Titan

[miriam_e]

I can hardly believe the lack of interest the media are displaying in the Huygens probe's landing on Titan! We have mind-bogglingly Earth-like views of another world and almost nobody gets to see them.

This weird little world is one of our best shots at finding some kind of life. Yes, it is incredibly cold there (-179°C or -290°F), but it generates more warmth than it receives from the sun, and it is brimming with the stuff of life. It has water, hydrocarbons, and liquids. The atmosphere is 94% nitrogen -- the only body in the Solar System with significant amounts of atmospheric nitrogen other than Earth (78% of our atmosphere is nitrogen). The rivers and rain are liquid methane. The "rocks" are ice. There are hydrocarbons everywhere.


The color picture is from the little space robot after it landed. The ice "rocks" in the foreground are about a handspan in size and the ground looks wet with liquid methane.

The other two pictures were snapped on its way down. Titan really looks remarkably like Earth, doesn't it.

Comments

[patchworkkid.livejournal.com]

Just amazing. I cant believe it's getting no press either. Shocking.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It makes me wonder if we ever did find life out there, would our Ouroboros-like mainstream media neglect that too?
I hope not... but I can hardly believe that they're ignoring Titan.

Maybe it has something to do with the weird copyright restrictions the ESA is putting on the pictures:

ESA Portal Multimedia Gallery
Copyright Notice

The ESA Portal Multimedia Gallery contains images and videos used throughout the ESA Portal. The images are offered in the Gallery in the highest resolution available.

Most images have been released publicly from ESA. You may use ESA images or videos for educational or informational purposes. The publicly released ESA images may be reproduced without fee, on the following conditions:

• Credit ESA as the source of the images:
  Examples: Photo: ESA; Photo: ESA/Cluster; Image: ESA/NASA - SOHO/LASCO
• ESA images may not be used to state or imply the endorsement by ESA or any ESA employee of a commercial product, process or service, or used in any other manner that might mislead.
• If an image includes an identifiable person, using that image for commercial purposes may infringe that person's right of privacy, and separate permission should be obtained from the individual.

If these images are to be used in advertising or any commercial promotion, layout and copy must be submitted to ESA beforehand for approval (http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/contact_us.html)

Some images contained in this Gallery have come from other sources, and this is indicated in the Copyright notice. For re-use of non-ESA images contact the designated authority.

Use of ESA videos

The use of ESA video images in streaming and downloadable format is limited to direct viewing and/or file storage on a single computer per stream and/or download. Forwarding of files or streams to other computers, or use on any non-ESA Web is prohibited. For the authorisation of any such use, please contact the ESA Web Portal team.

Do you accept all the terms and conditions of use above stated? To download this file, you must accept this agreement.

Then you have a choice of two buttons to click: [accept] or [decline].

I am sure the ESA lawyers feel there is some kinda logic behind all this, I mean, we can't just let anybody get this stuff without jumping through hoops, right?

Sheesh!

NASA do it right. It was paid for by taxes therefore it is owned by everybody.

[usuakari.livejournal.com]

I'm a little surprised a the lack of press coverage myself. Most of what I've heard has been on Star Stuff.

NASA do it right. It was paid for by taxes therefore it is owned by everybody.

Ironically, erudito (a Young Liberal who firmly believes in the private ownership and market regulation of everything), has just commented on the idea that public ownership does not "produce effective and dynamic firms". Interesting to read such opposing views within 5 minutes of each other. I like my 'Friends List'...

Spaceflightnow.com

[exileinparadise.livejournal.com]

This is one of the reasons I signed up on spaceflightnow.com for their newsletter... I got to see all this in nearly realtime as they were released.

Makes you want to GO there doesn't it?

Re: Spaceflightnow.com

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the spaceflightnow.com site before. I'm signed up to various NASA lists and the spacedev.com newsletter and the MarsSociety list.

I am amazed by that http://spaceflightnow.com/ site. I will need many hours to look through it.

Thanks again. :)