Time for Titan to Shine
Fans of Titan, the large moon of Saturn, are swimming gleefully in scientific reports from Cassini, and it’s only just the beginning: there are at least 39 more orbits planned of this strangest moon in the solar system. There are too many recent reports to condense into one entry – take your pick:
- ESA published a full mosaic of all the Huygens Probe descent images
- The Planetary Society, Universe Today and Astronomy Picture of the Day also described the mosaic.
- Science News April 30 contributed the fullest account yet of the Huygens Probe findings.
- EurekAlert compares Titan’s atmosphere with that of Earth.
- Universe Today does the same.
- Cassini Imaging released a movie of Titan’s outer atmosphere changing over time, and discussed its complex “anti-greenhouse.”
- Icarus researchers model Titan’s interior.
- Artemieva and Lunine, also in Icarus, consider the impact of meteor impacts on the surface.
- National Geographic highlights the bizarre landscape of Titan.
- Physics Web talks about the atmosphere and the interaction of atoms and molecules with the magnetic field.
- Astrobiology Magazine considers the intriguing images of runoff channels from the Huygens cameras.
- Science printed a special issue on Titan on May 13, with nine articles about the first two flybys:
- Brooks Hanson provided an overview of science results.
- Paul Mahaffy summarized the papers in the issue:
- Radar mapping results.
- Winds and atmosphere interdisciplinary results. One quote: “The lifetime of CH4 [methane] in Titan’s atmosphere is only 4 x 107 years, and it requires a surface or interior source if the current inventory is typical of Titan’s long-term history.”
- Ultraviolet probes of the atmosphere.
- Mass spectrometer samples of the upper atmosphere.
- Radio and plasma wave measurements of the cold ionosphere.
- Magnetosphere measurements on energetic neutral atoms.
- Magnetic field sensing: no evidence of an internal field detected.
These papers, however, do not even get to the latest findings from the more recent flybys, to say nothing of the Jan. 14 landing of the Huygens probe (see 01/15/2005 and 01/21/2005 entries); first official scientific papers from the landing should appear within the next month or so. Every scientist agrees that the surface of Titan is young. Cryovolcanism – eruptions of ice – may be occurring on Titan today, and so may rainstorms of liquid methane.
Titan is not the only big recent science story at Saturn. Cassini scientists published 3 papers in Nature May 12 (1, 2, 3) about Phoebe, the outer moon observed at close range on July 11, 2004. They concluded it was a captured object from the outer solar system with a composition like Pluto.
The radio science team recently made perfect high-resolution occultation measurements of Saturn and the rings. Cassini now enters prime ringside observations. Orbits 6-14 over the next few months make Saturn’s rings the prime targets for all the instruments. What are they made of? How small are the particles? How hard or fluffy are they? Do individual ring particles rotate? Will ring spokes be seen again? It should be bonanza time for ring scientists. For a preview of coming attractions, the imaging team released a stunning movie of a newly discovered moonlet in the Keeler gap that sets up waves in the rings like a giant rock skipping the surface of a pond. As for pretty pictures of the Saturn system – well, what can words add to stunners like this?
These are great days for the Cassini team. Everything has worked so well it is almost scary. Why are the media giving these discoveries so little press? This is one of the greatest achievements in history for solar system exploration, but few are hearing about it. We make these links available for those who have better things to do than listen to daily decadence from the Michael Jackson trial. Come, sail to the new world.