Word: titan
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Pioneer reports an eleventh moon, more rings and a frigid Titan...
...sweep past Saturn, it had provided the best look yet at the solar system's second largest planet, discovered what is probably an eleventh Saturnian moon and two more rings. It also confirmed the existence of another ring and a magnetic field, and dimmed hopes that Titan, Saturn's largest moon, might harbor some form of life...
Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the mission was the failure to record atmospheric and surface temperatures on Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Scientists have been particularly fascinated by Titan because it is slightly larger than the planet Mercury and has a thick atmosphere that may be similar to that of the primitive earth. Spectroscopic readings by earthbound astronomers showed, for example, that the atmosphere is rich in methane gas, which is believed to be one of the primary ingredients in the earth's early atmosphere. Given the right temperatures, scientists speculated, some form of life, or at least...
...early last week Pioneer scientists announced that interference from solar storms, occurring just as Pioneer was transmitting Titan temperature readings, had obliterated the data. Two days later, NASA explained that signals from a Soviet earth satellite, not solar storms, had. caused the interference (NASA took the blame, explaining that it had failed to notify the Soviets, who would have cooperated by silencing their satellite's radio at the crucial time...
Finally, the Pioneer scientists shamefacedly confessed that they had found in their recordings some Titan temperature data that were partially garbled - not because of satellite signals but because of interference from solar storms and communications problems between a tracking antenna in Spam and the Ames control center. Still, enough information was retrieved to confirm that the temperature at Titan's cloud tops was a frigid -200° C (-328° F). That seemed to rule out surface temperatures warm enough to allow the formation of amino acids, the building blocks of life. But scientists were withholding final judgment until...