Titan RAW pics are in

[EFossa]

This one is interesting:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/raw-images-details.cfm?feiImageID=6913

[JustAGuy]

As is this one. It almost looks like a river pouring into a lake at the bottom right. Almost ;)

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS02/N00006551.jpg

[parejkoj]

Let me just note, that you should be very careful about what you think you see in these pictures. They haven't been flat-fielded yet which means there is variation across the frame, and noisy bits are still there.

Also, which parts are on the surface, and which are clouds is yet to be determined. I was watching them go through some of these today, and they can't find shadows, so they can't be certain anything they are seeing is on the surface.

The VIMS images on the other hand... :)

There should be a press-conference tomorrow morning at about 10am Pacific time. I don't know if they'll broadcast it on NASA TV, but I hope so, since I can't get back to JPL tomorrow. But VIMS has definite surface features and at least one cloud. Watch the web-page for more...

[Amadeus]

As is this one. It almost looks like a river pouring into a lake at the bottom right. Almost ;)

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS02/N00006551.jpg


What are the little white spots? are these stars or just artifacts of the image? If you look to the left of centre there seems to be a streak.
Could this be a meteor?

[JustAGuy]

What are the little white spots? are these stars or just artifacts of the image? If you look to the left of centre there seems to be a streak.
Could this be a meteor?
My vote goes for noise, but like parejkoj said, we'll have to wait for the experts to get through with these before we really know what we're looking at.

[Kullat Nunu]

What are the little white spots? are these stars or just artifacts of the image? If you look to the left of centre there seems to be a streak.
Could this be a meteor?

No, it is probably caused by a cosmic ray in the CCD camera. Streaks like it are common for example in raw Hubble photos. Image defects have jagged borders, although the Jpeg conversion have smudged it a little.
Dark circle left to bright formation is a dust particle on the camera lens. Similar circles were also visible on the Voyager cameras.

[PeteB]

Since the inimitable ToSeek wasn't providing his usual excellent commentary for the press conference, here are some results for Titan that I heard:


The albedo differences in the images are on the surface , although perhaps made a little fuzzy by ground haze. But it is also possible that the lighter areas that almost look like clouds really are "fuzzy" and due to indistinct, transitional boundaries.

The apparent difference in albedo is not as great as it appears: light regions are only about 2x the dark areas. The surface appears to be quite dark, with an albedo of about 5-10%.

The biggest surprise so far is that the belief that dark areas might be places where organics have pooled may be wrong. The first VIMS results show the highest amount of organics appear to be associated with the lighter albedo regions and primarily water ice is seen in the dark areas - just the opposite of what was believed prior to this encounter.

Only one area of clouds, the brightest patches in the images, occurs near the south pole. The clouds appear to be about 15 km in altitude and show changes over a several hour time period.

[Reverend J]

I'm interested in what this the feature in the upper left hand corner is:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS02/N00006561.jpg

It says in the description they use IRP0 and CB3 filters, what's the wavelenghts of those, and are we looking at surface or cloud level features?

Rev J.

[Squink]

Not so raw images:
Natural Color (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/large-moons/images/PIA06081.jpg&type=image)
Surface (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/titan/images/PIA06407.jpg&type=image)
Surface Composition (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/titan/images/PIA06405.jpg&type=image)
Map (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/large-moons/images/PIA06086.jpg&type=image) (With CANALS! :wink: )

[Mr. Milton Banana]

Not so raw images:
Natural Color (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/large-moons/images/PIA06081.jpg&type=image)
Surface (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/titan/images/PIA06407.jpg&type=image)
Surface Composition (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/titan/images/PIA06405.jpg&type=image)
Map (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/large-moons/images/PIA06086.jpg&type=image) (With CANALS! :wink: )

Something tells me Saturn has a second Death Star!!

:o :o :o

;)

[01101001]

I'm interested in what this the feature in the upper left hand corner is:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS02/N00006561.jpg
Titan's south-polar clouds (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia06110.html)

[Bill Dunaway]

How long before Hoagland finds proof of an advanced Titanian civilization?

[Gullible Jones]

W :o W...

[PeteB]

Another comment at the press conference on the patch of clouds was that their persistence in this location may suggest that they are caused by atmospheric upwelling over underlying topography (orographic clouds). They appear to occur at the altitude where methane condensation is expected. Another factor may be that this is the early summer in the southern hemisphere and the south pole is continually illuminated, so maybe more surface heating is involved. Additional Titan images were sent back today so they will be able to put together a longer time series showing cloud motions.

[Reverend J]

I'm interested in what this the feature in the upper left hand corner is:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS02/N00006561.jpg
Titan's south-polar clouds (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia06110.html)

Well, I guess that answers my question, thanx! :)

[Kullat Nunu]

Looks like new batch of raw images have been released...

Not much new about Titan except beautiful crescent views. More interesting are the other icy satellites, resolution of the pictures is good enough to spot surface features.

Its so good to see the old friends again. :)

*Saturn-lit Mimas (http://saturn1.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS02/N00006614.jpg)
*Nothing is discernible on Enceladus (http://saturn1.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS02/N00006679.jpg)
*Overexposed crescent of Tethys (http://saturn1.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS02/N00006677.jpg)
*Dione too is overexposed (http://saturn1.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS02/N00006615.jpg)
*Crescent of Rhea - this image has the best quality (http://saturn1.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS02/N00006616.jpg)
*Iapetus - the bright areas are overexposed (http://saturn1.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS02/N00006671.jpg)

[PeteB]

I wonder if there will be any of Hyperion? It was relatively close the last few days - around 650,000 km, so the resolution should have been as good or a little better than Voyager.

[Anonymous]

Kullat Nunu wrote:

“Dark circle left to bright formation is a dust particle on the camera lens.”

I really should read all the posts carefully more often than I do. I actually spent about 20 minutes pouring over a handful of images before deciding that the dark donut could not be atmospheric or a surface feature.

A tad off-topic but can the size of the dust particle be determined? I was thinking that examining earlier images would reveal when (and therefore where) the dustmote was acquired (the plunge through the ring plane?) and provide a sample of particle size for that region.