15Jan2005)
Finally got onto the Cassini website, and wow, do they have some cool pictures! I am sure the scientists working on this project (and even those not) are absolutely vibrating with excitement!
posted by Travelcedric at 17:55
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