Alien lifeform?

That's from 16km out. I hope not oOo:

[img]http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/cassini_huygens/huygens_land/landing_01_H.jpg[/img]
Very first picture from the surface of titan ever by mankind.

looks like it landed on solid ground. They wern't sure whether it would land on surface or in some methane lake or something since the place seems so mixed up with solid surface and liquids.


Edit:

ESA took the above image down for some reason. Maybe it's not titan at all and really is africa. hake:

they replaced it with
[img]http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/cassini_huygens/huygens_land/landing_03_H.jpg[/img]

So I don't know if the first pic of the surface is titan at all. I think their confused.

Like Noctis said, that is from way above the surface, as Huygens parachuted to the surface. As well as taking pictures, it was sampling the atmosphere, so we'll probably get some definitive asnwers as to the make up of the atmosphere.

The wrinkles are likley canals where rivers flow. They may not flow anymore, or perhaps they are. ESA and NASA can figure that out.

Looks like North Africa. Staged?

[img]http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/IMG001299-br500.jpg[/img]
Huygens at Titan
January 14, 2005

This is one of the first raw, or unprocessed, images from the European Space Agency's Huygens probe as it descended to Saturn's moon Titan. It was taken with the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer, one of two NASA instruments on the probe.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Descent Imager/Spectral team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.

Credit: ESA/NASA/University of Arizona

Looks like a desert.

Here's another not even publically listed on their site yet:

[img]http://www.esa.int/images/landing02_L.jpg[/img]

I have no idea what it is.

[img]http://www.esa.int/images/landing01_L2.jpg[/img]
14 January 2005
This raw image was returned by the ESA Huygens DISR camera after the probe descended through the atmosphere of Titan. It shows the surface of Titan with ice blocks strewn around. The size and distance of the blocks will be determined when the image is properly processed.

Credits: ESA/NASA/University of Arizona

[img]http://www.esa.int/images/landing03_L2.jpg[/img]
14 January 2005
This is one of the first raw images returned by the ESA Huygens probe during its successful descent. It was taken from an altitude of 16.2 kilometres with a resolution of approximately 40 metres per pixel. It apparently shows short, stubby drainage channels leading to a shoreline.

[img]http://www.esa.int/images/landing02_L2,0.jpg[/img]
14 January 2005 This is one of the first raw images returned by the ESA Huygens probe during its successful descent.It was taken at an altitude of 8 kilometres with a resolution of 20 metres per pixel. It shows what could be the landing site, with shorelines and boundaries between raised ground and flooded plains.

I was watching some Crackerjack NASA employee talking about that very first picture. He said that what looked like rock on the ground was probably Ice... oOo:


**Edit: Needs to look at other posts before writing response**

Is it just me, or does that look like an ocean to the side? Kinda funny..Im learning about all of Jupiter and Saturns moons right now in school.

could be. if it is, it's most likley methane.

Wow, thats great. Where theres water, theres life..I'm not really sure what this probe can do...will it be searching the water, if it can?

this is not water. this is methane.

the tempure on titan is something like -180 celcius. liquid water can't exist that far out in the solar system unless it's deep down near the core of a planet or moon like Europa, which is a moon of Jupiter. That is the best place to look for life in teh solar system. I believe there is a probe going there that will land, and then melt a hole in the ice that is miles deep to eventually get to where there is liquid water to see what lives down there.

The one thing about titan is the little balls in one of those pics up there they say are made of ice. Frozen water. So life could actually live there since we've found life in the ince in antarctica etc. although titan is a lot colder than antarctica, so i doubt it, but you never know. Anyway, we won't know until we get a rover type thing there to take samples. Huygens is already dead. It can't run on solar power because its so far away form the sun and the atmosphere is so thick. so it relies on batteries and Cassini also must orbit above it to relay the info to earth. cassini has now set, so huygens can't transmit. cassini won't be back to where huygens can transmit for 31 days. I don't think the batteries are supposed to last longer than a few hours. so basically all were getting today is about 300 pictures some sounds, because it had a mic onboard and probably some colour photos and analysis of the atmosphere.

....how much resistance can this little probe take before it just freezes?

BTW...are you Mr. Knudson...?