The European Space Agency just released the first image from the Huygens landing on Titan.

The TV schedule advertised "18", ESA had promised "3", and wound up showing just one --
and then flashed a second without apparently realizing they had done so.

The image shows the view downward from an altitude of 16 km (10 miles -- airliner cruising height).

The most startling feature visible is clear erosional channels, looking like network of river valleys.

My commentary -- not mentioned anywhere else -- is that these channels may be YOUNG
because the Titan atmosphere is so thick, with such high winds, that old features would 'SOON'
(millions of years) erode or be filled in. So there is dynamic WEATHER and GEOLOGY on
the surface. That 'gardens' the soil and creates conditions for regenerative biochemical processes
(read my lips -- I'm NOT saying 'life').

A second image was ALSO shown, for about 1/4 of a second, during the discussion between
the media host and Dr. Tomasko, the imager chief scientist.

That image appears to be from a lower altitude, in the upper right quadrant of the main picture,
and suggests the probe was descending very close to the shoreline.

[I taped it and freeze-framed it to study in detail]

JPL source tells me that they have received an entire packet of images from ESA and are
running around as we speak to post hi-res versions on THEIR website (www.jpl.nasa.gov),
and I should look for them there in 10-20 minutes.

How about images FROM THE SURFACE? Do we see flat goo-mud, with bubble-craters,
or windblown dunes, or crystalline biochemical encrustations (goo-coral?), or fumeroles,
or toadstools -- WHAT?