Starship Asterisk*

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Fri Aug 21, 2020 3:12 pm

bystander wrote: ↑Fri Aug 21, 2020 3:06 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Fri Aug 21, 2020 2:39 pm I'm pretty sure they do. https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... color_maps

Ok, they got a map, a pretty one, too, but what does it mean? I'm sure they are confident they have a good image of the surface features of Titan, but at the time of the map, did they really know what those features represent? Do they really know, even now?

The paper discusses the significance of the different ratios, in terms of water, methane, clouds, and other features.

The Cassini VIMS archive of Titan wrote:...
However, we point out that this interpretation is not unique ... Discriminating between these compositional signatures will require a very precise atmospheric removal and analysis of the detailed spectral structure within each window ... Our main objective here was rather to show the global distribution of spectral heterogeneities itself. We leave the identification of individual constituents to further dedicated studies ...

bystander wrote: ↑Fri Aug 21, 2020 3:06 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Fri Aug 21, 2020 2:39 pm I'm pretty sure they do. https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... color_maps

Ok, they got a map, a pretty one, too, but what does it mean? I'm sure they are confident they have a good image of the surface features of Titan, but at the time of the map, did they really know what those features represent? Do they really know, even now?

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Fri Aug 21, 2020 2:39 pm I'm pretty sure they do. https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... color_maps

bystander wrote: ↑Fri Aug 21, 2020 2:23 pm

Interested Observer wrote: ↑Fri Aug 21, 2020 7:48 am
It would help if the images included a legend regarding the colors used. They are false-colored but give no indication as to what each color represents. Are the orange areas liquid and the bluish-white areas solid? Or, is it vice-versa? What about the dark areas? Nice pix but, they don't mean much if you have no idea what you're seeing. :?

Not sure it will help, but...

APOD Robot wrote: ↑Thu Aug 20, 2020 4:05 am
Explanation: ... In false color, the six panels present a consistent processing of 13 years of infrared image data from the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on board the Cassini spacecraft. They offer a stunning comparison with Cassini's visible light view.

PIA21923: Seeing Titan with Infrared Eyes wrote: ...
Any full color image is comprised of three color channels: red, green and blue. Each of the three color channels combined to create these views was produced using a ratio between the brightness of Titan's surface at two different wavelengths (1.59/1.27 microns [red], 2.03/1.27 microns [green] and 1.27/1.08 microns [blue]). This technique (called a "band-ratio" technique) reduces the prominence of seams, as well as emphasizing subtle spectral variations in the materials on Titan's surface. For example, the moon's equatorial dune fields appear a consistent brown color here. There are also bluish and purplish areas that may have different compositions from the other bright areas, and may be enriched in water ice. ...

Basically, I don't think they really know what it means.

Interested Observer wrote: ↑Fri Aug 21, 2020 7:48 am
It would help if the images included a legend regarding the colors used. They are false-colored but give no indication as to what each color represents. Are the orange areas liquid and the bluish-white areas solid? Or, is it vice-versa? What about the dark areas? Nice pix but, they don't mean much if you have no idea what you're seeing.

APOD Robot wrote: ↑Thu Aug 20, 2020 4:05 am
Explanation: ... In false color, the six panels present a consistent processing of 13 years of infrared image data from the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on board the Cassini spacecraft. They offer a stunning comparison with Cassini's visible light view.

PIA21923: Seeing Titan with Infrared Eyes wrote: ...
Any full color image is comprised of three color channels: red, green and blue. Each of the three color channels combined to create these views was produced using a ratio between the brightness of Titan's surface at two different wavelengths (1.59/1.27 microns [red], 2.03/1.27 microns [green] and 1.27/1.08 microns [blue]). This technique (called a "band-ratio" technique) reduces the prominence of seams, as well as emphasizing subtle spectral variations in the materials on Titan's surface. For example, the moon's equatorial dune fields appear a consistent brown color here. There are also bluish and purplish areas that may have different compositions from the other bright areas, and may be enriched in water ice. ...

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Thu Aug 20, 2020 1:01 pm

Ann wrote: ↑Thu Aug 20, 2020 5:12 am
Oh, Titan Titan, why Art thou so cold (94 K)?

Shouldn't you get dressed at least?

The artist has judiciously chosen a viewpoint that prevents us from determining just how cold Titan actual is...

• It's frightened turtles all the way down.

heehaw wrote: ↑Thu Aug 20, 2020 9:36 am
To think that it was only 365 years ago, that Christiaan Huygens, through his little telescope, discovered Titan - first moon of Saturn to be discovered!

• Christiaan Huygens' little telescope

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon)#Observation_and_exploration wrote:
<<In 1907 Spanish astronomer Josep Comas i Solà observed limb darkening of Titan, the first evidence that the body has an atmosphere. In 1944 Gerard P. Kuiper used a spectroscopic technique to detect an atmosphere of methane.

The first probe to visit the Saturnian system was Pioneer 11 in 1979, which revealed that Titan was probably too cold to support life. It took images of Titan, including Titan and Saturn together in mid to late 1979. The quality was soon surpassed by the two Voyagers.

Titan was examined by both Voyager 1 and 2 in 1980 and 1981, respectively. Voyager 1's trajectory was designed to provide an optimized Titan flyby, during which the spacecraft was able to determine the density, composition, and temperature of the atmosphere, and obtain a precise measurement of Titan's mass. Atmospheric haze prevented direct imaging of the surface, though in 2004 intensive digital processing of images taken through Voyager 1's orange filter did reveal hints of the light and dark features now known as Xanadu and Shangri-la, which had been observed in the infrared by the Hubble Space Telescope. Voyager 2, which would have been diverted to perform the Titan flyby if Voyager 1 had been unable to, did not pass near Titan and continued on to Uranus and Neptune.>>

Ann wrote: ↑Thu Aug 20, 2020 5:12 am

Atlas, a Titan.

---

Oh, Titan Titan, why Art thou so cold (94 K)?

Shouldn't you get dressed at least?

Boomer12k wrote: ↑Thu Aug 20, 2020 9:46 am At first I thought it was a SUN... with exoplanets, or something...even MARS... then I read the article... now my pariedola is kicking in as I see rabbits, deer, a kangaroo all in one... Majin Buu from Dragonball Z... and "My Pretty Pony"... my god... I have it bad... :shock:

:---[===] *

A vent wrote: ↑Thu Aug 20, 2020 4:49 am
Looks like a ball of molten metal covered in flux and impurities. Junk.
But one man's junk is another man's treasure. To bad we can't refine the thing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantalus wrote:
<<Welcomed to Jupiter's table in Olympus Tantalus is said to have abused Jupiter's hospitality and stolen ambrosia and nectar to bring it back to his people, and revealed the secrets of the gods. Tantalus's punishment for his act, now a proverbial term for temptation without satisfaction (the source of the English word tantalize), was to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches. Whenever he reached for the fruit, the branches raised his intended meal from his grasp. Whenever he bent down to get a drink, the water receded before he could get any. Over his head towers a threatening stone like the one that Sisyphus is punished to roll up a hill.

The Greeks used the proverb "Tantalean punishments" (Ancient Greek: Ταντάλειοι τιμωρίαι), in reference to those who have good things but are not permitted to enjoy them.>>