Odd Spot on Titan Baffles Scientists

[norml]

Odd Spot on Titan Baffles Scientists
May 25, 2005

Saturn's moon Titan shows an unusual bright spot that has scientists mystified. The spot, approximately the size and shape of West Virginia, is just southeast of the bright region called Xanadu and is visible to multiple instruments on the Cassini spacecraft.

The 483-kilometer-wide (300-mile) region may be a "hot" spot -- an area possibly warmed by a recent asteroid impact or by a mixture of water ice and ammonia from a warm interior, oozing out of an ice volcano onto colder surrounding terrain. Other possibilities for the unusual bright spot include landscape features holding clouds in place or unusual materials on the surface.

"At first glance, I thought the feature looked strange, almost out of place," said Dr. Robert H. Brown, team leader of the Cassini visual and infrared mapping spectrometer and professor at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson. "After thinking a bit, I speculated that it was a hot spot. In retrospect, that might not be the best hypothesis. But the spot is no less intriguing."

The Cassini spacecraft flew by Titan on March 31 and April 16. Its visual and infrared mapping spectrometer, using the longest, reddest wavelengths that the spectrometer sees, observed the spot, the brightest area ever observed on Titan.




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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2005-086

[tuvor]

1. Why is it scientists are the only people who ever are "baffled"?

Seriously. Teachers are never baffled. Barristas are never baffled. Accountants are never baffled.

It's always scientists. :shrug:

[tkmorris]

2. I'm baffled all the time

And I am strictly an amateur when it comes to science.

I can also tell you that anyone who has ever parented a teen has spent huge swaths of time baffled, befuddled, bewildered and bemused. Just sayin'.

:beer:

[ebayfool]

5. I've raised 2, working on 3 - you are soooo right @ that!

Coincidentally, I've literally had my hair fall out twice (both times the kid was @ 16) ... not so baffling! Now that it's grown back, the next will be 16 in 2 years. If it falls out again, I think that qualifies as a scientific study ... so I can be baffled w/the scientists!

I'm up too late - that doesn't even make sense to me, but I'm posting it anyway! LOL

[norml]

3. Police are also baffled.

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http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&q=police+baffled&btnmeta%3Dsearch%3Dsearch=Search+the+Web

[tabasco]

4. About the size of West Virginia, eh?

Are they sure it isn't burning sofas?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

6. Highly reflective...

...1976 Chevy hubcaps.

[leftofthedial]

7. they found Dick Cheney's undisclosed location

and he's lighting farts.

[Pinboy]

8. Oops! There goes the "secure, undisclosed location." n/t

[dummy-du1]

9. All these worlds are yours...

except Titan.
Do not attempt any landings there.
Use them together.
Use them in peace.