Posted on 07/19/2018 3:12:20 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Cassini team members created the six-image set using data collected over 13 years by the Saturn-orbiting probe's Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS). As its name suggests, VIMS deals in long-wavelength infrared light, allowing the instrument to see through the thick Titanic haze that obscures visible-light views of the moon's frigid surface.
But the new mosaics are pretty much seamless — a breakthrough made possible by a reanalysis of the VIMS data and laborious hand processing of the resulting mosaics, mission team members said.
"With the seams now gone, this new collection of images is by far the best representation of how the globe of Titan might appear to the casual observer if it weren't for the moon's hazy atmosphere, and it likely will not be superseded for some time to come," NASA officials wrote in a statement Wednesday (July 18).
Indeed, the photos give viewers a new appreciation for Titan's complex and varied surface, which boasts dunes of carbon-containing organic compounds, icy deposits and vast seas of liquid hydrocarbons. (Titan is the only extraterrestrial object known to harbor stable bodies of liquid on its surface.)
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Yes! And we would have a much brighter “Tital” light, and I could play golf at night lol..
Very round ...
Well, Galileo hadn't perfected his best telescope yet.
In some cases.
thanks Ben
Galileo discovered the biggest four moons (the Galilean Moons). A fifth moon was not discovered until the end of the 19th Century. By the 1970s, there were only a dozen known moons. By the end of the 20th Century, there were only 15 or 16 known moons. The number has grown exponentially since then. Most of these are just big chunks of ice or rock.
So landing a rocket spewing burning hydrozine out its tailpipe should be OK?
I just checked, the current count for Jupiter is 79, though 5 have been lost since their discovery. Saturn's count is 62, not including ring particles.
Paradoxically, that might not be a problem. Titan's atmosphere contains almost no oxygen, so the methane, ethane, and other "flammable" hydrocarbons might not be able to ignite.
Not a problem as there is virtually no oxygen in the atmosphere. Manned (aka “crewed” in current parlance) exploration would be dangerous though as the surface pressure is higher than on earth, any leak in a space suit, spacecraft crew compartment or habitat would let in explosive gas.
Looks like there’s a lot of easily minable gold.
If you think that’s Saturn itself is almost pure hydrogen, If that baby ever blew up, man it’s all over. Let that be a warning folks, no smoking in space!
“It makes our moon look pretty boring.”
Those might be artificial or exaggerated colors.
Bkmk
Nothing will happen if you light a match. Because Titan has no oxygen to sustain a flame.
Go take your meds
It reminds me of Saruman’s seeing stone.
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