Titan

Before I get into this post, I’d like to apologize to the few who actually read this blog: I have had little desire to pontificate lately on any subject, whether it be the callous politics of Washington, the ineptitude of elected officials, Iran, network neutrality, etc. Blogs have become a medium unto which anybody can engage and write about any subject of their choosing. While this is great in one respect (free speech, discussion, leveling the playing field with main-stream media, and providing for news not normally covered by MSM), it has also brought a glut of poorly-written, half-assed attempts at writing. I esteem to rise above that level, but I remain guarded on the true power, function and utility of a blog.

With that said, I wanted to share a revelatory video of the ESA/NASA Huygens Probe descent onto Saturn’s moon Titan. While this occurred just over a year ago, it took until now for these space agencies to release the footage. The video is remarkable, stunning, and real! Click on the image below to see it.

Maybe the music in the background set me thinking, but do these images strike anyone else as breathtaking? We put a man-made object onto another heavenly body that looks surprisingly Earth-like. Granted, Titan is much colder than Earth (as can be gleaned from the mention of “water ice rocks” near the end). How cool will it be when, sometime in the next hundred years or so, man sets foot on one or more of these planets or moons in our solar system.

To further set the mood, someone from the Huygens Probe team produced a piece of cool music to go along with the descent and the applause it was awarded by the team upon learning of its success. Listen to it here.