Did Fluid Once Flow on Titan?
January 14, 2005 / Posted by: Yael Kovo Carolyn Porco of the Space Science Institute (Boulder, Colorado) heads Cassini’s imaging science team. She sat down with Astrobiology Magazine’s Chief Editor, Helen Matsos, to give a scientist’s first look at Titan from the European Space Agency’s Darmstadt, Germany mission control room. Porco, also an University of Arizona adjunct professor of planetary sciences, describes her excitement and surprise when the Mars-like imagery first beamed down to Earth from Titan’s surface. Porco speculates what might elementally comprise those mysteriously smooth boulders in the foreground. Helen Matsos (HM): What is your reaction to the stunning photos from Titan today? Carolyn Porco (CP): I sound like a broken record, but I am so shocked! I really didn’t expect Titan to look this way. I really didn’t expect the images to be so easily interpretable. HM: What did you think they’d look like? CP: I thought we’d see patterns like we’re seeing only in finer detail
