Titan: tapping the flood of data

摘要

It is easy to forget that just over a year ago, Titan was one of the most mysterious objects in our Solar System. Larger than the planet Mercury, Saturn's largest satellite is the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere. And during years of telescopic observations, Titan has remained hidden beneath its thick hydrocarbon smog, a well-wrapped gift held tantalizingly out of reach. But since the Cassini-Huygens mission arrived at the ringed planet last year, scientists have been clearing up Titan's mysteries at a tremendous pace. "Before Cassini-Huygens, Titan was the largest unexplored surface in the Solar System," says Ralph Lorenz, a planetary scientist from the University of Arizona, Tucson. "Now scientists are just trying to stand up against the fire hose of information."