Hi All

New ESA mosaic...

Titan from 10 km

...very cool view, which makes sense of the terribly spinning animation of the descent. Motion-sickness came to mind watching the animation.

Adam

PS Back to my earlier suggestion that Iapetus has been quarried for ice. Natural question is: who did it? From all the cratering it was ages ago, so I would suggest the Venusians.

Ok, ok... I have to justify that one. Let me elaborate. Back when the solar system was young Earth and Venus were akin - nitrogen atmospheres, water oceans and lots of carbonates. Venus was hot and wet, Earth was rich in carbon dioxide and probably methane smog. Venus was losing hydrogen and gaining oxygen, and any life in its oceans was living in an abundance of oxygen. Life had a massive fast forward as a result and Venusians evolved before their planet died - perhaps instead of a steamy greenhouse Venus by then was drier than Earth and Venus was more a desert planet. Hence they had to get water and Iapetus was a good choice... outside a steep gravity well, mostly water and probably yummy organics. Titan was a familiar place too - nitrogen atmosphere, hence a good base for Iapetus operations.

So what happened? I'd say the Venusians cracked the starflight problem and just up and left. Perhaps Venus had a Moon and they converted it into starships which they propelled into space by using Venus' rotational energy - hence today's low spin and moonlessness.

Why didn't they cytherea-form Earth?

But why should they? All solar system life is probably genetically related so we're probably kin and maybe they respected our future potential. Or maybe other planets beckoned around other stars and they seemed easier to reach.