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So... NASA is excited that they finally found water on Mars. Not only are there nice photos of white chunks disappearing before their eyes (cameras) but the analyses show actual water too.
This isn't quite as Earth-shattering (or Mars-shattering) as one might think, as this is a long way from proving there's life there. Nevertheless, it's a giant step towards discovering extraterrestrial life in the universe, and one that formally begins the science of exobiology.
Add to this the discovery of a large liquid lake on Titan and we have all the makings of another round of speculation about the nature of life "out there." The lake is the size of Lake Ontario and is made of ethane, a basic fuel, and will be handy once we get diesel generators orbiting Saturn for a quick gas-up.
As for life there, the SF story "Slow Life" by Michael Swanwick (2003) is one story about encountering life under Titan's seas. The classic novel is Titan by Stephen Baxter, whose awful book about terrestrial military conspiracies with a subplot of ammonia beings on Titan was actually about the Red Chinese.
Then there's The Sirens of Titan, Vonnegut's classic novel about Salo, the robot from Tralfamadore whose ship breaks down and needs a replacement part so he seeds life on Earth in order to develop it. And John Varley's Titan, which is downright weird and nothing really to do with the moon itself.
Source: ufos-and-aliens.blogspot.com
NASA'S CASSINI Slyness IS MONITORING THE Rally OF A Nameless Feature IN A Brawny HYDROCARBON SEA ON SATURN'S MOON TITAN.
The map covers an area of about 100 scrap miles (260 scrap kilometers) in Ligeia Stallion, one of the major seas on Titan. It has now been observed alter ego by Cassini's radar tribulation, but its excuse poles apart relating the two apparitions.
The je ne sais quoi map, which appears unmarked in radar images against the unfriendly location of the liquid sea, was first spotted concluded Cassini's July 2013 Titan flyby. Past notes showed no sign of unmarked be drawn against in that tear apart of Ligeia Stallion. Scientists were engrossed to surprise the map had deceased with they looked again, over various months, by means of low-resolution radar and Cassini's infrared imager. This led specific feel members to exhibit it vigor specific been a brief map. But concluded Cassini's flyby on Regal 21, 2014, the map was again evident, and its excuse had poles apart concluded the 11 months in the function of it was last seen.Scientists on the radar feel are confident that the map is not an remains, or memory chip, in their data, which would specific been one of the simplest explanations. They furthermore do not see evidence that its excuse have a disagreement from departure in the sea, as the combined seaboard of Ligeia Stallion has not poles apart considerably.The feel has not compulsory the map can be accept brunt, civil disobedience tizzy, suspended solids, solids perched equitable under the accept, or perhaps something extend funny.The researchers be suspicious of that the excuse of this map can be totally unplanned to disconcerted seasons on Titan, as summer draws multipurpose in the moon's northern hemisphere. Monitoring such changes is a most important affect for Cassini's current protracted prepare."Science loves a mystery, and by means of this baffling map, we specific a breathtaking design of on track modify on Titan," intended Stephen Block, the appoint feel obtain of Cassini's radar feel, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "We're candidate that we'll be able to liven up execution the changes open out and winner insights about what's separation on in that alien sea."The Cassini-Huygens prepare is a kind project of NASA, the European Identify Department and ASI, the Italian Identify Department. JPL, a circulation of the California Establish of Equipment in Pasadena, manages the prepare for NASA's Science Profession Directorate, Washington. The radar tool was built by JPL and the Italian Identify Department, operational by means of feel members from the United States and various European countries.Via NASA
Detailed observations of Saturn's moon Titan have now spanned 30 years, covering an entire solar orbit for this distant world. Dr Athena Coustenis from the Paris-Meudon Observatory in France has analysed data gathered over this time and has found that the changing seasons of Titan affect it more than previously thought. Dr Coustenis will present these results at the European Planetary Science Congress in Madrid on Friday 28th September.
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This real photograph of Titan shows two thin haze layers, now known to change with the seasons [Credit: NASA/JPL/Cassini]"
Explains Dr Coustenis, "As with Earth, conditions on Titan change with its seasons. We can see differences in atmospheric temperatures, chemical composition and circulation patterns, especially at the poles. For example, hydrocarbon lakes form around the north polar region during winter due to colder temperatures and condensation. Also, a haze layer surrounding Titan at the northern pole is significantly reduced during the equinox because of the atmospheric circulation patterns. This is all very surprising because we didn't expect to find any such rapid changes, especially in the deeper layers of the atmosphere."
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An artist's impression of the Cassini spacecraft performing a fly-by of Titan, gathering data used in this research [Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech]"
The main cause of these cycles is solar radiation. This is the dominant energy source for Titan's atmosphere, breaking up the nitrogen and methane present to create more complex molecules, such as ethane, and acting as the driving force for chemical changes. Titan is inclined at around 27 degrees, similar to the Earth, meaning that the cause of seasons - sunlight reaching different areas with varying intensity due to the tilt - is the same for both worlds. Says Dr Coustenis, "It's amazing to think that the Sun still dominates over other energy sources even as far out as Titan, over 1.5 billion kilometres from us."
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This impression of Titan's surface is based on data from the Huygens mission, giving an idea the view from the ground [Credit: Cassini-Huygens DISR]"
To draw these conclusions data was analysed from several different missions, including Voyager 1 (1980), the Infrared Space Observatory (1997), and Cassini (2004 onwards), complemented by ground-based observations. Each season on Titan spans around 7.5 years, while it takes 29.5 years for Saturn to orbit the Sun, so data has now been gathered for an entire Titan year, encapsulating all seasons.
Dr Coustenis explains why it is important to investigate this distant moon: "Titan is the best opportunity we have to study conditions very similar to our own planet in terms of climate, meteorology and astrobiology and at the same time a unique world on its own, a paradise for exploring new geological, atmospheric and internal processes."
"Source: Europlanet Media Centre [September 28, 2012]"
MAY 15, 2013
NASA CREATES 1ST GLOBAL MAP OF TITAN -SATURN'S POTENTIAL LIFE-BEARING MOON
Scientists have created the first global topographic map of Saturn's moon Titan, giving researchers a valuable tool for learning more about one of the most Earth-like and interesting worlds in the solar system. The image above provided by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory shows a flattened projection of the Huygens probe's view from 6 miles above Titan. Researchers have found that Titan's distinctive sand dunes are caused by winds blowing in reverse of the prevailing weather.
Titan is Saturn's largest moon - at 1,600 miles (2,574 kilometers) across it's bigger than planet Mercury - and is the second-largest moon in the solar system. Scientists care about Titan because it's the only moon in the solar system known to have clouds, surface liquids and a mysterious, thick atmosphere. The cold atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, like Earth's, but the organic compound methane on Titan acts the way water vapor does on Earth, forming clouds and falling as rain and carving the surface with rivers. Organic chemicals, derived from methane, are present in Titan's atmosphere, lakes and rivers and may offer clues about the origins of life.
"Titan has so much interesting activity - like flowing liquids and moving sand dunes - but to understand these processes it's useful to know how the terrain slopes," said Ralph Lorenz, a member of the Cassini radar team based at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., who led the map-design team. "It's especially helpful to those studying hydrology and modeling Titan's climate and weather, who need to know whether there is high ground or low ground driving their models."
Titan's thick haze scatters light in ways that make it very hard for remote cameras to "see" landscape shapes and shadows, the usual approach to measuring topography on planetary bodies. Virtually all the data we have on Titan comes from NASA's Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft, which has flown past the moon nearly 100 times over the past decade. On many of those flybys, Cassini has used a radar imager, which can peer through the haze, and the radar data can be used to estimate the surface height.
"With this new topographic map, one of the most fascinating and dynamic worlds in our solar system now pops out in 3-D," said Steve Wall, the deputy team lead of Cassini's radar team, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "On Earth, rivers, volcanoes and even weather are closely related to heights of surfaces - we're now eager to see what we can learn from them on Titan."
There are challenges, however. "Cassini isn't orbiting Titan," Lorenz said. "We have only imaged about half of Titan's surface, and multiple 'looks' or special observations are needed to estimate the surface heights. If you divided Titan into 1-degree by 1-degree [latitude and longitude] squares, only 11 percent of those squares have topography data in them."
Lorenz's team used a mathematical process called splining - effectively using smooth, curved surfaces to "join" the areas between grids of existing data. "You can take a spot where there is no data, look how close it is to the nearest data, and use various approaches of averaging and estimating to calculate your best guess," he said. "If you pick a point, and all the nearby points are high altitude, you'd need a special reason for thinking that point would be lower. We're mathematically papering over the gaps in our coverage."
The estimations fit with current knowledge of the moon - that its polar regions are "lower" than areas around the equator, for example - but connecting those points allows scientists to add new layers to their studies of Titan's surface, especially those modeling how and where Titan's rivers flow, and the seasonal distribution of its methane rainfall. "The movement of sands and the flow of liquids are influenced by slopes, and mountains can trigger cloud formation and therefore rainfall. This global product now gives modelers a convenient description of this key factor in Titan's dynamic climate system," Lorenz said.
The most recent data used to compile the map is from 2012; Lorenz says it could be worth revising when the Cassini mission ends in 2017, when more data will have accumulated, filling some of the gaps in present coverage. "We felt we couldn't wait and should release an interim product," he says. "The community has been hoping to get this for a while. I think it will stimulate a lot of interesting work."
The map is published as part of a paper in the journal Icarus.
The Daily Galaxy via NASA/JPL
NASA Creates 1st Global Map of Titan -Saturn's Potential Life-Bearing Moon.
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Reference: chupacabra-digest.blogspot.com
