[extropy-chat] Huygens: First visitor to Titan

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Hal Finney <hal at finney.org> wrote:

> The images this morning are even more spectacular, at
> http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/ and
> http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEMC8Q71Y3E_0.html .
> There's a panoramic view taken as the craft spun during descent,
> and the first color pictures from the surface.
> 
> It looks to me like we landed in the so-called "ocean", the flat dark
> area, with the light colored "land" actually being rugged,
> mountainous terrain.  And even though they've labelled the "horizon"
> in that first landing picture, I don't think it's really the horizon,
> but rather the "coastline" with the mountain I observed being the
> higher ground which from above looks like land.

Yeah, this looks nothing like the snowcone with organic syrup scenario
that had been theorized previously. Maybe Huygens just lucked out and
landed in a bad location. So the bigger mystery now is how a moon with
such desert climate maintain such a dense atmosphere? Perhaps vulcanism?

=====
Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=Sadomikeyism


		
__________________________________ 
Do you Yahoo!? 
The all-new My Yahoo! - What will yours do?
http://my.yahoo.com