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| The Huygens Doppler Wind Experiment: results from Titan |
| The ESA Huygens Probe entered and descended for nearly 2.5 hours through the atmosphere of Titan on 14 January 2005. Huygens survived impact on the surface and continued its telemetry broadcast to the NASA Cassini spacecraft on two separate radio links, denoted Channels A and B, respectively, for an additional 1.2 hours. The instrumentation for the Huygens Doppler Wind Experiment (DWE) consisting of two Ultra-Stable Oscillators in the transmitter (TUSO) and receiver (RUSO), were implemented only in Channel A. Whereas Channel B functioned flawlessly during the entire mission, the receiver for Channel A was never able to lock onto the Huygens signal because the DWE-RUSO had not been properly programmed into the critical probe radio relay sequence. All data on Channel A, including the DWE measurements and probe telemetry, were thus lost. In spite of this setback, the Channel A signal was successfully received at many radio telescopes on Earth. The precision of these Doppler measurements, considered as an aggregate, is roughly equivalent to that which had been foreseen from the measurements on board Cassini. We present an overview of the DWE ground-based observations and the Titan wind profile derived from them. |
| Publication date: 27 May 2005 |
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| Titan's and Saturn's exospheres: first MIMI energetic neutral atom observations |
| Titan's nitrogen-rich atmosphere is directly bombarded by energetic ions, due to its lack of a significant intrinsic magnetic field. Singly-charged energetic ions from Saturn's magnetosphere undergo charge exchange collisions with neutral atoms in Titan's exosphere, being transformed into energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). The Ion and Neutral Camera (INCA), one of the three sensors that comprise the Magnetosphere Imaging Instrument (MIMI) on the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan, images the ENA emissions from various ion/gas interaction regions in the Saturnian magnetosphere. During Cassini's second orbit around Saturn the spacecraft performed the Ta Titan flyby (October 26, 2004), at an altitude of only 1174 km. INCA data acquired during this targeted close flyby confirm model predictions of dominant finite ion gyroradii effects, but also reveal a much more complex interaction: maximum ENA emissions are originating at higher altitudes than predicted by a simple Chamberlain-type model of the Titan exosphere. These observations will be analyzed and a simulation will be presented of some of the exospheric features they reveal. |
| Publication date: 27 May 2005 |
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| Physical properties as indicators of liquid compositions: Derivation of the composition for Titan's surface liquids from the Huygens SSP measurements |
| We present a method for inferring the relative molar abundance of constituents of a liquid mixture, in this case methane, ethane, nitrogen and argon, from a measurement of a set of physical properties of the mixture. This problem is of interest in the context of the Huygens Surface Science Package, SSP, equipped to measure several physical properties of a liquid in case of a liquid landing on Saturn's moon Titan. While previous models emphasized the possibility of verifying a certain model proposed by atmospheric composition and equations of state, we use an inverse approach to the problem, i.e. we will infer the liquid composition strictly from our measurements of density, refractive index, permittivity, thermal conductivity and speed of sound. Other a priori information can later be used to improve (or reject) the model obtained from these measurements. |
| Publication date: 15 May 2005 |
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| Cassini Measurements of Cold Plasma in the Ionosphere of Titan |
| The Cassini Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) Langmuir probe (LP) sensor observed the cold plasma environment around Titan during the first two flybys. The data show that conditions in Saturn's magnetosphere affect the structure and dynamics deep in the ionosphere of Titan. The maximum measured ionospheric electron number density reached 3800 per cubic centimeter near closest approach, and a complex chemistry was indicated. The electron temperature profiles are consistent with electron heat conduction from the hotter Titan wake. The ionospheric escape flux was estimated to be 1025 ions per second. |
| Publication date: 13 May 2005 |
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| Cassini Radar Views the Surface of Titan |
| The Cassini Titan Radar Mapper imaged about 1% of Titan's surface at a resolution of ~0.5 kilometer, and larger areas of the globe in lower resolution modes. The images reveal a complex surface, with areas of low relief and a variety of geologic features
suggestive of dome-like volcanic constructs, flows, and sinuous channels. The surface appears to be young, with few impact craters. Scattering and dielectric properties are consistent with porous ice or organics. Dark patches in the radar images show high brightness temperatures and high emissivity and are consistent with frozen hydrocarbons. |
| Publication date: 13 May 2005 |
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| Energetic Neutral Atom Emissions from Titan Interaction with Saturn's Magnetosphere |
| The Cassini Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI) observed the interaction of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, with Saturn's magnetosphere during two close flybys of Titan on 26 October and 13 December 2004. The MIMI Ion and Neutral Camera (INCA) continuously imaged the energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) generated by charge exchange reactions between the energetic, singly ionized trapped magnetospheric ions and the outer atmosphere, or exosphere, of Titan. The images reveal a halo of variable ENA emission about Titan's nearly collisionless outer atmosphere that fades at larger distances as the exospheric density decays exponentially. The altitude of the emissions varies, and they are not symmetrical about the moon, reflecting the complexity of the interactions between Titan's upper atmosphere and Saturn's space environment. |
| Publication date: 13 May 2005 |
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| Intensive Titan Exploration Begins |
| The Cassini Orbiter spacecraft first skimmed through the tenuous upper atmosphere of Titan on 26 October 2004. This moon of Saturn is unique in our solar system, with a dense nitrogen atmosphere that is cold enough in places to rain methane, the feedstock for the atmospheric chemistry that produces hydrocarbons, nitrile compounds, and Titan's orange haze. The data returned from this flyby supply new information on the magnetic field and plasma environment around Titan, expose new facets of the dynamics and chemistry of Titan's atmosphere, and provide the first glimpses of what appears to be a complex, fluid-processed, geologically young Titan surface. |
| Publication date: 13 May 2005 |
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| Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer Results from the First Flyby of Titan |
| The Cassini Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) has obtained the first in situ composition measurements of the neutral densities of molecular nitrogen, methane, molecular hydrogen, argon, and a host of stable carbon-nitrile compounds in Titan's upper atmosphere. INMS in situ mass spectrometry has also provided evidence for atmospheric waves in the upper atmosphere and the first direct measurements of isotopes of nitrogen, carbon, and argon, which reveal interesting clues about the evolution of the atmosphere. The bulk composition and thermal structure of the moon's upper atmosphere do not appear to have changed considerably since the Voyager 1 flyby. |
| Publication date: 13 May 2005 |
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| The Cassini UVIS Stellar Probe of the Titan Atmosphere |
| The Cassini Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (UVIS) observed the extinction of photons from two stars by the atmosphere of Titan during the Titan flyby. Six species were identified and measured: methane, acetylene, ethylene, ethane, diacetylene, and hydrogen cyanide. The observations cover altitudes from 450 to 1600 kilometers above the surface. A mesopause is inferred from extraction of the temperature structure of methane, located at 615 km with a temperature minimum of 114 kelvin. The asymptotic kinetic temperature at the top of the atmosphere determined from this experiment is 151 kelvin. The higher order hydrocarbons and hydrogen cyanide peak sharply in abundance and are undetectable below altitudes ranging from 750 to 600 km, leaving methane as the only identifiable carbonaceous molecule in this experiment below 600 km. |
| Publication date: 13 May 2005 |
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| Titan's Atmospheric Temperatures, Winds, and Composition |
| Temperatures obtained from early Cassini infrared observations of Titan show a stratopause at an altitude of 310 kilometers (and 186 kelvin at 15°S). Stratospheric temperatures are coldest in the winter northern hemisphere, with zonal winds
reaching 160 meters per second. The concentrations of several stratospheric organic
compounds are enhanced at mid- and high northern latitudes, and the strong zonal
winds may inhibit mixing between these latitudes and the rest of Titan. Above the south pole, temperatures in the stratosphere are 4 to 5 kelvin cooler than at the equator. The stratospheric mole fractions of methane and carbon monoxide are (1.6 ± 0.5) x 10-2 and (4.5 ± 1.5) x 10-5, respectively. |
| Publication date: 13 May 2005 |
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| Titan's Magnetic Field Signature During the First Cassini Encounter |
| The magnetic field signature obtained by Cassini during its first close encounter with Titan on 26 October 2004 is presented and explained in terms of an advanced model. Titan was inside the saturnian magnetosphere. A magnetic field minimum before closest approach marked Cassini's entry into the magnetic ionopause layer. Cassini then left the northern and entered the southern magnetic tail lobe. The magnetic field before and after the encounter was approximately constant for ~20 Titan radii, but the field orientation changed exactly at the location of Titan's orbit. No evidence of an internal magnetic field at Titan was detected. |
| Publication date: 13 May 2005 |
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| Compositional maps of Saturn's moon Phoebe from imaging spectroscopy |
| The origin of Phoebe, which is the outermost large satellite of Saturn, is of particular interest because its inclined, retrograde orbit suggests that it was gravitationally captured by Saturn, having accreted outside the region of the solar nebula in which Saturn formed. By contrast, Saturn's regular satellites (with prograde, low-inclination, circular orbits) probably accreted within the sub-nebula in which Saturn itself formed. Here we report imaging spectroscopy of Phoebe resulting from the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft encounter on 11 June 2004. We mapped ferrous-iron-bearing minerals, bound water, trapped CO2, probable phyllosilicates, organics, nitriles and cyanide compounds. Detection of these compounds on Phoebe makes it one of the most compositionally diverse objects yet observed in our Solar System. It is likely that Phoebe's surface contains primitive materials from the outer Solar System, indicating a surface of cometary origin. |
| Publication date: 05 May 2005 |
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| Saturn's moon Phoebe as a captured body from the outer Solar System |
| The orbital properties of Phoebe, one of Saturn's irregular moons, suggest that it was captured by the ringed planet's gravitational field rather than formed in situ. Phoebe's generally dark surface shows evidence of water ice, but otherwise the surface most closely resembles that of C-type asteroids and small outer Solar System bodies such as Chiron and Pholus that are thought to have originated in the Kuiper belt. A close fly-by of Phoebe by the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft on 11 June 2004 (19 days before the spacecraft entered orbit around Saturn) provided an opportunity to test the hypothesis that this moon did not form in situ during Saturn's formation, but is instead a product of the larger protoplanetary disk or 'solar nebula'. Here we derive the rock-to-ice ratio of Phoebe using its density combined with newly measured oxygen and carbon abundances in the solar photosphere. Phoebe's composition is close to that derived for other solar nebula bodies such as Triton and Pluto, but is very different from that of the regular satellites of Saturn, supporting Phoebe's origin as a captured body from the outer Solar System. |
| Publication date: 05 May 2005 |
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| Saturn's retrograde renegade |
| Data from the Cassini-Huygens mission provide convincing evidence that the saturnian moon Phoebe formed elsewhere in the Solar System, and was only later captured by Saturn's gravitational pull. |
| Publication date: 05 May 2005 |
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| Imaging of Titan from the Cassini Spacecraft |
| Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is the only satellite in the Solar System with a substantial atmosphere. The atmosphere is poorly understood and obscures the surface, leading to intense speculation about Titan's nature. Here we present observations of Titan from the imaging science experiment onboard the Cassini spacecraft that address some of these issues. The images reveal intricate surface albedo features that suggest aeolian, tectonic and fluvial processes; they also show a few circular features that could be impact structures. These observations imply that substantial surface modification has occurred over Titan's history. We have not directly detected liquids on the surface to date. Convective clouds are found to be common near the south pole, and the motion of mid-latitude clouds consistently indicates eastward winds, from which we infer that the troposphere is rotating faster than the surface. A detached haze at an altitude of 500 km is 150-200 km higher than that observed by Voyager, and more tenuous haze layers are also resolved. |
| Publication date: 10 Mar 2005 |
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| Europe Arrives at the New Frontier - The Huygens Landing on Titan |
| On 14 January 2005, after a marathon seven-year journey through the Solar System aboard the Cassini spacecraft, ESA's Huygens
probe successfully descended through the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, and landed safely on its surface. It was
mankind's first successful attempt to land a probe on another world in the outer Solar System.
Following its release from the Cassini mothership on 25 December, Huygens reached Titan's outer atmosphere after 20 days and a 4 million
kilometre cruise. The probe started its descent through Titan's hazy cloud layers from an altitude of about 1270 km at 09:06 UTC. During
the following three minutes, Huygens had to decelerate from 18 000 to 1400 km per hour. |
| Publication date: 15 Feb 2005 |
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| Titan First Impressions |
| Scientists were ecstatic last weekend as Titan, Saturn's largest moon, dramatically revealed itself to have the atmosphere-bearing, hydrocarbon-based landscape they had anticipated.
But Huygens, the European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft that successfully parachuted through
Titan's atmosphere on 14 January, has also revealed its share of surprises. The high-risk mission had functioned better than its designers
had dared to expect - and they quickly reported that the moon looked even more interesting than
they had hoped. |
| Publication date: 20 Jan 2005 |
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| High Ambitions for an Outstanding Planetary Mission: Cassini-Huygens |
| Cassini-Huygens, named after the two celebrated scientists, is the joint NASA/ESA/ASI mission to Saturn and its giant moon Titan. It is designed to shed light on many of the unsolved mysteries arising from previous observations and to pursue the detailed exploration of the gas giants after Galileo's successful mission at Jupiter. The exploration of the Saturnian planetary system, the most complex in our Solar System, will help us to make significant progress in our understanding of planetary system formation and evolution, which is also a key step in our search for extra-solar planets. |
| Publication date: 15 Nov 2004 |
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| ESA SP-1276: ESA's Report to the 35th COSPAR Meeting |
Scientific editor: A. Gimenez
Editor: A. Wilson
The report for the 35th COSPAR Meeting covers, as in previous issues, the missions
of the Scientific Programme of ESA in the areas of astronomy, Solar System
exploration and fundamental physics. This year's COSPAR Meeting occurs only
weeks after the Saturn-orbit insertion of the Cassini spacecraft - carrying Europe's
Huygens probe to explore the atmosphere of Titan - and at the same time as the
launch of the second satellite of the Double Star project. |
| Publication date: 15 Jun 2004 |
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| Cassini-Huygens - Unique insights into a ringed world |
| Contents
| 4 | Solving the puzzles of Saturn and Titan |
| 6 | High ambitions for an outstanding planetary mission |
| 8 | A long and rich journey |
| 12 | What lies beneath? |
| 16 | Mysterious Titan |
| 20 | Vehicles of discovery |
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| Publication date: 01 Jun 2004 |
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