Posted on 01/21/2005 7:17:19 AM PST by Dallas59
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Saturn's moon Titan is covered by "dirty" ice ridges and seas of liquid natural gas, a team of scientists said on Friday after a week of research into data from the space probe Huygens.
"We've got a flammable world," said Toby Owen, an atmospheric scientist, at a news conference from European Space Agency offices in Paris monitored on NASA (news - web sites) TV.
After a seven-year piggyback trip from Earth on board the Saturn probe Cassini, the European-designed Huygens separated in December and fell toward Titan, entering the moon's atmosphere last Friday.
The probe, part of a $3 billion joint mission involving NASA and the European and Italian space agencies, sent back readings on the moon's atmosphere, composition and landscape.
Slowed by parachutes, Huygens took more than two hours to float to the icy surface, where it defied expectations of a quick death and continued to transmit for hours.
That surface, which scientists have said was the consistency of wet sand or even creme brulee, features ice rocks, channels, and abundant indications of liquid from rain.
"There's lots of evidence of fluid flow," said Marty Tomasko, the principal investigator for Huygens' on-board imaging instruments. While it does not rain every day on Titan, Tomasko and colleagues speculated there must be some sort of regular precipitation on the surface.
The methane can exist in liquid form on Titan's surface because it is so cold, -290 degrees Fahrenheit (-179 degrees Celsius). Methane is also a key component in Titan's atmosphere, along with nitrogen. But as opposed to the Earth, the atmosphere of Titan lacks oxygen, which is essential to fire.
"There's no source of oxygen available, which is a good thing or Titan would have exploded a long time ago," Owen said.
YEARS OF STUDY
Though the mission teams collected just a few hours' worth of data, they expect to spend years analyzing it for clues as to how Titan formed, how it works and what it can say about the Earth's own development.
Titan is larger than the planet Mercury and, because of its atmosphere, a popular setting for science-fiction tales of human colonization and exploration.
And while manned missions are not necessarily on the horizon, researchers are already talking about what they might do next with Titan, if they had enough money to launch a mission that could probe the solid surface more actively.
"This is highly possible, we can now dream seriously of sending rovers to Titan," said Jean-Pierre Lebreton, the Huygens mission manager for the ESA.
Before that, though, the researchers -- some of whom have worked on the project for the better part of two decades -- will probably catch up on their rest.
"Some of the scientists did not sleep for days and nights, so we are a bit tired I must say," Lebreton said.
The Cassini-Huygens mission to study Saturn's rings and moons was launched in 1997 and is named after two 17th-century European astronomers: Christiaan Huygens, who discovered Saturn's rings and Titan, and Jean-Dominique Cassini, who discovered the planet's other four major moons.
Yes, that is an actual picture. It's just not a photograph.
The natural gas liquifys when cooled. Not sure at what temperature though.
I want the contract for No Smoking signs.
If it's an actual picture it has nothing to do with Titan.
Is this possible?!
Here, in the inner system
the Earth's atmosphere
is constantly hit
by meteors that burn up
at various heights.
Saturn is a deep
gravity well not too far
from the asteroids
which also get churned
by Jupiter's gravity . . .
My initial thought
is there must be lots
of junk always impacting
Titan's atmosphere.
(And, of course, it must
have been happening non-stop
for a long, long time . . .)
How could flammable
materials still be there
in large quantities?!
I think it is actually the increased pressure in the tanks which liquifies it. The coolness of the tanks and from when you release it is due to the energy absorbed due to the "evaporation" of the liquid to gas form.
Did you miss the "no oxygen" part?
Zeus: "Shut up woman!"
No oxygen. It can't burn.
"So.... If we reshape the orbit of an ice comet... providing the "O", and torch off a 1 megaton nuke, how long would Titan burn? "
Until there was no more methane or oxygen, of course :p
Although, wouldn't the impact by an ice comet provide the friction and heat required to ignite it?
I think the "O" you are referring to is in the H20. Unfortunately H2O is a combustion product of hydrocarbons like natural gas. It is the ashy remains of methane, if you will. Wouldn't burn any further. There would be no molecular oxygen on Earth if not for photosynthesis, which constantly separates chemically bound oxygen. In geological terms all the oxygen on Earth would be consumed very quickly if it were not constantly renewed. The article is provocative in that reinforces the abiotic origins of hydrocarbons. There may be vast reserves of natural gas deep within the Earth, waiting to be discovered.
Even an Ice comet has it's oxygen locked up in water.
Even with an impact I don't think you're going to separate that molecule.
I think part of the point was that Oxygen would be introduced into it (as asteroids would contain water and Oxygen.)
(You know I do understand what the author is saying, right? I'm just being pedantic...)
hmmm... no liquid oxygen or free radicals? I assumed ice asteroids contained a little of most life-essential molecules. Mayhaps I'm wrong though. It's happend before.
[sighs] Yes, in classic
Friday fashion, my brain stuck
at the post's top, and
I went off half-baked
without reading the whole thing.
Sorry! [sighs again]
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