Cassini Probes - Big Day Out

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

I suppose it goes without saying.
I presume everyone is aware of the decent of the Cassini probe into the strange & mysterous place that is Titan.
There is some Awesome science going on around Saturn at the moment, check it out here:
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/saturn.html
Links to the mission coverage:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

The Probe begins it's decent into the Atmospher of Titan from 7pm AEST for Aprox 2 hrs, this is one not to miss

[silvinator]

Thanks for the link anyway Ian! It's nice to be reminded of what's happening now and then. I find the story about Staturn's other moon Iapetus fascinating (in the first llink you posted). I wonder what could have made such a ginormous seam! It's as though two huge chunks of rock were smashed together to form the little moon.

[ving (David)]

yeah, weird seam... my theory is that it is actually a giant nut

[Mombat]

Like you?
I can't wait to see what cassini can image in 07 will be very interesting! I personaly thing it could have come from a massive impact that squeezed it together and threw up the black stuff.

This is the latest news we have received from the ASSA regarding the Huygens.

The Green Bank radio observatory (USA) announced a few minutes ago
that they have detected the carrier signal from the Huygens
spacecraft. This means that Huygens has survived entry into Titan's
atmosphere, jettisoned its heatshields and is now descending on
parachute.

Meanwhile the Cassini spacecraft is out of contact with Earth, because
it should have turned its main antenna towards Huygens to receive its
data.

The carrier signal by itself conveys only the news that Huygens is
"alive" and has survived long enough to open its parachute. However
the carrier signal is being tracked by numerous radio telescopes;
from which scientists will be able to pinpoint Huygen's position (+/-
1km) throughout its descent. This in turn will reveal some
information about Titan's winds.

Hopefully we will be able to see the first pictures and other goodies
while eating our Weetbix tomorrow morning. See

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov or
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/index.html

for the latest on this historic event!

I trust I am not duplicating anything here.

Cheers.

Peter

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Great post Exfso
Latest news is awesome
Even the mainstream news is covering the story
The raw images show great blocks ice, channels & a SHORELINE
We may yet see the first liquid ocean on another rocky world

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

I watched one of the live webcasts from the ESA last night-around midnight sometime our time and the Parkes radio telescope got a mention---and I loved this, the guy actually referred to the movie "The Dish!"

[silvinator]

The images are great so far. The picture of what looks like rocks of ice reminds me eerily of Mars. It looks like it's going to be a fascinating world to study and read about. I would love to be one of those scientists studying the first stream of data coming through from the probe.

[beren]

Waiting,waiting for more...exciting stuff

heres the cover of sky and space 7yrs ago when Cassini left Earth

[silvinator]

Wow, so long ago wasn't it? What month was that issue? That's the year I did my HSC! I might even have that issue.

[beren]

Oct/Nov 1997

[silvinator]

lol '97 eh? Sorry my mistake then, I did my HSC the following year.