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The Planetary Report • March/April 2005
Huygens—Success!
On the Cover: Top: As Huygens floated down through Titan’s atmosphere, it captured these 30 images from altitudes of 13 to 8 kilometers (9 to 5 miles). Details are visible down to about 20 meters across, and the images cover an area 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) wide. <br> <br> Bottom: A mountainous coastline marks the landscape near Huygens’ landing site, as seen in this mosaic. Dark channels drain into a major river below. To terrestrial eyes, this looks like an aerial photo of a scenic lakeshore, but on Titan, water behaves like rock and hydrocarbons flow like water.
Features
6 Basic Solar Sailing: Bill Nye explains the basics of solar sailing to readers of all ages.
8 Eavesdropping on Huygens: Sami Asmar tells the dramatic story of the recovery of data from the Huygens Doppler Wind Experiment.
12 A World Revealed: Huygens' Images of Titan: Here, we present some of the most exciting first-ever images of the surface of this exotic world.
14 Miranda: Shattering an Image: Bob Pappalardo shines new light on this tiny moon of Uranus and its fractured surface.
20 Annual Report to Our Members: 2004 was an incredible year in space, and Society members were a part of it all.
Departments
3 Members' Dialogue Titan on the web, and interstellar flight technology
4 We Make it Happen! Cosmos 1 update
19 World Watch ESA mission successes, the NASA budget, ISS development, and Chandrayaan-1
22 Society News Society political advocacy activities in Washington D.C., and volunteers drum up enthusiasm for Huygens' descent to Titan's surface
The Planetary Report • March/April 2005
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