Saturday, May 28, 2005

Titan Revealed: Hear it for Yourself

Scientists are learning more and more about Titan, now that Cassini has completed the first of more than 40 flybys and Huygens has touched down.
The theories about "oceans of hydrocarbons" and "methan rain" didn't pan out, but some other really intriguing discoveries have been made, leading to a scientific impasse about the age of the surface they are getting glimpses of. Is it millions or billions of years old? And what about that bright spot. What is that?
All of these questions lead me to call for an orbiting probe. It's time we start thinking about long-term mapping missions, rather than slip-shod flybys. We need steady streams of data to make conclusions. And if we're not making conclusions why are we even bothering to go in the first place?

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