Possible Cryovolcano Discovered on Titan

Rei writes "NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is reporting that the Cassini spacecraft has observed what appears to be a cryovolcano on Saturn's moon Titan. Given the absense of a global methane sea on Titan, the snail-shaped structure with what appears to be a caldera on top could explain how Titan's methane stays replenished. It could further explain the dry drainage channels discovered by the Huygens lander as being formed by heavy methane rainfall after eruptions."

Great article

Excellent, just what the Galaxy needs - a farting moon.

Re:Great article

So this moon is really made out of cheese . . and it just cut itself?

Caldera?

" appears to be a caldera on top could explain how Titan's methane stays replenished" I thought it was after the Canopy group acquired Caldera that the hot air came forth.... hrm. It would explain the drainage too...

Re:Caldera?

Obligiigatory:

Say it isn't SCO!

Check for bad sci-fi

Maybe it's a $cientology Dianetics franchise? They always use (Xenu) volcanoes in their advertising.

Titan Climatology

Unlike terrestrial volcanic mounds, which are formed by the upwelling of lava, the hypothesis is that this feature is probably formed by plumes of frozen methane, forced from underground, which then slowly evaporate into methane gas. This would explain the abundance of methane in the Titan atmosphere. Titan is the only moon in the solar system to have a substantial atmosphere, a thick mix of nitrogen and methane. It is suspected to be undergoing chemical reactions similar to those that unfolded on Earth billions of years ago. That process eventually provided the conditions for life on our planet. Scientists have long pondered the source of Titan's methane, given that this chemical should have been degraded by the weak light from the Sun within a hundred million years or so.

Re:Titan Climatology

You mean it's not just leaking out from all the créme bruleé?

Re:Titan Climatology

Actually, they decided the creme brulee hypothesis was wrong - the first thing the lander hit was a rock, which it then slid off, which gave a similar reading to the impactometer as creme brulee.

... And before anyone asks, yes, they did indeed test the sensor against real crème brûlée [bbc.co.uk]!

Re:Titan Climatology

It's "crême brulée," jackass.

Actually, it's 'crème brûlée', ass-jack. ;-)

Re:Titan Climatology

This makes no sense to me-- if it's frozen then it's solid, but a volcano has to be liquid. If I imagine a slushy liquid welling up and bursting thru a solid crust, is it convection due to density differences? And what's the heat source underground? Rad

Re:Titan Climatology

Not necessarily, pyroclastic flows on Earth are flows of solid matter (rocks) that can occur during periods of volcanic activity.

Although they are made out of "solid" matter the flows seem almost liquid in nature. Don't think of the methane as one huge frozen lump, but rather many solid lumps in motion.

Re:Titan Climatology

The force of gravity pulling the moon together causes pressure at the core (See Pascal's law [answers.com]) This pressure (thousands if not millions times Earth's atmospheric pressure), gets converted into heat, which then causes convection and volcanoes. Some heat is a

Re:Titan Climatology

While a lot of things are possible (at least until we have more data), most of these gas giant moons seem to derive whatever internal heat they have from tidal deformation. It's the same thing that happens when you take a wire and bend it back and forth r

Cryoclastic eruptions?

Titan is the only moon in the solar system to have a substantial atmosphere

Triton, Neptune's large moon also has a substantial Nitrogen atmosphere, enough to entrain geyser plumes [nasa.gov] that move downwind. Ganymede has a thin atmosphere as well.

the hypothesis is that this feature is probably formed by plumes of frozen methane, forced from underground, which then slowly evaporate into methane gas.

It will be interesting to see what style of volcanism dominates on Titan - "cryoclastic" eruptions of methane gas and ammonia-hydrate ice crystals, or gooey water/hydrocarbon flows. The light colored lobate features surrounding the caldera in the TIMS image suggests the later. The apparent ring faults surrounding the caldera also suggest that this is a shield profile volcano built by effusive eruptions. It will be interesting to measure its profile with Cassini's radar to find out for sure.

Guess what...

... methane can be found at Jupiter and Saturn, Oberon, Miranda and Titania... Neptune, Titan...
astronomy dominee [wikipedia.org]

Definition of Cryovolcano

"Cryovolcanoes are pseudo-volcanoes believed to be present on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. Unlike volcanoes on Earth which spew hot lava, cryvolcanoes bring super-cool "lava" to the surface of their planets. They are volcanic-like vents that spew forth ice, water or vapor-phase volatiles, with some gas driven solid fragments instead of lava. It is suggetsed that they could be present on Titan, one of Saturn's moons. However it has only been seen on Triton, the biggest of Neptune's moons. Also it is said that they might be active in Europa and Enceladus.

This term was coined by NASA in late 2004, when the Cassini space probe observed cryvolcanoes and cryogenic lakes for the first time."

definition quoted from explore-dictionary.com [explore-dictionary.com]

Take a look for yourself

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day [nasa.gov] show a nice picture of this.

If you're interested in this stuff, bookmark http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html [nasa.gov], which just points to the current picture of the day.

That brings new meaning

to the phrase "titanic methane eruption".

The solar system is fouled up, isn't it?

I'm sure Exxon would confirm we need the natural gas before we run out of stuff to help keep our planet warm and fend off those pesky ice ages, during which even the biggest SUV would find it hard to get out of the drive, which would have major adverse effects on junior soccer leagues.

Meanwhile, the idiots on these remote asteroids have volcanos and seas full of the stuff and are doing absolutely nothing to exploit it.

Rummy really needs to get out there with some ex-military contractors and get started on the pipeline. Looks like there's not too much risk of anyone firing RPGs at the construction force, either.

What a nerd.

I originally read that headline as "Possible Cryptovolcano Discovered on Titan", and found myself oddly excited -- even if I have no idea what a Cryptovolcano might be.

A Cryovolcano?

Doesn't it seem like sometimes science is just making shit up?

Wonder Twin powers activate!

Shape of... an ice volcano!

caldera

Given the absense of a global methane sea on Titan, the snail-shaped structure with what appears to be a caldera on top could explain how Titan's methane stays replenished.

Having not known that 'caldera' was anything other than sco's former name, I of course looked it up in wikipedia:

A caldera is a volcanic feature formed by the collapse of a volcano into itself.

It seems like sco should have stayed with this name, it's much more apropos.

NOT the most interesting of Saturn's moons

I don't know why this hasn't received more coverage: Iapetus [enterprisemission.com]

Maybe you've all seen this already, so I don't know if anyone cares. Basically, Iapetus is not spherical! It is an enormous Buckmister-Fuller skeletal structure! It has also been observed from earth (with radio telescopes) to have a dull, uniform radar signature despite its obvious surface features - but consistent with its unusual, non-spherical geometry. ie: it's stealthy!

There is a 60 000 foot high 'wall' around its equator - perfectly around its equator. This is an impossibly coincidental geological feature. But again, it is empirically consistent with a gradual surface erosion which will reveal an underlying bucky-fuller skeleton.

What could very possibly be an alien artefact has been hushed up. NASA continually draws more attention to Titan, but it's the outermost Iapetus that is far more intriguing. If it wasn't so, how come NASA has scheduled an originally unplanned second flyby?! No, I am not wearing a tin-foil hat!

Don't be fooled by the "Titan smokescreen" (my term for it). Iapetus ('eye-app-e-tis') is the truly significant Cassini investigation.

Enjoy,

Raj

Re:NOT the most interesting of Saturn's moons

"I don't know why this hasn't received more coverage"

Maybe because that link is five huge pages spouting a bunch of conspiracy-theory pseudo-science... finally coming to the conclusion that the moon is, in fact, a disguised "Death Star"?

Yeah, I don't know why it hasn't received more coverage... in The National Enquirer [nationalenquirer.com]!