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The Official *Saturn* Exploration Thread


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The Official *Saturn* Exploration Thread
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Moogs
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2004-07-01, 11:39

That is an amazing picture... I noticed the wake lines right away. I can't wait to see some of the more "telephoto" shots of the rings and their contents (assuming it ever gets that close).

...into the light of a dark black night.
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curiousuburb
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2004-07-01, 12:01

Bad news: this was the closest we'll ever get to the rings for the the next 4 years.
Good news: latest set of images about to be discussed on NASA TV briefing right now.

That image was 7km per pixel. They have one at 700m per pixel.

Most of these images are still pretty raw... processing will clean up the digital images to remove scan lines, enhance contrast, and composite multiple filters, including IR and UV imaging to add a lot more value to these images.

Briefing is starting.

Confirmation that both ring plan passes left the spacecraft untouched with no safe events.
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autodata
hustlin
 
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2004-07-01, 12:18

I can't get over it:

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Kickaha
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2004-07-01, 12:19

Well technically all the bits that make up the rings are moons... but their orbits are so overlapped and they're so close together and densely packed that they essentially become 'one thing'. Kind of like how your molecules are so close together that you're 'one thing'.

If an object is in a discrete orbit of it's own, it's a moon. More precisely, a satellite, but we call them moons just to be confusing. Not to be further confused with The Moon, or Luna, since it's so bizarrely huge compared to other planetary/moon systems we know of that Terra/Luna are basically a binary planet. Pluto/Charon is the closest thing to what we have. Neat theories about how the relatively extreme tidal forces helped distribute heavy (ie, radioactive) elements in the Earth, and may have helped spur mutations and evolution...

But I digress.
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709
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2004-07-01, 12:35

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Moogs
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2004-07-01, 13:19

Has enough time passed since the rings formed (couple hundred million years ago according to the lady at the press conference), to know that these rings are not slowly coalescing into another very large moon... much like our moon may have coalesced?

...into the light of a dark black night.
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curiousuburb
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2004-07-01, 13:34

No definitive answer at the press conference to the future of the rings, but some of the gaps are shepherded by moons which may accrete some of the ring material over time, while some seem to be losing material into the rings over time.

Some fabulous new Wide angle images to match the F ring shot above, some Narrow angle zooms into the wake in the F ring, images of the magnetosphere, as well as audio and spectra from Cassini's 7 interactions with the Saturnian bowshock and magnetopause. Check the press release pages for them to post more.
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curiousuburb
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2004-07-01, 13:41

The big image of the Encke Gap with its inner scalloped edge (due to nearby moon travel) displays density waves that actually spiral in if you traced them around the plane, and may represent vertical oscillations off the ring plane (which ranges between 2 and 25m wide)

I think the briefing showed some animation from farther out which spotted moons in this gap, but it's not posted yet. Clearly their influence is impressive.
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autodata
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2004-07-01, 18:06

Quote:
Originally Posted by curiousuburb
the ring plane (which ranges between 2 and 25m wide)
I don't think I'll ever get over how thin yet prominent the ring system is.
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709
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2004-07-01, 18:18

Quote:
Originally Posted by autodata
I don't think I'll ever get over how thin yet prominent the ring system is.
No shit. I was conversing with the gf last week and our conversation led to Cassini/Saturn et al (yes, she's that cool, even after 7 years). Anyways, we were trying to figure out how thick the rings would be if our house was Saturn and our office was the outer ring edge. It's about 2k from front porch to front entrance, so with a little head calculating the rings came out to be roughly 1cm thick.

We both had a serious 'WTF?' moment. Unbelievable.

So it goes.
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Moogs
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2004-07-01, 18:47

Stunning stuff. I just switched my desktop to the "Approaching Saturn" shot from the JPL's May archive (the 17 million miles and closing one - natural color). Just awe-inspiring.

...into the light of a dark black night.
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drewprops
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2004-07-07, 23:39

What I want to know is: what that super "bright" methane(?) speck is that is showing up in all the latest photos????....really interesting!!!
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Mac+
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2004-07-08, 05:35

*nods/shakes head in appreciation and awe*

This is a cool thread!
Thanks for the links, images and info. Sincerely!
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curiousuburb
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2004-07-19, 23:57

Sorry for slacking in my updates... new term start.

ESA has a spiffy new "Where is Cassini Now" Flash animation

Dark side detail of Dione

Quote:
The icy, cratered surface of Saturn's moon Dione shows more than just its sunlit side in these two processed versions of the same image.

The view at left, with only mild enhancement, shows a romantic crescent with large craters visible. The contrast in the version at the right has been greatly enhanced to show the side of Dione lit faintly by reflected light from Saturn. A similar phenomenon can be seen from Earth, when the Moon's dark side is visible due to "earthshine." The crater at the top of the image appears to have a sunlit central peak in the enhanced view - a common characteristic of craters on Dione as seen in Voyager images. Slight variations in brightness on the moon's dark side hint at the bright curved linear streaks, seen by Voyager. These streaks are thought to be deposits of water ice
Iapetus, the two-faced moon also gets a new photo

Quote:
The moon with the split personality, Iapetus, presents a puzzling appearance. One hemisphere of the moon is very dark, while the other is very bright. Whether the moon is being coated by foreign material or being resurfaced by material from within is not yet known.

Iapetus' diameter is about one third that of our own moon at 1,436 kilometers (892 miles). The latest image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on July 3, 2004, from a distance of 3 million kilometers (1.8 million miles) from Iapetus (pronounced eye-APP-eh-tuss).

The brightness variations in this image are not due to shadowing, they are real. The face of Iapetus visible was observed at a Sun-Iapetus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of about 10 degrees. The image scale is 18 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel. The image was magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility.
Titan fans are inside 100 days to the next flyby and dose of data, then another 60 days of itching for Huygens Xmas-eve release.

Ring junkies might tip their hats to this rakish new view.

Quote:
This dramatic view of Saturn’s rings draped by the shadow of Saturn, shows brightness variations that correspond to differences in the concentration of the ring particles as they orbit the planet.

The planet’s western limb is visible in the upper right corner. Three of Saturn’s moons can be seen here: Bright Enceladus (499 kilometers, or 310 miles across) is visible near lower right; Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across) appears at center left; and interior to the F ring, near the top of the image, is Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across). The F ring, the outermost ring shown here, displays several knot-like features near the left side of the image.

The image was taken in visible light by the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera on July 3, 2004, from a distance of 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Saturn, at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of about 108 degrees. This is the first processed wide angle camera image to be released since Cassini’s encounter with Jupiter in 2000. The image scale is 87 kilometers (54 miles) per pixel.
Messenger is due for launch to Mercury near the end of the month, so I'll have to start another thread.
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curiousuburb
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2004-08-17, 11:30

Cassini discovers two new moons around Saturn.


Quote:
Cassini Uncovers New Moon
+Full Caption



With eyes sharper than any that have peered at Saturn before, the Cassini spacecraft has uncovered two moons, which may be the smallest bodies so far seen around the ringed planet.

The moons are approximately 3 kilometers (2 miles) and 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) across -- smaller than the city of Boulder, Colorado. The moons, located 194,000 kilometers (120,000 miles) and 211,000 kilometers (131,000 miles) from the planet's center, are between the orbits of two other saturnian moons, Mimas and Enceladus. They are provisionally named S/2004 S1 and S/2004 S2. One of them, S/2004 S1, may be an object spotted in a single image taken by NASA's Voyager spacecraft 23 years ago, called at that time S/1981 S14.
Naming conventions suggest lesser Greek God/desses will be candidates.

Mars Rover briefing tomorrow at 1pm EST will update Rover Health and crater rock analysis.
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curiousuburb
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2004-08-18, 14:11

NASA TV is about to show a press conference on Cassini's discovery of the 2 new Moons
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stevegong
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2004-08-21, 14:52

I believe Carbon 14 dating is not suitable for things that have been around this long. Carbon 14 can only be used to date things that are thousands of years old.

Potassium 40 dating however, iirc can be used to date rocks from over 4 billion years old.
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curiousuburb
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2004-09-04, 14:46

False colour image of the rings based on temperature.

Quote:
Originally Posted by linked pic above
Saturn's Rings, Cold and Colder
September 2, 2004

The varying temperatures of Saturn's rings are depicted here in this false-color image from the Cassini spacecraft.

This image represents the most detailed look to date at the temperature of Saturn's rings. The image was made from data taken by Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer instrument.

Red represents temperatures of about 110 Kelvin (-261 degrees Fahrenheit), and blue 70 Kelvin (-333 degrees Fahrenheit). Green is equivalent to 90 Kelvin (-298 degrees Fahrenheit). Water freezes at 273 Kelvin (32 degrees Fahrenheit). The spatial resolution of the ring portion of the image is 200 kilometers (124 miles).

The data show that the opaque region of the rings, like the outer A ring (on the far right) and the middle B ring, are cooler, while more transparent sections, like the Cassini Division (in red just inside the A ring) or the inner C ring (shown in yellow and red), are relatively warmer.

The temperature data were taken on July 1, 2004, of the unlit side of the rings. In order to show the full breadth of the rings, a strip of temperature data was mapped onto a picture of the lit side of the rings taken with the Cassini narrow angle camera on May 11, 2004, a little over a month before Saturn orbit insertion. Cassini is too close to the planet and hence no pictures of the unlit side of the rings are available, so the temperature data were mapped onto a picture of the lit side of rings. Saturn is overexposed and pure white in this picture. Saturn's moon Enceladus is visible below the rings, toward the center. The original picture and caption are available at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA05410.
For those with Red/Blue glasses, there's also a new composite of Phoebe in 3D


Also on tap this week, the GENESIS spacecraft is returning from its mission to sample the solar wind and is scheduled to drop it's sample return payload for airborne helicopter capture on Sep 8.
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curiousuburb
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2004-09-27, 18:09



Quote:
Musical Rings
September 27, 2004
Full-Res: PIA06485


Looking something like the fibrous bow of a violin, Saturn's colorful rings sweep through this spectacular natural color view while two small moons look on.

From left, the moons visible here are Janus (181 kilometers, or 112 miles across) and Mimas (398 kilometers, or 247 miles across). Cassini's view in this image is from beneath the ring plane; the moons are on the far side of Saturn. Janus leads Mimas as the two moons orbit the planet.

Nearly the entire ring system can be seen in this view. The diaphanous C ring appears at the upper right, followed by the multi-hued B ring. Next, the famous Cassini division (4,800 kilometers, or 2,980 miles wide) separates the A and B rings. The outer edge of the B ring which forms the inner boundary of the Cassini division is maintained by a gravitational resonance with Mimas. Near the outer edge of the A ring are the Encke Gap (325 kilometers, or 202 miles wide) and the barely visible Keeler Gap (35 kilometers, or 22 miles wide). The faint, thread-like F ring is discernible just beyond the main rings.

The image was obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on August 27, 2004, at a distance of 9.1 million kilometers (5.6 million miles) from Saturn. Images taken with red, green and blue filters were combined to create this color view. The moons have been enhanced in brightness to increase their visibility. The image scale is 54 kilometers (34 miles) per pixel.
Since my last update (sorry, busy), Cassini has discovered new Rings and Moons (QT video here)

We're also inside a month until the next major Titan flyby, in anticipation of Huygens release near Xmas.
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BarracksSi
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2004-09-27, 22:59

I just want to keep an eye on this thread!

The comment about the one moon looking like the Death Star was pretty good, too.
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curiousuburb
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2004-10-23, 12:35

Tune in for Titan on Tuesday



Quote:
Tune in to Titan

On Tuesday, Oct. 26, Cassini will pass within 1,200 km (746 miles) of Saturn's giant moon Titan. The historic flyby will be the closest approach to Titan to date. NASA TV coverage begins Oct. 26 at 6:30 p.m. (PST).
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autodata
hustlin
 
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2004-10-25, 23:34

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curiousuburb
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2004-10-26, 01:13

Quote:
Originally Posted by autodata
The caption should read:
Quote:
Originally Posted by CassiniHuygens Multimedia Images

Cassini Eyes Titan's Xanadu - October 25, 2004

This image taken on Oct. 24, 2004, reveals Titan's bright "continent-sized" terrain known as Xanadu. It was acquired with the narrow angle camera on Cassini's imaging science subsystem through a spectral filter centered at 938 nanometers, a wavelength region at which Titan's surface can be most easily detected. The surface is seen at a higher contrast than in previously released imaging science subsystem images due to a lower phase angle (Sun-Titan-Cassini angle), which minimizes scattering by the haze.

The image shows details about 10 times smaller than those seen from Earth. Surface materials with different brightness properties (or albedos) rather than topographic shading are highlighted. The image has been calibrated and slightly enhanced for contrast. It will be further processed to reduce atmospheric blurring and to optimize mapping of surface features. The origin and geography of Xanadu remain mysteries at this range. Bright features near the south pole (bottom) are clouds. On Oct. 26, Cassini will acquire images of features in the central-left portion of this image from a position about 100 times closer.

From here among a few new Titan shots released today
Expecting much better tomorrow night. Maybe even 100 times better.
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curiousuburb
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2004-10-26, 16:11

Coming up on 4 hours to the Titan flyby webcast.

Quote:
(All times are Pacific time)

*
Titan Flyby
NASA TV Coverage
- October 26, 6:30 pm

Post-Flyby Briefing
NASA TV Coverage
- October 27, 9:00 am

Science Briefing
NASA TV Coverage
- October 28, 9:00 am
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curiousuburb
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2004-10-26, 20:43

Flyby success!

The webcast of data playback is starting.
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curiousuburb
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2004-10-26, 21:21

Looks like only 3 non-Apple notebooks in a room of 10+ glowing fruit logos.
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curiousuburb
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2004-10-27, 12:15

Some of the processed images from the flyby are up

Radar data will help add a topographic picture tomorrow morning.
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curiousuburb
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2004-10-28, 12:21

Huygens Landing Site

Quote:
Shown here are two images of the expected landing site of Cassini's Huygens' probe (latitude 10.6 S, longitude 191 W). At right is a wide-angle image showing most of Titan's disc, with a scale of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) per pixel. At left is a narrow-angle image of the landing site at a scale of 0.83 kilometers (.5 miles) per pixel (location shown by black box at right). North is tilted about 45 degrees from the top of both images. The surface has bright and dark markings with a streamlined pattern consistent with motion from a fluid, such as the atmosphere, moving from west to east (upper left to lower right). The image at left is 400 kilometers (249 miles) wide. Both images were taken by Cassini's imaging science subsystem through near-infrared filters.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

+ High resolution

+ View archive
False colour VIMS images of the same areas in Infrared

Quote:
This image taken by Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer clearly shows surface features on Titan. It is a composite of false-color images taken at three infrared wavelengths: 2 microns (blue); 2.7 microns (red); and 5 microns (green). A methane cloud can be seen at the south pole (bottom of image). This picture was obtained as Cassini flew by Titan at altitudes ranging from 100,000 to 140,000 kilometers (88,000 to 63,000 miles), less than two hours before the spacecraft's closest approach. The inset picture shows the landing site of Cassini's piggybacked Huygens probe.
Radar results this morning didn't cover the same area, but in the Northern hemisphere swath of 100km x 2000km they captured yesterday, the altimetry results showed less than a 50m variation in elevation... pretty flat surface they said.

More data should come out tomorrow. There was some fascinating chemistry stuff discussed this morning about the propensity for polymerization of certain hydrocarbons into other chains, sometimes 'metallic', sometimes 'white', and sometimes 'black' to certain instruments, but I would have liked to have heard more on how/why certain transformations occur.

Where in the atmosphere seems important, but Titan is somewhat unusual in that it passes in and out of Saturn's magnetosphere periodically in its orbit and is sometimes fully exposed to the solar wind, while at other times benefits from shielding against certain cosmic emissions and potentially mutagenic radiation.

Yesterday's results from scooping a sample of Titan's atmosphere.

Quote:
This graph shows data acquired by Cassini as it flew by Titan at an altitude of 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) on Oct. 26, 2004 - its closet approach yet to the hazy moon. The data is from Cassini's ion and neutral mass spectrometer, which detects charged and neutral particles in the atmosphere. The graph reveals a diversity of hydrocarbons in the high atmosphere above Titan, including benzene and diacetylene.
Still more questions than answers, but it's sure fascinating.

Last edited by curiousuburb : 2004-10-28 at 12:30.
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BarracksSi
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2004-10-29, 18:00

curiousuburb, thanks for the distilled updates. This is good stuff.
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curiousuburb
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2004-11-05, 18:02

Planetary Society/ESA Announce: Titan Art Contest

Best image(s) by Nov 28th win a trip to Germany to watch Huygens descent live at ESA control.

Quote:
How to enter

Create an artwork representing what you imagine Titan looks like underneath its haze, based on your perspective on Huygens' journey. Are you viewing the moon from the air after Huygens breaks through the cloud or on the surface after the craft has parachuted to a landing? Did Huygens land on solid ground or is she floating in an ethane sea? Send us your vision of what lies beneath the veil when you imagine Titan.

Once you have finished your artwork you can enter the contest online. You do not need to mail your work, just create it on the computer, take a digital photo or scan your artwork. However, if you are not able to enter the contest digitally, you can also mail it to us. *
*
Contest questions and answers
*
Who can enter?

Anyone aged 10 and above may enter either in the youth section (aged 10-17) or the adult section (18 and over).

What kind of art can I create?

You can use any medium to create your artwork and then send us a digital image through the online entry form. You can also mail your art to us but please note that it should be no larger than 2.5 x 28 x 43 cm (1 x 11 x 17 inches) and that we cannot return artwork.

When does the contest end?

28 November 2004 at 23:59 Pacific time

What can I win?

The Grand Prize is a trip to Darmstadt, Germany to be on site at ESA's Operations Centre for the descent of the Huygens probe. There are also four first prizes (two for both sections) and up to 20 second prizes. The Grand Prize Winner will be chosen from among the first prize winners.

All the winning artwork will be displayed at ESA's European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) during the Huygens mission to Titan and winners will all receive a Planetary Society prize package. This contains: one year's free Planetary Society membership; a Certificate of Honour; a Cassini-Huygens Mission Patch; an ESA poster, pin and keychain; and a 'Nine Planets' lithograph set.

In addition, two special prizes (one in each section) will be awarded for the artwork that most closely resembles any part of the image of the Titan panoramic landscape taken by the Huygens probe during its final descent. These awards, a framed and autographed Huygens photo of the Titan landscape, will be made within 30 days of the return of the actual Titan image data.

Mailing address for postal entries
Huygens Art Contest
The Planetary Society
65 N Catalina Ave.
Pasadena
CA 91106
USA
Get your paints and pixels going, ladies and gentlemen of artistic bent.
It is remotely possible you might even get a bit of Titan named after you.
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