Amazing pic of Titan/Saturn

[Ausm]

Ha, good one ElFenix.

The Saturn V picture is a depressing reminder of the capabilities that we've thrown away

The Saturn V almost sucked down as much fuel as that old Chevy pickup I had!

 

[disappoint]

What's up with this hexagonal storm on Saturn?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzL194jiTyY

 

[phucheneh]

What's up with this hexagonal storm on Saturn?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzL194jiTyY

Oh shit the Mooninites are evolving into polygonal beings!

 

[JulesMaximus]

This is what I was thinking.

So, what you're saying is that you are a product of the public education system?

 

[KeithTalent]

Hey, what the hell happened to Locut0s? :hmm:

KT

 

[Jodell88]

Hey, what the hell happened to Locut0s? :hmm:

KT

I've been thinking the same thing.

 

[randomrogue]

I have no idea how I missed the video of it landing on Titan. That's absolutely amazing!

 

[SphinxnihpS]

Nice pic.

 

[Nintendesert]

Checkout this one from the same site, "untethered space walk" as NASA calls it

Hell yeah, I love me some Kerbal!

 

[zinfamous]

Hey, what the hell happened to Locut0s? :hmm:

KT

I've been thinking the same thing.

this. been thinking that for some time now.

says last activity was last week, so it appears he is "alive"

*poke poke

 

[KeithTalent]

this. been thinking that for some time now.

says last activity was last week, so it appears he is "alive"

*poke poke

Same here. Was discussing The Staircase with someone a little while back and it reminded me of Loc.

KT

 

[Nemesis13]

 

[Jeff7]

I simply don't think that one at the top can be a 'picture' as we generally know it. As in 'photograph.'

Reminds me of when they take a 'picture' of another galaxy or something...and it's like, okay...blurry infrared picture...invert colors...apply various filters...enhance...enhance...enhance...INCREDIBLE!
...

Why not?
That's as close to a natural picture as you can get, with the technology they sent.

NASA Photojournal page for the image.

"Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view."
That was taken with a well-calibrated digital camera, through red, green, and blue filters which, when combined, give a very close approximation of what a person would see.

Yes, they do plenty of enhanced photos where the images were obtained using light that humans can't see. This one is natural color though.
Titan is an orange, hazy ball with a fuzzy atmosphere like that. Saturn is that dull yellow-orange color. And Dione is that gray and monochrome.


Note: They always call it "an approximation of natural color." I think that's because a color image is actually taken as 3 separate B&W images, each with a different color filter in place. They are later calibrated and combined.
A digital camera combines red, green, and blue brightness values into one image. Maybe that could also be called an "approximation." Or your screen: See anything yellow on it?
No, you don't. Your monitor is incapable of producing yellow. Your eyes and brain are just very good at fooling you though. :sneaky:


Here we go: A convenient link.

 

[disappoint]

A digital camera combines red, green, and blue brightness values into one image. Maybe that could also be called an "approximation." Or your screen: See anything yellow on it?
No, you don't. Your monitor is incapable of producing yellow. Your eyes and brain are just very good at fooling you though. :sneaky:


Here we go: A convenient link.

Maybe? Maybe? Do you have a digital camera that constructs a perfect representation of what it takes a picture of or something?

Because if so...

DO

WANT.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Awesome stuff!

 

[phucheneh]

Jeff - So it is fake...sort of. It's multiple things processed into an approximation...just seems to lack detail. I mean, if I was orbiting the planet...that's what I would see? It's just hard for me to believe that.

NASA's page has some stuff that I can dig a lot more...like the very next picture.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120106.html

Awesome.

 

[Jeff7]

Jeff - So it is fake...sort of. It's multiple things processed into an approximation...just seems to lack detail. I mean, if I was orbiting the planet...that's what I would see? It's just hard for me to believe that.

NASA's page has some stuff that I can dig a lot more...like the very next picture.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120106.html

Awesome.

It really depends on your definition of "approximate" - scientist-sort, or layman.
The red, green, and blue on your monitor are approximate. The yellow is actually just red and green (you can't tell the difference between a well-mixed red+green source and a yellow source). Or if you take a digital picture with your camera, even a very high-end one, that's an approximation. How approximate though? Good enough? So it's as fake as any of our digital imaging technology we've got here on Earth.

That's what you'd see if you were there. It probably looks a little weird because you don't often see a hazy moon orbiting a ringed gas giant planet.

The natural color pictures at Hubblesite are also "approximate" in that context - damn close to natural though. I'd trust their cameras more than your monitor. Your monitor doesn't have a team of scientists there to calibrate its color quality.
Here's an RGB monitor's color triangle, versus the horseshoe shaped thing that is the colors a person can see. Here's the NTSC color gamut. Your TVs have been lying to you for a long time.

 

[Ichinisan]

NASA insists that the skycrane idea was "the only way" to get Curiosity on Mars safely.

Landing a probe on Titan seems much more difficult, but it was done in a conventional way (with a parachute).

If Mars' atmosphere is so thin, couldn't they just use a bigger parachute?

 

[Jeff7]

NASA insists that the skycrane idea was "the only way" to get Curiosity on Mars safely.

Landing a probe on Titan seems much more difficult, but it was done in a conventional way (with a parachute).

If Mars' atmosphere is so thin, couldn't they just use a bigger parachute?

Huygens was also a good bit smaller than Curiosity, and it didn't have to touch down such that it could be fully mobile. Mars is also more massive than Titan. And, Titan's atmosphere is more dense than Earth's, and Earth's is far more dense than Mars'.
- Very thin atmosphere.
- More planet/moon mass --> more gravitational attraction
- More probe/rover mass

Titan's main issues are its low temperature and its distance. The atmosphere there is so dense, you could strap on some wings, start flapping, and fly (yes, really) - good news for a parachute.

Bigger parachute: It starts to get heavy and bulky. It's also got to work at supersonic speeds for a short time.
It did use a parachute to bleed off a lot of speed before the rest of the unit drops out and goes on thrusters. The Skycrane was then to gently put it down the final short distance.
They didn't even use a parachute to touch-down the lighter Mars Exploration Rovers, or the little toaster oven rover Sojourner. Those used parachutes to slow down the entire module, before using rockets to really slow down.
Getting a soft touchdown in a very thin atmosphere, especially when going from >1,000mph to a very slow walking pace, which was its speed after it entered the atmosphere heatshield-first and bled off a great deal of speed, would take a huge parachute - and Curiosity's parachute was already pretty large.


And not necessarily "the only way." A way, perhaps an efficient way, given the goal - and it worked perfectly.
I'm sure they could encase it in a giant multilayered tomb of packing peanuts and bubble wrap, and it would work. (The brute-force approach to egg-drop competitions. ) Big, bulky, heavy, and messy, but functional. The Skycrane allowed a very gentle landing, and it got all the unneeded hardware far away from the rover.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

So, what you're saying is that you are a product of the public education system?

A year later and now I wasn't thinking that at all. I learned me some smarts.

 

[BladeVenom]

I think Europa is a better candidate for exploration. With more water on Europa than earth, it seems the most likely place to find extraterrestrial life.

 

[randomrogue]

Unless they had to take a long exposure then yes that's how it would look to you in person. The issue with Astrophotography is that objects are so dim and far away that you need to take incredibly long photographs. Yes your eyes wouldn't see a nebula the way it looks in Star Trek but yes that's the light that's there.

There are a few missions that might go to Europa. That will be interesting.

 

[Jeff7]

Unless they had to take a long exposure then yes that's how it would look to you in person. The issue with Astrophotography is that objects are so dim and far away that you need to take incredibly long photographs. Yes your eyes wouldn't see a nebula the way it looks in Star Trek but yes that's the light that's there.

There are a few missions that might go to Europa. That will be interesting.

Yes, the long exposure is a good possibility, unless they were able to have special low-light detectors made.

Nebula: I think those are as tenuous, if not moreso, than Earth's atmosphere. The Mutara Nebula scene in Wrath of Khan would have been pretty anticlimactic though.
The two ships wouldn't have had trouble seeing each other; seeing the nebula might have been more difficult, perhaps beside a very faint glow all over the place.

Checking...the Crab Nebula is 11 light years across - so about 65 trillion miles.
These aren't little blobs of dense gas and thick dust tucked here and there. If you want a place to hide, you're probably going to want something with more density, and hopefully an adversary with sensors that aren't much better than what we've got today.