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Titan's Smooth Surface Baffles Scientists

Posted by michael on from the that's-no-moon! dept.

JazMuadDib writes "Scientists expected a few rough spots when their space drone snapped close-range images of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Instead, the planetlike moon appears to have a bizarre, mysteriously smooth surface, and Tuesday's images have left them in a state of wonder. Read more at the Tucson Citizen." NASA's Cassini pages have a wide assortment of images and analysis. Cassini's data has already thrown scientists for loop.

21 of 319 comments (clear)

  1. The reason it's so smooth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    An earlier collision with the comet Botox.

  2. There's nothing I like better... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    than after months of anticipation, hard work, and millions of dollars to get to the moment of revealation where the mysterious coverings are peeled off, and my objective is laid bare, completely smooth, and ready for exploration.

  3. Re:that's no moon... by Tackhead · · Score: 5, Funny
    > oooops, got carried away, well it was the obvious comment...

    "That's no moon..." is the comment for Mimas, not Titan :)

  4. Excellent news!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "WTF??" is where great science starts.

    1. Re:Excellent news!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      "OMFG!" as a close second, and "Hey, what's growing on my sandwich?" a distinct third.

  5. I must be missing something.... by Konowl · · Score: 5, Informative

    There could be massive mountains and deep valleys there, or the surface could be completely flat. At this point, there's no way to tell.

    Am I missing something? The title of the slashdot entry discusses the smooth surface, but I RTFA, and scientists don't KNOW... period?

  6. At last by The+Bungi · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I remember reading Carl Sagan's Cosmos and thinking (as he did) that Titan was the most interesting body in the Solar System outside of the Earth (sorry, I'm a terran chauvinist).

    It's amazing that we've had to wait more than 20 years since he wrote that to get 700 miles from Titan, and it's mind-boggling that we're actually going to drop a probe in there.

    It's just a shame that he's not around to see it.

  7. A Little Perspective by oni · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just to put the Cassini mission into perspective, no human being in the history of our species has ever seen the surface of Titan. No one, in the hundreds of thousands of years that we've been around, has been able to know what we are about to know.

    Sure, this sort of thing has happened before - there was the first (and last) picture from the surface Venus, the first image of the far side of the moon, etc. I hope we haven't gotten too accustomed to it, at least not yet. I think we are amazingly fortunate to be able to see and know things that no one before could possibly have known. There is something there. Some people will think it's boring. "It's just rocks and mush," they'll say. But I think it's special. It's a place. It's an actual, real, physical place that is up there, just out of reach until now.

    No amount of desire or commitment (or for that matter luck) could have revealed it to our fathers, or their fathers, or their fathers. No matter how badly they might have wanted to know it, it was hidden from them. They had to guess, or fantasize, or just live with the mystery. But we get to see it. We are the first.

    And the best part about the universe is, there's always more to see just around the next corner.

    1. Re:A Little Perspective by back_pages · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Man this isn't lost on me.

      I'm not even an amateur astronomer but I've been GLUED to these news reports. Didn't Arthur C. Clarke land the Chinese on Titan in 2063 or 3001, only to be eat by a methane-sea monster? Of course, Imperial Earth has Titan colonized.

      I've been entranced by these pictures and realizing, as have you, that this is not entirely unlike digging up a miniature monolith on the moon - we're exposing something to the collective consciousness of the only intelligence (we know of) in the universe. We've got our shovel stuck in untilled earth, about to turn over the soil for the first time in history, but there is a whole world sitting there on the blade of the shovel.

      The scope of the mysteries these first data suggest only reinforces my awe. It's not like Mars - "These mysterious lines appear to be liquid erosion." It's like, "Pretty pictures, huh? The best and brightest of the world can't figure out what's in those clouds, but we detect dim rocks in distant galaxies by watching the stars wobble." Argh! I want to go to Titan!

      I don't know, maybe I've finally just flipped out on something. I want to wallpaper my living room with pictures from Cassini. That's normal, right? I just gotta know what is down there. Put me on the slow spaceship to Saturn and I'll turn into the half-crazed captain who sacrifices everything and jeopardizes his whole crew to complete the mission. Hell, me and HAL would be best friends. Screw you naysayers, I MUST KNOW what's on Titan.

      I'm practically counting down the days until the landing probe touches the surface.

    2. Re:A Little Perspective by Audacious · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I believe the following will probably be put forwards:

      1. Since Titan is a moon and since it appears dead (so far), then - like our moon - there wouldn't be a lot of geological shifts (ie: Mountains, valleys, active volcanoes, and the like).

      2. Since Titan has an atmosphere (unlike our moon), and since the particles in atmospheres tend to erode things over time (and how many millions or billions of years has this been going on?) it is likely that the reason there aren't large mountains, valleys, and the like is because if #1 is true, then - unlike our world - there hasn't been geological activities going on for a long time and any mountains have been worn down and any valleys have been filled.

      3. Given #1 and #2, then you would wind up with a nearly smooth surface over the entire planet - given enough time.

      As has already been said in the report - the lights near the southern pole are up for grabs. It is likely that, similar to our planet's poles, the radiation bombaring Titan is concentrated on or near the poles. Especially the pole which is pointed more towards the sun. So the lights could just be the same types of lights we get here in our far northern and southern realms.

      And now for speculation:

      1. The lights could be some form of life or an indication of life or civilization. More likely something along the lines of plankton. Plankton can sometimes emit light also. Before the seas were harvested for seaweed, polluted, etc... there were tales/stories by those who plied the seas about the entire ocean glowing (which would make it somewhere around a 20 mile across area which glowed). This would make it possible that, given no higher order creatures eating the light emitting air plankton, that they could be hundreds of miles across.

      As for the lighter/darker areas if the darker areas are oil areas then it is the largest oil spill ever. (Just joking!) Really though, it is more likely they are areas of a liquid gas. I only say this because a gas like natural gas usually stays a gas unless the temperature is reduce to the point where the molecules slow down and create a liquid. For all we know, the dark areas could be a highly corrosive substance we've never even run into before. It is also highly likely that no matter what it turns out to be - it will be highly poisoneous to a human being. (I say this only because there are so many naturally occurring substances which are toxic to people in general.)

      What would be more interesting would be that we actually find some kind of creatures living on Titan with a different metabolic make-up. Such as silicon (Horta anyone?). That would be the most interesting thing I would think. I also believe that Titan holds a much better chance of containing some kind of life than Mars. This is only because Titan has a bit more atmosphere than Mars and thus has a somewhat better protection against the radiation Saturn and the Sun are throwing at it.

      Just my $0.02 worth. :-)

      --
      Someone put a black hole in my pocket and now I'm broke. :-)
    3. Re:A Little Perspective by Tsali · · Score: 5, Funny

      If it's methane, I'm holding my breath.

      --
      This space for rent.
  8. Obligatory... by kgbspy · · Score: 5, Funny

    You think Titan's smooth - you should see Uranus...

    *ducks*

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    1. Re:Obligatory... by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 5, Funny

      One scientist first described the surface as "smooth as a young woman's ass", but had to change the description when other scientists had no referrants as to what he was talking about.

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      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  9. The surface smoothness... by JavaNPerl · · Score: 5, Funny

    is easily attributed to subtle variances in the curd temperature during the cheese formation process... oops wrong moon.

  10. It's a simulation by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 5, Funny

    We're just walk-on extras in someone else's videogame, optimized to save rendering time where there's no prizes.

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  11. Tucson, Titan by eDavidLu · · Score: 5, Funny

    Interesting that the article is in the "Local News" section of the Tucson Citizen.

    I thought some of the landscapes around Tucson look extraterrestrial. Now it makes sense.

  12. landing on titan by gatrox · · Score: 5, Informative

    Cassini carries huygens, a land probe which will (hopefully) land on Titan on january 14th. There is an interesting story on ieee spectrum about an engineer who prevented the mission from certain failure.

  13. Re:so you got a smooth landscape... by mikael · · Score: 5, Insightful

    i don't think this should be such an odd find. what are the prerequisits for a planet/moon having tectonic plates?

    A major collision with a large planetoid is the main requirement (imparting a huge amount of heat), and a means of keeping this energy in the core, so that at least the central part of the planet/moon remains semi-liquid. Otherwise everything would just cool down and become a solid lump.

    Titan is believed to be heated by gravitation stress from Jupiter, if not from the magnetic field as well. There could also be natural fission.

    It is going to be interesting to see if there is enough liquid to partially or completely cover the surface (oceans/continents, marshy areas, complete ocean with high waves/frozen poles).

    --
    Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
  14. Re:Why it's so smooth... by notany · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Thats no moon....THIS is a moon" -- Obi-Wan Kenobi drops pants

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    Dyslexics have more fnu.
  15. Re:so you got a smooth landscape... by daniel23 · · Score: 5, Informative

    > Titan is believed to be heated by gravitation stress from Jupiter...

    Titan is a moon of Saturn, not Jupiter.

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    605413? Yes, it's a prime.
  16. Titian's zamboni by r2q2 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow, a complete civilization that's sole job is to ride zamboni's across titan's surface completely resurfacing the whole thing. This must be a sign of life on Titan

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    My UID is prime is yours?