Huygens Probe Land On Titan!

[Danny252]

I'm surprised I have to do this..
But anyway
Did anyone else hear about this? If not, what have you been doing for the lkast 24 hours? The first 3 pictures are here on the ESA site (http://www.esa.int).
Sadly they've lost about 350 of the 700 photos because one of the radio channels didn't work. Now we have to wait for thge colour ones!

[bohor]

um, what is this all avout? where is Titan?

[Sebatianos]

Titan is the largest moon of Saturn. It's the one that's suppose to have an athmosphere similar to that of Earth just before life evolved (only about 180 degrees colder).
I read about it, but just the pics don't mean anything. I'm looking forward to any discoveries they make based upon that. Personally I'd rather see some shoots of Japet (that moon fascinated me ever since I read the Space Odysey 2001).

[Iron_Scarecrow]

Didn't they find frozen rivers and such?

[xoopx]

im more interested in triton, one of neptunes moons. didnt see anything go past that since voyager 2 back in 89 or so. i could be mistaken, but i dont know.
even more interesting is europa, but i think theyve (not too soon) realised that if they put anything on there, it needs to be 100% sterile.. otherwise they will contaminate a possible ecosystem with earth bacteria. this is why they crashed a probe into jupiter when they finished with it, so it couldnt hit europa.

[Stroggy]

I thought I was the onlyone still excited about these spacemissions.

[Sebatianos]

Originally posted by Stroggy@Jan 15 2005, 05:31 PM
I thought I was the onlyone still excited about these spacemissions.
You gotta be kidding!

[xoopx]

im a huge fan of the voyager probes.. ancient technology (with some software updates) i think theyre still transmitting to this day, way out of the solar system LOL

[Stroggy]

Originally posted by Sebatianos@Jan 15 2005, 03:59 PM

You gotta be kidding!
Most, if not all, people I know have grown bored with space-exploration

[Sebatianos]

Originally posted by Stroggy@Jan 15 2005, 06:28 PM
Most, if not all, people I know have grown bored with space-exploration
Most people I know never even really understood it. They just wanted people to go to other planets - and since theres no man on Mars (except that brief visit by Zak McCracken :bleh: ) they lost interest. But those who seek knowladge haven't lost interest. And those are the people, that are the backbone of an intelectual society (actually they represent such a society...).

[Havell]

The lakes and rivers on Titan aren't frozen, they're made of methane (it rains methane too).

[Strobe]

i'm quite excited about further results of the huygens probe, most of all because
it's controlled by a bunch of german scientists located in a town not far from where
i live :D

after most parts of our earth have been thorougly explored, space is the very place
for human exploration interests to be concentrated on. i can't understand why there
are people who are not curious about what might be discovered out there...

[xoopx]

triton is colder than pluto, and might have life on it! OMG someone send a probe to land on it! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triton_(moon)

[Havell]

The thing about life is that it doesn't go anywhere fast, that means it doesn't really matter if we send a probe tomorrow or in 10 years time.

[xoopx]

Originally posted by R Havell@Jan 15 2005, 06:36 PM
The thing about life is that it doesn't go anywhere fast, that means it doesn't really matter if we send a probe tomorrow or in 10 years time.
LOL YOU ARE A VAMPIRE. YOU JUST ADMITTED IT!

for me, i have maybe 40 years left to live, if i make it to 70 :P

[Titan]

w0000t? a probe landed on me? hope not it's an anal-probe...

Bah.. j/k.. yeah, saw it yesturday, but i'm waiting for more pictures and sounds (!?).. those 3 pictures where good, and showed a coastline and so on. But i agree.. Europa is more intresting imho.

First read of this probe like 6 years ago in a science magazine.

[punch999]

it rains methane....wow

it looks really cool it doesnt even look like its another planet OMG!!!

[cheesegrater]

Great stuff! I want to go to the moon where it rains methane. :D

[Stroggy]

Even more interesting is that these big drops of rain fall down really slowly and evaporate before even touching the ground.

[Gormash]

I'm actually more enthralled by Europa as I believe that moon is the ticket mankind need to progress outside the solar system.

They need the gasses from the planet to replenish the fuel they spent accelerating out from earth, and the ice on Europa for processing into water and oxygen. Once that has been gatered the gravity from Jupiter can be used for a small boot towards Saturn where a slingshot manouver will accelerate the ship event faster out of the solar system.

Well, that theory is what Arthur C. Clarke has proposed anyway, and it has a ring of truth to me. "2001 A Space Odyssey" is a brilliant book by the way, though the movie is inferior in every way...

I have to agree with Sebatianos: What conclusions the braintanks at ESA draw from this data is way more exiting and interesting that the pics themselves.

[Sebatianos]

Originally posted by cheesegrater@Jan 16 2005, 06:53 AM
Great stuff! I want to go to the moon where it rains methane. :D
Just remember - up there smoking can really kill you (and I'm not talkin lung cancer) :sneaky:

@Gormash:
Well, that theory is what Arthur C. Clarke has proposed anyway, and it has a ring of truth to me. "2001 A Space Odyssey" is a brilliant book by the way, though the movie is inferior in every way...

Not in every way - the soundtrack was brilliant! Also Sprach Zaratustra, Gayane Ballet Suite, Lux Aeterna,... Excelent Stuff!

[MasterGrazzt]

This doesn't have to do with the topic, but I just bought Rendezvous With Rama and Rama II from Goodwill. :ok:

Mars may not have life, but you have to watch Pluto, or as the locals call it, Yuggoth. There's some nasty stuff there.

[Gormash]

Off Topic:
Sebatianos, OF COURSE the movie has better soundtrack. I've never heard of a book (a regular paper book) with soundtrack! :blink:
I was refering to the story as a whole where the film has buggered so much with the story for no reason. An example is that in the film they go to Jupiter whereas in the book they travel to Saturn. What's the bloody point of changing that? In the book they even have a little action as they use Jupiter to slingshot onwards to Saturn.
Damn Kubrik, ruining the story like he has with that lousy part at the end of the film... :ranting:

OK, ranted away now...

[Sebatianos]

I know we're getting off topic and I agree with you that the book is much better. I nearly pointed out that the movie isn't so bad - It's quite good up to the point when they come to the present... The prehistoric apes learning to use bones is a good sequence, but I miss the preditor animals chasing our forfathers and them learning to fight back.

And about changing Saturn to Jupiter, well... That's not entirely Kubrick's fault. Clarke was very much involved with the creation of the movie and after he finished the book he wanted to change that himself - because of Europe. I loved his descritpion of the moons of Jupiter and sligshooting forward to Saturn and I really loved his discriptions of the moons of Saturn, be Clarke himself desided to change that! He wanted to destroy the biggest planet for the creation of the Sun in 2010 and he also knew that Europa has bigger possibileties of life, so he wanted the Monoliths there. At that point he already knew that he'll write 2010 and even 2064. So he changed the planets. He couldn't change the book that was already on th ebookshelves, so when the movie was being made he asked Kubrick to change Saturn into Jupiter because it fitted the sequal (of the book) better.

And now back to the topic:
Do you think life could evolve on Titan? I personally don't think so. There's not enough heat and not enough radiation from the sun to create mutations... Heat is I still believe a prerequiremant for life. Even Mars would be too cold now - maybe a few billion years ago...

[wormpaul]

Has this something to do with our titan :blink:

[Danny252]

Its the largest moon of saturn (the big one with rings that I just crashed into in Elite 2...)

[Danny252]

check out the esa site for sounds and more pictur4es from titan! Titan fm!