What do we expect to find on Titan?

[dark_energy]

Liquid lakes of methane? Is that about it? =S <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

I think the mission team is trying to keep their expectations neutral; after all, we don't really know what's there.<br /><br />Lakes of methane (or ethane or other organic chemicals) are plausible, but uncertain. It is also possible that Titan has a surface similar to Europa -- young, and constantly reshaped as various fluids well up from inside the moon. So far, very little is known. The first radar images are back, and they show practically no impact features, so we can be fairly confident that Titan's surface is indeed young, at least in the areas observed during the recent flyby.<br /><br />It's exciting, isn't it, to have a world so incredibly mysterious? This must be what it was like when the first spacecraft began visiting Venus. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[dark_energy]

Yeah, only to find out it was a death trap with sulfuric acid rain and a surface hot enough to melt lead. Ah, the disappointment. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[centsworth_II]

<font color="yellow">"It is also possible that Titan has a surface similar to Europa..."</font><br /><br />The biggest difference between Europa and Titan is Titan's thick atmosphere, constantly raining down organics onto the surface. This is the wild card that casts a mystery on the nature of Titan's surface. The entire surface is surely coated with organics, but what forms they take is a mystery: liquid, slush, fluff, or hard tars. And, yes, it's also possible that flows of water ice occasionally cover the surface. What a mix! I hope the Huygens probe as well as future Cassini fly-bys succeed in giving us an accurate picture of Titan's complex and mysterious face. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[najab]

As long as it's not baby elephants, I'm happy. <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" />

 

[backspace]

najaB-<br /><br />Yeah, all that base-8 math would really screw things up. <i> Podo thuktun </i>