R
robnissen
Guest
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/ap_huygens_update_050127.html<br /><br />The credibility of this article is certainly damged by this statment, however:<br /><br />"More than a week after the Huygens probe plunged through Titan's atmosphere, researchers continue to pore over data collected for clues to how the only celestial body known to have a significant atmosphere other than Earth."<br /><br />THAT IS SURE SOME THICK VACUUM AROUND VENUS (not to mention the gas giants).<br /><br />Putting the misstatements aside, I thought this statement was very interesting:<br /><br />"Based on data collected by Huygens' instruments, Sushil Atreya, a professor of planetary science at the University of Michigan in the United States, believes a hydro-geological process between water and rocks deep inside the moon could be producing the methane. <br /><br />'I think the process is quite likely in the interior of Titan,' Atreya said in a telephone interview. <br /><br />The process is called serpentinisation and is basically the reaction between water and rocks at 100 to 400 degrees Celsius (212 to 752 degrees Fahrenheit), he said."<br /><br />I wonder what evidence there is for that much of a heat source on Titan. And, with that kind of heat and liquid water, it sure would be interesting looking for microbes in Titan's interior.<br /><br />