[extropy-chat] Titan images start to come in

[Amara Graps]

Hal Finney:

>Will your VIMS produce a spectrum that provides clues to what the dark
>and light material are on the surface?  It would be interesting to know
>if the black area is just dark rock, or is it some kind of tar- or
>oil-like substance?

Much more than a single spectrum.
It produces cubes of infrared spectra. To understand
the measurements, you can go here:

http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu/more_new.htm

The goal is to determine composition, and VIMS is pretty successful 
so far.  For example, some compositional results of Saturn's rings:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/rings/images/PIA06349.jpg&type=image
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/rings/images/PIA06350.jpg&type=image

I saw some amazing stuff today for Titan, that will blow your socks off. 
It should be at the JPL web site in the next ~day(s).

Amara

-- 
Amara Graps, PhD     www.amara.com
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI)
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), 
Adjunct Assistant Professor Astronomy, AUR, 
Roma, ITALIA     Amara.Graps at ifsi.rm.cnr.it