Mysteries of Titan

November 5, 2004 3:14 PM

Saturn's enigmatic moon Titan holds on to its mysteries. Radar images reveal quite a bit of variation but no clear interpretation. The hazy atmosphere prevents the sudden shock of discovery that characterized the Voyager and Galileo flybys of the moons of Jupiter, revealing little more than fuzzy Rorschach blobs. With less than 1% of the surface mapped, researchers suspect that Titan has a young surface shaped by processes that have yet to be revealed.
posted by KirkJobSluder (5 comments total)

Titan Vs. Mars

Didn't the Greek Gods take down the Titans some time ago?

Or am I getting my mythologies mixed up. Who did Jesus beat up to bring fire to the world again?

I could have sworn it was some Iraqi dude.

This is me crying about opportunity costs.

Altogether, the mission is estimated to cost $3.26 billion with the US contribution at $2.6 billion.

posted by wah at 4:54 PM on November 5, 2004

ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS

EXCEPT TITAN

ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE
posted by alumshubby at 5:26 PM on November 5, 2004

This is why I don't post astronomy links here. Nice post Kirk.
posted by AstroGuy at 6:19 PM on November 5, 2004

Inside, we will find a concave realm with no sky, home to a meganerie of creatures based on old movies and TV shows.
posted by bingo at 8:29 PM on November 5, 2004

What AstroGuy said. Great post, KirkJobSluder, and next time if you link to an op-ed about how Bush eats babies you might get a less pathetic response from the MeFi crew.

Here's what comes after the sentence wah quotes:

For each of the 295 million US citizens, that’s about equal to the price of a movie ticket and, maybe, a small popcorn. For this modest investment, we get to explore Saturn and its moons over the next several years.

Makes sense to me.
posted by languagehat at 7:47 AM on November 6, 2004