Possible Ice Volcano Found on Saturn Moon (Titan)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 6/8/05 | Alicia Chang - AP

[NormsRevenge]

LOS ANGELES - The international Cassini spacecraft has spotted what appears to be an ice volcano on Saturn's planet-size moon, a finding that may help explain the source of Titan's thick atmosphere.

Infrared images snapped by the orbiting Cassini reveal a 20-mile-wide dome that appears to be a cryovolcano, a volcanic-like vent that spews forth ice instead of lava. Scientists theorize the volcano at one time spat out icy plumes that released methane into Titan's atmosphere.

The findings appear in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

Titan is the only moon in the solar system that has a significant atmosphere made up of nitrogen and methane. Its atmosphere is similar to that of primordial Earth and scientists believe that studying it could provide clues to how life began.

Scientists have long speculated that the organic materials in Titan's atmosphere were formed by seas or lakes of methane or ethane, but the latest Cassini images did not show any evidence that Titan is awash in pools of methane. Methane is a highly flammable gas on Earth, but it is liquid on Titan because of the intense atmospheric pressure and cold.

"Interpreting this feature as a cryovolcano provides an alternative explanation for the presence of methane in Titan's atmosphere," said Christophe Sotin, a team member of the Cassini visual and infrared mapping spectrometer.

Although the ice volcano is inactive, scientists believe similar volcanoes may exist elsewhere on Titan that ooze a methane-water ice mixture to the surface.

In an accompanying editorial, Louise Prockter of the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University noted that while the ice volcano hypothesis was intriguing, higher-resolution images could reveal that the structure could turn out to be something else other than a volcano.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a joint NASA-European Space Agency project. The combined craft was launched in 1997 and arrived in orbit of the ringed planet last year. Huygens, a probe developed and controlled by the ESA, touched down earlier this year.

The latest finding is based on a Cassini flyby of Titan on Oct. 26, 2004. Forty-five flybys are planned during Cassini's four-year mission. The next one will be Aug. 22.

____

On the Net:

Nature journal: http://www.nature.com

Titan page: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm

[NormsRevenge]

Geologic Map of Titan Volcano
June 8, 2005

From infrared images that show variations in brightness and texture, a geological map of the circular feature, thought to be a volcano, has been obtained using Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer. This geologic map shows that the circular feature has what appear to be several series of flows, as shown by the black lines. The flows represent episodes of activity on the volcano. A dark central pit, called a caldera, is similar to vents that appear above reservoirs of molten material on Earth's volcanoes.

The colors on the map represent the brightness of features. Yellow and light green represent bright patches. Blue represents dark patches. Red represents mottled material. The yellow area is where the volcano lies.

These images were taken during Cassini's Oct. 26, 2004, flyby of Titan.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team homepage is at http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu .

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

[Calpernia]

ping

[NormsRevenge]

Infrared Image of Titan Volcano
June 8, 2005

This high-resolution infrared image was taken during the Cassini spacecraft's closest approach to Titan on Oct. 26, 2004. These images were obtained by Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer instrument and show a bright, circular feature (8.5 degrees latitude, minus 143.5 degrees longitude) with two elongated wings extending westwards. Scientists think this feature might be a volcano.

The resolution in the image varies from 2.6 kilometers (1.6 miles) per pixel to 1.8 kilometers (1.1 miles) per pixel.

[strategofr]

Sounds a wee bit speculative.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

GLOBAL WARMING!! Bush Lied about the global warming and this proves it!
(by the way, thanks for the excellant post)

[NormsRevenge]

Titan Volcano in Several Infrared Wavelengths
June 8, 2005

Details of the circular feature, which scientists think is an ice volcano, which could be a source of methane in Titan's atmosphere, show up at wavelengths larger than 1.3 microns (a micron is one-millionth of a meter; a meter is 39 inches).

The first six panels are images of the feature taken in six infrared windows. Images made up of two colors (ratio images) are represented in order to visualize compositional variations, which appear to be slight. The last panel is a color composite image (red, 2.75 micron; green, 2.0 micron; blue, 1.6 micron). These images were acquired with Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer, designed to peer through Titan's thick haze to the surface.

Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is the only known moon to have a significant atmosphere, composed primarily of nitrogen, with methane (methane is about 2 to 3 percent) as the largest remaining component. One goal of the Cassini mission is to find an explanation for what is replenishing and maintaining this atmosphere. This dense atmosphere makes the surface very difficult to study with visible-light cameras, but infrared instruments like the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer can peer through the haze. Infrared images provide information about both the composition and the shape of the area studied.

These images were taken during Cassini's Oct. 26, 2004, flyby of Titan.

[NormsRevenge]

check out the 2.0 and 2.75 micron pics below.. some pretty unusual 'structure'.

[ClearCase_guy]

It's all a misunderstanding. Some guy at NASA read the data and said. "That's a nice volcano" and people heard it wrong.

[NormsRevenge]

make that the 2.0 and 2.75 micron pics above.

[Strategerist]

I think the scientists themselves would grant it's not conclusive.

[strategofr]

"check out the 2.0 and 2.75 micron pics below.. some pretty unusual 'structure'."

I'm pretty ignorant here, or maybe just stupid about these things. Could you spell out what you mean for me?

[strategofr]

"I think the scientists themselves would grant it's not conclusive."

Yes, and I am not criticizing the scientists here as much as the reporter (now that I think of it). Check out the presentation and sequencing.

My view of the article:

"It's a volcano, but it spews methane,etc. instead of like an earth volcano. This could explain how the methane atmosphere got onto Titan.

Actually, there's nothing coming out. It's an inactive volcano. But if there was something coming out, it might be methane.

Actually, its an unusual rock formation, but it might be an inactive volcano, and we think we may find active volcanos as well."

[NormsRevenge]

Im no expert by any means either. It's like looking at clouds and seeing what one will. ;-)

The whitish or light colored object in the upper center right appears to be composed of a pile or lump of some layers of something that may have flowed out a venthole and then hardened once it hit the atmosphere. There appears to be some runoffs areas on the side of the 'mound' in question.

[concentric circles]

I hate the smell of erupting methane!

[BlazingArizona]

When an ice volcano erupts, do we have to throw in Hillary Clinton?

[strategofr]

"something that may have flowed out a venthole and then hardened once it hit the atmosphere."

OK. makes sense.

[Constitution Day]

Heh. Very clever.

[theFIRMbss]

When an ice volcano erupts, do we have to throw in Hillary Clinton?

If you were a God,
what would you do to a tribe
that sent Hillary?!