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Pictures of Titan's Lakes
Posted by
samzenpus
on Wed Jan 03, 2007 08:39 PM
from the in-space-nobody-can-hear-you-fish dept.
from the in-space-nobody-can-hear-you-fish dept.
sighted writes "For decades, scientists have wondered if the thick orange haze that shrouds Saturn's giant moon Titan hid lakes of liquid methane on the surface, but there was no way to confirm it, until now. The Cassini flyby of July 22, 2006 took these striking images and were released today."
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Cassini Finds Evidence For Ocean Inside Titan 79 comments
Riding with Robots writes "NASA reports that by using data from the Cassini probe's radar, scientists established the locations of 50 unique landmarks on the surface of Saturn's planet-size moon Titan. They then searched for these same lakes, canyons and mountains in the data after subsequent Titan flybys. They found that the features had shifted from their expected positions by up to 30 kilometers. NASA says a systematic displacement of surface features would be difficult to explain unless the moon's icy crust was decoupled from its core by an internal ocean, making it easier for the crust to move. If confirmed, this discovery would add to the growing list of moons in the solar system that are icy on the outside and warm and liquid inside, providing potential habitats. We've previously discussed Titan's hydrocarbon lakes and potential cryovolcano."
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Vacation on Titan (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Vacation on Titan (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Any signs of Transformers...? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Any signs of Transformers...? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
VW refused a license. I suppose they should've went for VW anyway and then spend few years in jail. That's the most logical option.
Confirmed? (Score:5, Interesting)
Hardly proof.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Confirmed? (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Wake us up when you actually have something wet... (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't think this is conclusive. As one of the other earlier posts said, they have taken the rough areas and coloured them rock colour, and taken the smooth areas and coloured them water colour. At the edge of these 'lake' features there are intermediate regions which are pretty flat and might be either shallow lake or a flat shore. Or something else completly different.
The article suggests we will in time know what we have. It is probably not sand because there aren't any dunes.
Re:Wake us up when you actually have something wet (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Wake us up when you actually have something wet (Score:2)
Wow, the odds that one of the three fundamental states of matter exists on only one of the trillions of rocks in the universe are so poor it actually boggles the mind to contemplate how poor they are. I mean, there are a lot of forms of matter and they turn liquid at different temps. Each of those rocks floating around out there houses lots of different forms of matter and each contai
More information at ... (Score:5, Informative)
The original article is in the journal Nature [nature.com], but you need a subscription to view it. You can still read the abstract [nature.com], though.
Evidence of life? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Evidence of life? thars petrolium (Score:4, Funny)
Now if we could only start a rumor there are weapons of mass destruction, terrorist training camps, and Oceans of petroleum product on Titan, we could leave Iraq, and start a gold rush like rocket race to Saturn's moon.
Ye Ha , lakes full or petro.
Cheers
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, but... (Score:2)
Somebody has to say it (Score:5, Funny)
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"Languish in caves of methane ice!"
But at the moment, I can't even remember where the Flash Bazbo reference came from - maybe it was Firesign Theater.
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It was renamed to Urectum, just to end that lame joke once and for all.
But now I'm afraid we need something new to end that Urectum joke.
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why is liquid methane a big deal? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:why is liquid methane a big deal? (Score:5, Interesting)
However, given that just about any chemical process is gonna run rather slow at the kinds of temperatures that exist on Titan we shouldn't expect any life that we find there to be very developed.
The next obvious step is to send something down to swim in the methane oceans of titan, and see if it gets eaten (or, at least, finds signs of (non)organic life. I don' think that it's that much lower a probability than finding life signs on mars (presuming that we figure out how to look for methane-based life), although it's admittedly a bit more expensive to go to Jupiter than it is to go to Mars.
Parent
Re:why is liquid methane a big deal? (Score:4, Insightful)
The discovery is a "big deal" because we know something about part of our solar system we didn't know before. If you read the articles, part of the discovery is a likely methane rainfall cycle, including "methanifers" (analogous to aquifers). It's fascinating stuff, IMO.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
To me, it seems extremely unlikely that we could give any kind of reliable estimate on how unlikely that is...
OTOH, all we'd need is a version of Urey-Miller experiment that used (our best guess of) the chemicals and the environment of Titan. Then let it simmer for a time, and see if any promising complex chain forming molecules (such as our amino acids) appeared... I wonder if anybody has attempte
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
It would definitely be worth a try if you had the glassware laying around but the temperature is still a problem. A more likely source for amino acids in an environment like Titan would probably b
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If there is life on Titan (or in any Titan-like enviornment elswhere), it is almost certainly based on something different than our amino acid model. As the prior poster said, an expereiment exploring Titanian chemistry would be looking for "promising complex chain forming molecules". He merely cited "(such as our amino acids)" as an illustrative example.
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Well, quite apart from biology, it's certainly an interesting comparison in terms of surface features and geology.
I doubt it is possible to drive any biologically important reactions at the temperatures present on Titan.
I don't see why not; biology has managed to cope with nearly the entire temperature range over which water is liquid on this planet, so why shouldn't biochemic
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Here's a question... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Because thats how long it took to false color the image to look like a desert with lakes...
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
2 answers
Timing really doesn't matter
How would this information have helped you in July of 2006? It's an interesting fact, but is it really need-to now so much that 6 months... 18 months... 5 years... really matters for 99.9% of the population?
Verified science, not pre-released junk
When Scientists release data before they can properly analyze and understand it they can create misunderstandings. The media poorly reports the data, typically just reporting
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Titan by Stephen Baxter (Score:3, Interesting)
We've already landed there ffs. (Score:5, Informative)
"What have you done for us lately?" (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:We've already landed there ffs. (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
[Obligatory] Sirens (Score:2)
So, did they finally find the Sirens [amazon.com]?
Looks like Minnesota (Score:3, Funny)
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Don't worry, the Bush administration and Exxon are working hard and diligently to warm it up.
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Its 34f (1c) outside and its after 11pm
Did they spot any fish houses on Titan?
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We, inhabitants of Titan... (Score:2)
Is it my imagination... (Score:2)
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Re:Liquid methane? Maybe. (Score:4, Informative)
Actually the intensity of the backscatter data is what is being shown.
The brightness is logarithmic, therefore anything dark is very smooth
and anything really bright is very bumpy. Since it is a log scale and
there is a good idea what kind of backscatter to absorption ratio to expect
from the synthetic aperture radar for various targets, they can conclude that
the dark patches are glassy/ice-rink flat.
They can also conclude that the dark patches could be liquid based on
change detection, provided they have another series of overlapping data
to compare. If the glassy areas undulate slightly between images (waves)
they are probably liquid.
Having noted this, 500 metres is kind of crappy resolution for
SAR data. You'd think they'd make a closer flyby or put a better
instrument onboard. I believe 1 (one) metre resolution SAR was available
from instruments at the same altitude when cassini was designed.
NASA just cheaped out.
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
SAR data. You'd think they'd make a closer flyby or put a better
instrument onboard. I believe 1 (one) metre resolution SAR was available
from instruments at the same altitude when cassini was designed.
NASA just cheaped out.
Cheaped out? Cassinni is the most expensive unmanned probe ever launched. I saw a to-scale model in a museum. It is a huge chunk of gadgets. Perhaps you could argue they underemphasized radar power at the expense of something
Cassini is cheap? (Score:2)
I have heard Cassini called a Cadillac, Battlestar Galactica,..., but never cheap! Increased spatial resolution won't help you see 50 km diameter lakes any better. The embayment relationships with topography are the same,
Might as well take this even further offtopic... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)