T5 Raw Images
T05 Raw images have started to trickle into the JPL Raw images page. Still waiting for more, but here are the early highlights:
- Global view of Titan at 11.5 km/pixel
- A seperate dark streak
- "Sumatra island"
- East of Pelican Bay
- North edge of the H
- Full view of the H
- Dark Streak first seen on T4
posted by Jason Perry at 10:31 AM
5 Comments:
Jason
I just discovered your blog and am pleased to find someone who is interested in Titan. I am a retired geologist with 50 years of experience in observing earth landforms and find our neighbors in space very interesting.
Just as a side note, I contacted ESA about the Titan lander and asked why it didn't have a wind powered generator so that the batteries could be recharged thereby providing extended viewing.
I got no response.
Ben
Can you imagine "wind powered generator" in -180 degrees C? Even if it was technically possible, Huygens was primarily an atmospheric problem - the landing was a bonus.
Another factor was the Cassini orbiter was only able to listen to Huygens for a few hours before going out of range. Even if Huygens was able to generate power from the wind, Cassini would not have been able to pick up the signal again for another month or so. The extreme cold would have gotten to Huygens by then.
For an estimated price (to NASA) of $680 million? I don't think so... But it would be terrifically cool.
Certainly those streaks have become my new research interest. It is dangerous to compare these to the Triton plume deposits since the vent pressure on Triton can be quite small and a plume would develop, on Titan, the vent pressure would have to be much larger to overcome the atmospheric pressure.
VIMS might detect something, but it would have to be at their 5 micron band given the presumed temperature of the vent.
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