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Pictures of Titan's Lakes
sighted writes "For decades, scientists have wondered if the thick orange haze that shrouds Saturn's giant moon Titan hid lakes of liquid methane on the surface, but there was no way to confirm it, until now. The Cassini flyby of July 22, 2006 took these striking images and were released today."
That would then be like vacationing in Bayonne, NJ or Scranton, PA and no one wants to do that.
Why did it take them 6 months to release the images?
2 answers
Timing really doesn't matter
How would this information have helped you in July of 2006? It's an interesting fact, but is it really need-to now so much that 6 months... 18 months... 5 years... really matters for 99.9% of the population?
Verified science, not pre-released junk
When Scientists release data before they can properly analyze and understand it they can create misunderstandings. The media poorly reports the data, typically just reporting that whatever conclusions MAY be determined by the data are indeed fact. Of course if after a standard analysis this is proven incorrect the media doesn't really care to publish retractions and corrections with the same force and publicity as their previous stories.
Ehhh...the average surface temperature of Titan is estimated to be 90 Kelvin, compared to Mars at 210 Kelvin. It seems extremely unlikely that the kinds of chemical reactions necessary for any kind of life could occur.
The discovery is a "big deal" because we know something about part of our solar system we didn't know before. If you read the articles, part of the discovery is a likely methane rainfall cycle, including "methanifers" (analogous to aquifers). It's fascinating stuff, IMO.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
Having noted this, 500 metres is kind of crappy resolution for
SAR data. You'd think they'd make a closer flyby or put a better
instrument onboard. I believe 1 (one) metre resolution SAR was available
from instruments at the same altitude when cassini was designed.
NASA just cheaped out.
Cheaped out? Cassinni is the most expensive unmanned probe ever launched. I saw a to-scale model in a museum. It is a huge chunk of gadgets. Perhaps you could argue they underemphasized radar power at the expense of something else, but you cannot argue they went cheap.
Table-ized A.I.
Don't worry, the Bush administration and Exxon are working hard and diligently to warm it up.
Table-ized A.I.
LOL, he was making a joke about the fact that fart gas is methane and there are oceans of liquid methane on Titan. He didn't ask for a complete analysis of fart gas and whether it's possible to liquefy a fart and the liquid still technically consist of "fart" material.
:) So, you can relax and no worry about getting caught!
At least if you fart while you're swimming, your bubbles might not make it to the surface for everyone to see cause they might liquefy and join the existing liquid methane
HAHAHAHAHA. Oh who ever knew that quoting Jim Carey could be flamebait.
No, that's just Michael Bay.
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!