foucault vs. the moon-men

Reblogged from

Cassini approaching Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, over a span of 45 minutes and almost 40,000 kilometers at a speed of 14.4 km/sec or 32,211 mph on March 12, 2008 (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Reblogged from

Sister Moons separated by rings and some distance. Saturn’s rings cut across a scene ruled by Titan’s globe-encircling haze, lit up by the distant Sun and interrupted only by the small, closer moon Enceladus. The scattered light around planet-sized Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) makes the moon’s solid surface visible in silhouette, giant compared to Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across). The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 10, 2006 at a distance of approximately 3.9 million kilometers (2.4 million miles) from Enceladus and 5.3 million kilometers (3.3 million miles) from Titan. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Image of Titan’s surface taken by the Huygens probe on 14 January 2005

From Wikipedia

The Huygens probe was an atmospheric entry probe carried to Saturn’s moon Titan as part of the Cassini-Huygens mission. The probe was supplied by the European Space Agency (ESA) and named after the Dutch 17th century astronomer Christiaan Huygens.

The combined Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was launched from Earth on October 15, 1997. Huygens separated from the Cassini orbiter on December 25, 2004, and landed on Titan on January 14, 2005 near the Xanadu region. This was the first landing ever accomplished in the outer solar system. It touched down on land, although the possibility that it would touch down in an ocean was also taken into account in its design. Even though it was never officially designated a lander, the probe continued to send data for about 90 minutes after reaching the surface.

Reblogged from taeheeyam-deactivated20120401

acid-zebra:

New Titan Territory

Reblogged from

Cassini has found Titan’s upper atmosphere to consist of a surprising number of layers of haze, as shown in this ultraviolet image of Titan’s night side limb, colorized to look like true color. The many fine haze layers extend several hundred kilometers above the surface. Although this is a night side view, with only a thin crescent receiving direct sunlight, the haze layers are bright from light scattered through the atmosphere.

The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera. About 12 distinct haze layers can be seen in this image, with a scale of 0.7 kilometers (0.43 miles) per pixel. The limb shown here is at about 10 degrees south latitude, in the equatorial region.

Cassini Solstice Mission: Cassini Sees Seasonal Rains Transform Titan’s Surface

PASADENA, Calif. — As spring continues to unfold at Saturn, April showers on the planet’s largest moon, Titan, have brought methane rain to its equatorial deserts, as revealed in images captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. This is the first time scientists have obtained current evidence of rain soaking Titan’s surface at low latitudes.

Reblogged from nauthis-deactivated20110616

nauthis:

epimetheus (small, battered) + titan (smog-enshrouded).

 Saturn Devouring His Son, Peter Paul Rubens 1636

via upload.wikimedia.org

Saturn Devouring His Son, Francisco Goya. ca. 1819-1823

Painted directly onto the walls of his house. Now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

via upload.wikimedia.org

Kurt Vonnegut called it 50 years ago.

Did NASA Discover Life on One of Saturn’s Moons?