Cassini Finds Hydrocarbon Lakes on Titan

[paulanderson]

A cluster of about a dozen or more probable hydrocarbon lakes near Titan's north pole:<br /><br />http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=2214<br />http://www.planetary.org/news/2006/0724_Cassini_RADAR_Reveals_Lakes_on_Titan_At.html<br />http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/ap_060725_titan_lakes.html<br />http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn9612-titan-may-be-a-land-of-lakes-after-all.html<br />http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=4420<br />http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2006/725/1<br /><br />Updates are on the blog now also.

 

[JonClarke]

This is a fantastic announcement. Long expected, long awaited, but still most exciting.<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[enigma10]

Next thing you know, opec launched a "claim flag" impactor to Titan. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"<font color="#333399">An organism at war with itself is a doomed organism." - Carl Sagan</font></em> </div>

 

[3488]

http://uplink.space.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=sciastro&Number=540941&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=<br /><br />http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpegMod/PIA08630_modest.jpg<br /><br />How about this? Look at the more recent postings. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[paulanderson]

Good image enhancements. None of the other several articles had been linked to by anyone yet though, and I thought this certainly deserved its own thread anyway as it is not directly related to the other mountains discussion and a very significant finding, as discussed in the articles I've linked to.

 

[3488]

I agree with you Paul Anderson. It was a shame that I had already made the enlargements & enhancements before you created this thread. <br /><br />It is an extremely important & fascinating development in the continued studies of Titan.<br /><br />Do you agree with me that ALL future close encounters with Titan should be devoted to Radar Imaging. I think that the greater the percentage of Titan's surface is properly imaged, the better. <br /><br />We can only look at so many hazy low resolution infrared images, that show nothing in particular. The Radar images however are superb. With the experience of Magellan at Venus, the diversity of geological features under the clouds & smog is bewidering.<br /><br />Already Titan is becoming a real world in its own right, with Impact Craters, Cryovolcanoes, Hills, Mountains, Valleys, Channels, Dunes & now Hydrocarbon Lakes.<br /><br />I am pleased that you like my images. They were fun doing, particularly the top strip (the 80 degree north one), as that was so dark to start with.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[paulanderson]

<i>It was a shame that I had already made the enlargemnts & enhancements before you created this thread.</i><br /><br />I'm glad you posted them when you did. I realized you had after I started the new thread, as it seemed no one was discussing the new lakes findings yet. I saw later that they had been mentioned a bit, in the other thread, but I still wanted to add some of the new articles and thought this deserved its own topic. As Jon Clarke says also, it is exciting. I also just noted the new articles today about the methane rains, just haven't had time to blog them yet.<br /><br />And yes, I would like to see much more radar imaging done during the next remaining flybys. I would insist on it!

 

[3488]

The below article about the 'constant drizzle' on Titan is interesting.<br /><br />Liquid methane drizzles on the surface of Titan, a moon of Saturn, according to a paper by NASA and university scientists that appears in today's issue of the journal, Nature. <br /><br />Data from the European Space Agency's Huygens probe indicates there is a lower, barely visible, liquid methane-nitrogen cloud that drops rain to the surface of Titan, reported a team of scientists from universities, an observatory and NASA. The probe collected the data on January 14, 2005, when it approached and landed on Titan. <br /><br />"The rain on Titan is just a slight drizzle, but it rains all the time, day in, day out. It makes the ground wet and muddy with liquid methane. This is why the Huygens probe landed with a splat. It landed in methane mud," said Christopher McKay, a scientist at NASA Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley and second author of the study. The principal author is Tetsuya Tokano from the University of Cologne, Germany. <br /><br />On Titan, the clouds and rain are formed of liquid methane. On Earth, methane is a flammable gas, but Titan has no oxygen in its atmosphere that could support combustion. Also, the temperatures on Titan are so cold -- minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 149 degrees Celsius) -- that the methane can form liquid. Titan's landscape includes fluvial, river-like features that may well be formed by methane rain, scientists noted. <br /><br />A gap separates the liquid methane cloud -- the source of the rain -- from a higher, upper methane ice cloud, according to the scientific study. Scientists say the downward flow of methane due to the rain is balanced by upward transport of methane gas by large-scale atmospheric circulation. <br /><br />According to scientists, the rain comes from thin clouds of methane. The upper clouds are methane ice, and the lower clouds are liquid and composed of a combination of methane and nitrogen. Computer models indicat <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[webscientist]

The North polar region is really interesting.Some patches appear very dark in radar images.And they have irregular shapes with clear rims. I also note that one of the patches is connected with a dark (wide ) channel. The channels I saw in the Xanadu region appear bright but this channel is clearly dark. It would be interesting to compare the darkness of those dark patches to the darkness of other dark patches and notably Ontario Lacus in the south pole (But I think it was taken in infrared wavelengths).<br />As said 3488, the large amount of dark patches in the northern latitudes is probably due to the limited amount of sunlight which reduces the evaporation and convection processes.<br /><br />www.titanexploration.com

 

[3488]

Hi there.<br /><br />Ontario Lacus was imaged infrared light. That image & the one of the 30 KM Cryovolcano, I think where the only two that have shown anything definate. I hope that this area will also be imaged by Radar at some point. <br /><br />Most of the Infrared images are blurry, hazy, lacking in resolution & do not show anything in particular, hence my request that ALL future encounters with Titan are devoted to Radar Imaging.<br /><br />The Radar images to date are just simply superb. The coverage of Titan with the Radar needs to increase.<br /><br />I have a theory. The Hydrocarbon lakes are in the Titan Arctic, where presently it is late Winter & is still in total darkness. Therefore as you say, there is no convection & evaporation. I think that over the Titan Arctic, an enourmous anticyclonic (High Pressure) system has formed under the haze. The slight increase in atmospheric pressure on the surface will also help keep the hydrocarbons from evaporating.<br /><br />When Voyager 2 went through the Saturn system in August 1981, Titan had a 'dark collar' surrounding the north polar area, roughly where the lakes are & my hypothetical (pathetic probably) anticyclone is. <br /><br />Do you think that there may be a link? It is certainly evidence of seasonal changes & weather. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[paulanderson]

Thanks for this re the methane rain. I had also just blogged these articles:<br /><br />http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v442/n7101/edsumm/e060727-06.html<br />http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00000658<br />http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/mg19125623.600-titan-weather-methane-downpours-and-drizzle.html<br /><br />Two more lake articles as well:<br /><br />http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-release-details.cfm?newsID=679<br />http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1759_1.asp<br /><br />The methane lakes and rain are one of the most significant and interesting planetary discoveries to date, imo.<br /><br />There is also an update regarding possible caves on Titan:<br /><br />http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn9588-titan-may-be-riddled-with-caves.html