Titanic Saturn

barakn writes "Using the Crab Nebula as an x-ray source, scientists have observed Titan's x-ray shadow to get a preliminary estimate of the extent of its outer atmosphere. On the same page, another article discusses the possibility that the hydrocarbon seas of Titan bear waves, albeit slow-moving and widely spaced, 7 times higher than waves on Earth (additional wave links here, here, and here). And Cassini-Huygens has snapped a photo of Saturn showing "two small, faint dark spots" in the southern hemisphere (this link has convenient arrows pointing at them, or here). Cassini-Huygens will achieve Saturn orbit insertion on July 1st. Huygens will detach and enter Titan's atmosphere in January, 2005."

Comments

A thick atmosphere in low gravity?

[Teckla]

Inquiring minds want to know: how does Titan keep its thick atmosphere in such low (15% of Earth) gravity?

-Teckla

Re:A thick atmosphere in low gravity?

[sploxx]

Yes, that's a good question. IANAPS (planetary scientist) but studying physics and should be able to give you a rough answer:
It's because titan is much farther away from the sun than earth and therefore much colder.

The point at which the loss of atmosphere becomes significant is when a sizeable amount of the atmosphere's molecules have escape velocity due to their temperature. Maybe mars lost it's atmosphere that way.

Try, e.g. "celestia" a free universe simulator to get a picture of the distances in the solar system.

Re:A thick atmosphere in low gravity?

[CheshireCatCO]

I don't know who told you that, but that's totally wrong. There's no way a significant fraction of the atmosphere would ever be re-accreted by the planet from a torus, first of all. (Io has a very distinct torus and its atmosphere is all by non-existant.)

Second of all, we have yet to observe any Titan-torus, last I heard. (About two weeks ago, a comment made from one of the Cassini principle investigators.) If there's so much gas there, why can't we see it?

Finally, the reason Titan can hold a thick atmosphere is, as some already stated, because it's so bloody cold. You can do the simple atmospheric calculations and show that at the tempertures of Titan, it can hold that atmosphere pretty nicely.

A good place to look for details is _The New Solar System_, Beatty, Petersen, and Chaikin, editors.

"Titanic Saturn"

[pwroberts]

They'll discover icebergs up there next...

(Sorry!)

Re:color me ignorant, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Right, because bringing MORE hydrocarbons to Earth is EXACTLY what we want to do. Forget about the renewable energy resources that are already here. Let's import pollutants from another PLANET!

Data points!

[2nd Post!]

We barely understand weather on Earth; any and every bit of information we have on storms outside of Earth helps us to understand storms, and weather, on Earth, for one.

So that means waves on Titan and spots on Saturn.
This boils down to fluid dynamics, energy exchange, and chaos.

This also means it applies to helicopters, airplanes, submarines, cars, drip irrigation systems, washing machines, tornado prediction, and the lottery!

Oily sludge

[Anonymous Coward]

The model assumes Titan is pockmarked with seas made of 70 per cent ethane, 25 per cent methane, and 5 per cent nitrogen, and partially coated with an oily sludge.

That's no moon, that's a teenager!

Re:Of all the interesting moons in this solar syst

[11223]

While Europa is interesting for potentially having a liquid water ocean underneath its crust, I'd personally rank Titan more interesting for the liquid hydrocarbon soup, which tends to form organic things over time. I just hope that this mission is only the start of our explorations of the moon.

Life imitates art?

[bpbond]

Code Of The LifeMaker, by James Hogan, is a SF novel about the first explorations of Titan--nitrogen atmosphere, methane seas, water-ice continents covered by nitrogenous-hydrocarbon soils. And, of course, its indigenous population of sentient, medieval robots, that destroy the first Terran probes and subsequently meet humans.

Hogan's a clunky, dated writer, but it's an entertaining read. And if Huygens mysteriously fails on the surface next year...

Re:Of all the interesting moons in this solar syst

[STrinity]

Oil reserves may be exhausted by 2050. But if they are correct about the composition of Titan's atmosphere, then thats probably the place to focus on.

Dude, do you have any idea what you're talking about? If we could import oil from the outer solar system at anything resembling a reasonable price, we wouldn't need oil.