Saturn and Titan

1991 was the year for eclipses. 2001 was Meteor Shower Year. 2003 was the Year of Mars, with its close approach and the two Rovers. It looks like now that 2004 will be the Year of Saturn, for the Cassini spacecraft has just arrived.

As usual, it gives its host of interesting images. The rings show up as a set of parallel lines etched in space, closer than we have ever seen them. The biggest interest point for me now is Titan. The probe is not supposed to eject a probe onto the Titanian surface until this (Northern) winter, but already Titan has given us some interesting images. Finally the surface of Titan has been seen! I remember long ago, in 1981 or something, when Pioneer 11 approached Saturn. It was to take a temperature of the cloud tops of Titan, but a Soviet satellite interfered. I immediately printed out a headline: "The Temperature of Titan is Sputnik." Since then astronomers have been wondering about the surface of Titan. It gives a solid orange to optical telescopes. But with an infrared and other cameras and some photo work, pictures showing the features of Titan have just come out; check out the NASA web site, which, by the way, frequently throws 404s in your face. But once in a while you get the site and you can check out the Titan photos.

The surface, like anything else, is raising more questions than answering them. The features look like Mars' canyons, but what kind of oceans could produce these? Water? Too cold. How about carbon dioxide or nitrogen? But it has a nitrogen atmosphere. So we await the answers and look with awe at Saturn's image in a telescope.