Starting at 3 a.m. EST tomorrow (January 14) NASA will have live Web TV coverage of the Huygens probe touching down on Saturn’s moon Titan.
According to NASA, this artist’s conception
Titan’s surface with Saturn appearing dimly in the background through
Titan’s thick atmosphere of mostly nitrogen and methane. The Cassini
spacecraft flies overhead with its high-gain antenna pointed at the
Huygens probe as it nears the surface.
Titan’s surface
may hold lakes of liquid ethane and methane, sprinkled over a thin
veneer of frozen methane and ammonia. Most of the brownish-orange color
comes from more heavily processed hydrocarbons present in Titan’s
atmosphere and on its surface. Artistic license has been used to
exaggerate the size of the orbiter, the sharpness of the icy features,
the tilt of Saturn’s rings, and the visibility of the planet through
Titan’s atmosphere.”
More Cassini Huygens linkage:
- Landing preparations underway
- European Space Agency (ESA) has Cassini-Huygens home page
- ESA will post video highlights online
- NASA coverage
- Expected “footprint” of images
- Good summary of mission
- Weird: Huygens will be blasting modern music as it descends…
Will Kurt Vonnegut’s sirens be found on Titan? Tune in tomorrow and find out for yourself.
Grrr!
I posted this story to the home page, then came back to find it had
disappeared…twice! Will the third time be the charm? Or is some evil
sci fi force at work in the bowels of Weblogger.com? I guess that’s
something else I’ll find out, tuning in tomorrow…