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Radar Evidence for Methane Lakes On Titan

Posted by michael on from the getting-our-feet-wet dept.

DrMorpheus writes "A series of 25 radar observations, taken when Saturn made close approaches to Earth in 2001 and 2002, have provided by far the best evidence yet of methane lakes. Astronomers have suspected since the Voyager fly-bys of the 1980s that liquid hydrocarbons were present on Titan's surface."

5 of 24 comments (clear)

  1. The Sirens of Titan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Apologies to Kurt ("Wear Sunscreen") Vonnegut:

    There are sirens on Titan, and they sound like this.

  2. I for one... by ZerroDefex · · Score: 2, Funny

    I for one welcome out new methane-breathing undersea overlords.

  3. More Info about the ESA Huygens mission by OneOver137 · · Score: 5, Informative
    http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm? fobjectid=31826

    But don't get too excited...
    "Titan is not a pleasant place for life. It is far too cold for liquid water to exist, and all known forms of life need liquid water. Titan's surface is -180?C. According to one exotic theory, long ago, the impact of a meteorite, for example, might have provided enough heat to liquify water for perhaps a few hundred or thousand years."
    1. Re:More Info about the ESA Huygens mission by Alsee · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Why is finding out there's liquid CH4 (that's methane right?) on Titan important? Is it just another piece of data about the solar system?

      One word: life. Or at least an interesting possibility to look for life. It's like a lottery ticket, no matter how remote the chances are for finding life, it is important and exciting because the possible "payoff" is unimaginably huge. Life on earth arose in the oceans, and requires liquid water to fuction. Methane is an organic molecule, so we are taking about organic oceans or lakes. The moment you agree to look for life that is "different" than earth life it becomes very plausible and interesting to consider the possibility of life based on a different liquid.

      The linked article also mentions that they are pretty sure they have evidence of methane rain, just like the earth has water rain. There is also a probe that will parachute down onto Titan in 2005. They had to redesign the probe to handle a possible "splashdown" rather than a normal landing.

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  4. Re:Yes! photos! by deglr6328 · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Titan Probe does indeed have cameras. It will take images all the way down once it passes the cloud deck and it even has the capability for rudimentary color images. Titan's beaches are in fact, just what we may see.

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    - "Hear that?! The percolations are imminent! Cease your ingress!"