Liquid Water on (under) Titan

[robnissen]

This is an interesting article discussing liquid water and ammonia on Titan.<br /><br />http://www.physorg.com/news3111.html<br /><br />"One thing that Titan could not have done during its history is to have a liquid layer that then froze over, because during the freezing process, Titan's rotation rate would have gone way, way up," Lunine said. "So either Titan has never had a liquid layer in its interior -- which is very hard to countenance, even for a pure water-ice object, because the energy of accretion would have melted water -- or that liquid layer has been maintained up until today. And the only way you maintain that liquid layer to the present is have ammonia in the mixture." <br />

 

[vogon13]

I don't follow the freezing/rotation thing. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[vogon13]

Hey! I'm a planet now. <br /><br /><br /><i><font color="red">RESPECT MY AU-THOR-A-TAY!!!</font>/i><br /><br /><br />(thanks for the line, Cartman, I've been dyin' to say that. )</i> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[meteo]

Not ALL of the heat. I found an estimate that puts the temperature at the center of Earth's moon at 1500K. There's a big uncertainty with that estimate. <br /><br />http://physics.uoregon.edu/~jimbrau/astr121/Notes/Chapter8.html<br /><br />My point is the temperature of Titan can't be the same all the way down and it doesnt' have to be that warm, from a planetary perspective. The freezing point depends on the concentration of ammonia. If it's very dilute it might be just 1C, however, with 15% by mass ammonia it's -25C cooler but who knows the concentration of ammonia. <br /><br />However, Titan won't be warm enough for black smokers like the kind on earth. So even if an ocean does life is missing an energy source as far as I can tell.

 

[claywoman]

Sorry guys...black smokers?

 

[grooble]

Like Shaft! in Africa!

 

[thalion]

Black smoker: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_smoker

 

[claywoman]

Thalion...Thank you!!!

 

[chew_on_this]

Impacts could provide the necessary heat. Sad to say, we can't even tell what kind of impacts Titan has suffered so that will be a big gray area.