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Titan's Alien Thunder
An anonymous reader writes "What is not being reported much about the fascinating Huygens descent to the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is its remarkable microphone. In the silence of space, the probe offers a platform for listening to alien thunder while watching the lightning strike on this alien world--the only moon with an atmosphere thicker than our terrestrial one. The probe detaches from Cassini on Christmas for its atmospheric entry on 14 January 2005. The landing target on Titan borders a bright-dark region thought to be an oil-rich shoreline. Huygens can float for a few hours while still broadcasting if it lands in a lake of oil."
Titan may offer the first chance for a terrifying symphony of alien thunder.
Alien thunder?.........hrmmmmm......new, name......for a band? Yeah, that's it.
On a more serious note, here is the link to the Cassini-Huygens main page complete with a tital flyby schedule, a flyby mission description, photo essay including some amazing images of the rings of Saturn, Titan and more.
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Is NASA going to let a contract to Hallibuton to develop the resource?
"lake of oil"...WMD's... We all know the drill.
That being said I wonder if the accelerometers are installed in the right direction?
Got Code?
...that crop up around here from time to time after setbacks, you HAVE to be amazed by what they have accomplished on an ever-shrinking budget.
Kudos, NASA! Some of us are still impressed!
There's a Mercedes gap too. I want one and can't afford one, but it's not government's job to do anything about it.
Hydrocarbon-rich atmospheres bring the possibility of fuel-breathing jet engines. With a tank of oxygen or other oxidizer, a craft could scoop the fuel from the "air" and fly or run a powerplant.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
The thing that's exciting scientists about Titan is that it's atmosphere is extremely similar to what they believe primordial Earth's atmosphere was like. It's hoped that we may learn something about the origins of life on Earth. The thick atmosphere is a good thing because it means very few elements/gases/etc have burned off or escaped, giving us the chance to study what is the closest thing to "early Earth" as we're ever going to find.
I'm still keeping my hopes up.
This is your sig. There are thousands more, but this one is yours.
Well, yes, it does. The reason why finding methane on Mars would be more exciting than methane on Titan is that on Mars, atmospheric methane is not expected to be stable, as it reacts with hydroxyl ions in the presence of sunlight to produce carbon dioxide and water (it should be noted that if the data concerning methane on Mars is right, the concentration is around 10-15 ppb, so don't expect a greenhouse effect and rain clouds any time soon). The methane on Mars would have disappeared within a few hundred years were it not replenished somehow- and the question then, is "How is methane on Mars replenished?"
The two possibilities (and both could be correct) are outgassing from geologic processes or production by methane-producing organisms. Either possibility is actually pretty exciting, as Mars as we know it now is geologically dead- it has the largest volcano in the Solar System, but no evidence of active or recent vulcanism, but of course the possibility that colonies of methanogens similar to terrestrial Archaea are producing methane on Mars would be a much more momentous discovery.
The methane and ethane on Titan, OTOH, has been there for billions of years and is almost certainly from nonliving processes, just as the methane in the atmospheres of the gas giant planets has nothing to do with organisms. It is interesting, still, though, because methane and ethane, gases on earth, may exist as liquid on Titan. A moon larger than Pluto and Mercury with seas of simple organic compounds (and possibly a "snow" of various hydrocarbon and nitrile compounds). A atmosphere denser than earth's composed of 94% nitrogen. Possibly large quanitities of water ice. All definitely reasons to go explore.
Unfortunately, it is extremely unlikely that life has developed on Titan, simply because it is far too cold (about 94K). The basically opaque atmosphere and distance from the sun make really interesting chemistry very difficult, in particular, keeping any water locked up as ice rather than making it available as liquid or vapor. There may be some interesting stuff going on in the upper reaches of the atmosphere, though, as UV breaks down methane and nitrogen gas to produce a variety of polyacetylene and polynitrile compounds which fall as a waxy precipitate (the aforementioned "snow").
The geology of Titan is essentially still a question mark, owing again to the orange-brown veil. If anything like the deep-sea vents of earth exist on Titan, they could provide the rest of the requirements for life- they'd inject heat into the ecosystem, possibly freeing up water vapor and oxygen from the ice, and could provide elements like phosphorus and sulfur (giving the sought-after CHONPS). Also, Saturn produces tremendous tidal forces on Titan. While on the one hand, the development of life on earth was helped substantially by the presence of intertidal areas (which still feature incredible diversity), the tides on Titan may so strong as to quickly erode continental features. There are a lot of mysteries that will be solved after Cassini-Huygens, and no doubt a stack of new ones will be found.
"FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."