First picture has been released - It has a sea! You can see the coastline!
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Huygens sends first Titan images
By Paul Rincon
BBC News science reporter in Darmstadt, Germany
The Huygens space craft has sent back the first images of Saturn's moon Titan, showing what appears to be a shoreline of an oily ocean.
One stunning black and white image reveals what seem to be drainage channels on a land surface leading out into a dark body of liquid.
Another shows a barren surface apparently strewn with boulders.
Scientists said Huygens captured over 300 images as it dived through the moon's atmosphere.
"The pictures just got better after we passed through the haze," said Marty Tomasko, who leads the probe's imaging team.
He added that the images would still need to be cleaned up and that scientists would have to study the pictures closely to interpret them.
More data
The probe has been sending back data about the moon since it arrived on Titan - the furthest from Earth a spacecraft has ever landed.
Professor John Zarnecki of the Open University in Milton Keynes, who is principal investigator for the Surface Science Package (SSP) on Huygens, said he was confident his instrument had detected an impact on the surface.
This may mean the spacecraft landed on a hard, or slushy surface, rather than an ocean of liquid hydrocarbon.
Jean-Pierre Lebreton, mission manager for Huygens said the craft had been active for up to seven hours. He added this was probably down to good design keeping Huygens' instruments warmer than expected despite the temperatures of -179C outside.
"We might even have three floppy disks now," said Professor Zarnecki, referring to the previous assumption that the SSP would only collect enough data to fill a floppy disk.
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HUYGENS' INSTRUMENTS
1. HASI - measures physical and electrical properties of Titan's atmosphere
2. GCMS - identifies and measures chemical species abundant in moon's 'air'
3. ACP - draws in and analyses atmospheric aerosol particles
4. DISR - images descent and investigates light levels
5. DWE - studies direction and strength of Titan's winds
6. SSP - determines physical properties of moon's surface
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He said the researchers were happy, but that more work was needed before they could say how successful the instrument's measurements of the surface had been.
Scientists are now piecing together the images, measurements and sounds that are being beamed back to Earth from the Cassini spacecraft, which had carried Huygens for the past seven years.
These should give detailed information on the moon's weather and chemistry.
They confirmed, however, that one of two channels, A and B, on the probe that records measurements had stopped working.
But the most important channel - B - which was responsible for measuring Titan's surface chemistry, was functioning well.
"We're going to be working very hard in the next hours and days. This data is data for posterity," said Professor David Southwood, Esa's director of science.
The sounds of Titan's stormy atmosphere were recorded with an onboard microphone, and scientists hope they might even hear lightning strikes when they analyse the data.
Scientists were relieved when the probe relayed a signal at about 1020 GMT on Friday to say it had negotiated Titan's atmosphere, and announced the mission was a "success".
Cosmic enigma
This told them the pilot parachute had pulled off the probe's rear cover, allowing its antenna to start transmitting.
The European-built probe entered Titan's atmosphere at an altitude of 1,270km (789 miles) at about 1000 GMT.
Once friction slowed the probe's descent to about Mach 1.5, it deployed the first of three parachutes, pulling off the rear cover that protected Huygens from the fierce heat as it entered the atmosphere.
Dominated by nitrogen, methane and other organic (carbon-based) molecules, conditions on Titan are believed to resemble those on Earth 4.6 billion years ago.
As such, it may tell scientists more about the kind of chemical reactions that set the scene for the emergence of life on Earth.
The Cassini spacecraft arrived at Saturn in July 2004. It released Huygens towards Titan on 25 December.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...ch/4175099.stm
Published: 2005/01/14 21:16:03 GMT
© BBC MMV[/QUOTE]And the first picture taken at an altitude of 16km, showing erosion channels leading down to the shoreline of a sea:
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...tan203grab.jpg