| Piú votate - Titan: The "Foggy" Moon |
Titan-PIA08879.jpgTitan (true colors - elab. NASA)54 visiteCaption NASA:"Looking toward high Northern Latitudes on Titan, the Cassini spacecraft spies a banded pattern encircling the Pole.
This sort of feature is what scientists expect to see in the Stratosphere of Titan, where the Atmosphere is superrotating, or moving around the moon faster than the moon itself rotates.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were taken by the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Jan. 28, 2007 at a distance of approx. 196.000 Km (about 122.000 miles) from Titan. Image scale is 12 Km (approx. 7 miles) per pixel".
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Titan-Dunes-PIA09111.jpgTitanian Dunes56 visiteCaption NASA:"This pair of images, taken by the Cassini spacecraft radar mapper on two different Titan passes on Dec. 11, 2006 (T21 left) and Oct. 29, 2005 (T8 right), represent two different views of a field of dunes located near 9,4° South Latitude by 290° West Longitude.
The images were taken in synthetic aperture mode and have a resolution of approximately 500 mt(1.640 feet). North is toward the top of both images and each image is approx. 400 Km (250 miles) long by 275 Km (about 170 miles) wide.
The images are different only because the radar instrument illuminated the dunes from different directions. Acting somewhat like a flash camera, the radar sends out microwave pulses and makes an image from the pulses after they are reflected back. Imagine that both the camera and the flash come from the left in the left image and from the top in the right image.
Most obvious differences are seen in the large bright feature at the center of both images. At left, its left edge is brighter, emphasizing the more steep slopes there. Farther left, the dunes are more clearly defined in the right image as their faces are caught by the illumination. However, since the dunes are visible in both images, it is likely that the materials making up the dark and light stripes are also somehow different. More detailed studies of how materials on Titan reflect and scatter at different angles are giving us clues about what different materials might be present in this cold and distant world".
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Titan-Surface-Unexplained_Surface_Features-PIA06111.jpgUnexplainable Surface Features55 visiteCaption NASA:"This image acquired at a range of 344.000 Km (about 213.700 miles) shows details at Titan's surface never seen before. The image shows only surface brightness no topographic shading. The finest features are less than 10 Km (a little more than 6 miles) across. In other areas the surface boundaries are less distinct perhaps due to different geologic process or atmospheric effects. There are some linear features that could be impact craters but the fact that many features are linear suggests that other geologic processes are shaping the surface".
(5 voti)
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Titan-PIA09032.jpgTitanian "Sierras"54 visiteCaption NASA originale"This composite image shows a massive mountain range running just south of Titan's Equator. Near the center of the image, the mountain range runs from South-East to North-West. It is about 150 Km long (approx. 93 miles) and 30 Km (about 19 miles) wide and approx. 1,5 Km (nearly a mile) high.
This range and smaller ranges to the West and East of the main range, probably results from material welling up below as the crust of Titan is pulled apart by tectonic forces.
This image was obtained during an Oct. 25 flyby designed to obtain the highest resolution infrared views of Titan yet. Cassini's VIMS resolved surface features as small as 400 meters (1,300 feet).
This composite image was taken at a distance of about 12.000 Km (7.200 miles) from Titan. This image was constructed from images taken at wavelengths of 1,3 microns shown in blue, 2 microns shown in green and 5 microns shown in red".MareKromium
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Titan-PIA08246.jpgTitan54 visiteCaption NASA:"This remarkably clear view from that flyby shows the moon's characteristically dark Mid-Latitudes, and more Southern Terrain than the Cassini spacecraft has usually been able to glimpse. This was the first in a series of "illuminated outbound flybys" of Titan where the illuminated Hemisphere was visible following the closest approach. Cassini's flyby of Titan on July 22, 2006 sent the spacecraft into a more inclined orbit about Saturn.
The image was taken in polarized infrared light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 22, 2006 at a distance of approx. 148.000 Km (about 92.000 miles) from Titan.
Image scale is roughly 9 Km (about 5 miles) per pixel".
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Titan-Atmosphere.jpgAtmospheres...55 visitenessun commento
(5 voti)
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Titan-Dunes-IMG002116-br500.jpgThe Dunes of Titan and the Namibian Dunes55 visiteCassini radar sees sand dunes on Saturn's giant moon Titan (upper photo) that are sculpted like Namibian sand dunes on Earth (lower photo). The bright features in the upper radar photo are not clouds but topographic features among the dunes.
(5 voti)
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Titan-N00055564.jpgWhat's happening on Titan? (1)63 visiteCiò che Vi proponiamo in questa (lunga) sequenza di Titano potrebbe essere il frutto di una mera "misinterpretation" delle immagini (come ci direbbero i Signori del CICAP e gli Amici della NASA) oppure, come a noi piace credere, potrebbe trattarsi di un interessante fenomeno che prende le mosse e si sviluppa (o così pare) negli strati più alti dell'atmosfera di Titano.
Si tratta, in fondo, solo di un minuscolo "punto" ambiguo (9 pixels effettivi di diametro) che, nel tempo, sembra svilupparsi e che poi, improvviso come era arrivato, scompare.
Guardate ed esaminate anche Voi...
Nota: va detto, per correttezza, che la maggior parte dei frames che Vi proporremo è - purtroppo - piena di photoartifacts, anche se il "punto" che abbiamo cerchiato, a differenza degli altri difetti, si mantiene in una posizione che noi definiamo "coerente", nel tempo.
Caption NASA:"N00055564.jpg was taken on March 20, 2006 and received on Earth March 20, 2006. The camera was pointing toward Titan that, at the time, was about 972.114 Km away. The image was taken using the P120 and UV3 filters".
(5 voti)
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Titan-W00013654-1.jpgA "bright light" in the clouds? (LR)55 visiteSi tratta dello stesso frame che evidenzia una possibile Anomalìa negli strati alti dell'atmosfera di Titano, ma con una risoluzione leggermente più bassa (500x500 anzichè 512x512). L'abbassamento di risoluzione, come potete verificare Voi stessi, non ha danneggiato la percezione del flash bianco, anzi: diremmo che in questo frame (sempre NASA Originale: non siamo stati noi a ridurne la risoluzione) la possibile Anomalìa trova un modo migliore per evidenziarsi.
Nostra opinione: premesso che si tratta di una sensazione, ottenuta su besi meramente intuitive e non sostanziabili, secondo noi quello che si vede in questo frame è un qualcosa di reale e NON un pohotoartifact (che poi si tratti di un fulmine - ipotesi tutt'altro che impossibile -; di una nuvoletta composta al 99,9% di ghiaccio d'acqua - e dunque dall'albedo altissima - o di una nave spaziale aliena in ricognizione - perchè no?!? - non ci è possibile dirlo).
(5 voti)
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Titan-PIA07700.jpgThe Atmosphere of Titan54 visiteThe view of Titan (almost natural colors) has been greatly contrast-enhanced to better show some intriguing structure in the North of the Planet; such intriguing "clouds-structure" is also clearly visible in a violet light view (PIA07701) taken at about the same time.
The color view was created by combining images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters. The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 26, 2005, at a distance of approx. 193.000 Km (about 120.000 miles) from Titan and at a phase angle of 29°. The image scale is about 11 Km (roughly 7 miles) per pixel.
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Titan-Full_Disk-PIA02145-3.jpgTitan: Visual + IMS (3)56 visitenessun commento
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Titan-Full_Disk-PIA02145-2.jpgTitan: Visual + IMS (2)55 visiteIn the December (2) mosaic, a North Polar hood that is bright at 5 microns is visible. Its composition is unknown.
The North Polar hood is barely seen in the October (1) and January (3) data.
Visible in the October and December images just South of the Equator is Tui Reggio, a Region nicknamed the "chevron". This Region is very bright at 5 microns and is among the brightest features on Titan at that wavelength.
Tui Reggio is thought to be a surface deposit, probably of volcanic origin, and may be water and/or carbon dioxide frozen from the vapor.
The December flyby data show that the western margins of Tui Reggio have a complex flow-like character consistent with eruptive phenomena.
(5 voti)
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