Comment Re:Because titan has ice, pluto isn't even a plane (Score 4, Informative) 98
One of the things accomplished by taking Voyager I behind Titan was a direct measurement of the thickness and density of Titan's atmosphere. They did this, btw, by measuring how much of the probe's signal was absorbed before it was completely occluded and by how long it took the signal to come back to normal strength after it came out on the other side. And to show you how good the navigation was, closest approach was less than two radii out, meaning that if it had been cut in half, Voyager would have collided with Titan instead of just passing closely. I know this, because I spent some time at JPL in the mid 1980s and am slightly acquainted with the man who came up with the idea and did most of the work involved.