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Titan's Tropical Weather
Hugh Pickens writes "Climate researchers Ray Pierrehumbert and Jonathan Mitchell at the University of Chicago say that Titan, the only moon in the solar system large enough to support an atmosphere, has many of the same weather features as Earth, but with completely different substances that work at temperatures that plunge down to minus 170 degrees Celsius. Pierrehumbert and Mitchell call Titan's climate 'tropical,' a climate that is warm to hot and wet year-round, because on Titan methane assumes the role of water and exists in enough abundance to condense into rain and form puddles on the surface. Titan's tropical nature means that scientists can observe the behavior of its clouds using theories they've developed to understand Earth's tropics. For example, Titan's atmosphere produces an updraft where surface winds converge to lift evaporated methane up to cooler temperatures and lower pressures, where much of it condenses and forms clouds, 'a well-known feature on Earth called an ITCZ, the inter-tropical convergence zone,' Mitchell says."
I think we should be wary of these so-called "scientists" who do nothing but tell us lies about so-called global warming, denying the truth. They are usually atheists, which explains why they believe in the absurd theory of heliocentricism. Instead of curing us with prayer, doctors kill our precious children by refusing to prescribe antibiotics. Furthermore, scietists are notorious for using shoddy un-Christian European software like Linux, thereby destroying our Great Nation's wealth maximization potential. Truly, is there anything less scientific than science?
It is against this backdrop, friends, that I must share the modest proposal about my fears: What if Titan is just a myth created from the discredited theory of astronomy?
Har har, but no, it wouldn't. Methane is odorless. That's why gas companies have to include additives with natural gas, so leaks can be detected.
The Gish Bar Times - Blog covering Jupiter's moon Io
Methane, while produced in the gut of most animals, is odorless. The smell of flatus, to which you seam to be alluding, is mostly due to sulfur-containing compounds: Hydrogen Sulfide (in the case of the notorious "egg farts"), and various mercaptans, IIRC.
You could've hired me.
I'd say the biggest factor in determining if it's habitable is going to be its orbit and period, because if it's way off from our 24-hour day or 365~ day year, people would have a harder time adjusting than if it were simply lower gravity or hot or cold.
I found it very interesting that Mars has a 24-hour day, and saw that as the biggest sign that we'll be inhabiting it someday soon, probably within our lifetime.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
Dominant Meme
It is nice to see a climate model that adds in the information we have gleaned from the equatorial deserts on Titan. Much of the equatorial dark terrain on Titan is covered in sand dunes (made of organics, rather than quartz sand) while the bright material near the equator looks very much like the desert US southwest, with large mesas carved by the action of flowing methane, suggestive of short-duration, but high-volume, rain showers at equatorial latitudes. Much of the climate studies done recently have focused on the weather at the poles, were the majority of large clouds systems, lakes, and seas have been observed.
The Gish Bar Times - Blog covering Jupiter's moon Io
and also has an atmosphere.
Europa is where the real action is: closer than Titan, and quite possibly teeming with life in a gigantic world-spanning ocean beneath that frozen surface.
Starting with the definition of Life as a process, I wonder if on Titan are the chemicals that exist there capable of encoding information such as the chemicals in DNA here on Earth? Life as we know it works with water and carbon as it's base substrates but these are not the only substrates a process that encodes structures that reproduce is limited to.
Shh.
I'm not a biochemist, but life does not depend only on water and carbon. IIRC, the most abundant elements in living matter are the "CHONPS" group: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphor, and sulfur. Although living cells are *mostly* carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, several other elements are indispensable to life.
I'm rather skeptic of finding life on Titan, because lower temperature means less energy, which means less chemical reactions happening. Less reactions means less probability of hitting on the right combination needed to get a self-reproducing molecule.
Can you get there on frequent flier miles?
Engineering is the art of compromise.
What would happen if we were to dump a bunch of oxygen onto Titan along with an ignition source. Kaboom?
...then Roy Batty's last line would have been, "Like... tears in the methane."
If only it were a *dry* heat!
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
[Insert generic global warming joke with a Titan themed twist here]
If titan is so full of organic compounds, would it have valuable resources we could mine, that aren't abundant on earth and might actually make it cost effective?
"A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
Cool - Minus 170 really is quite tropical - almost like Winnipeg in summer. I wonder whether Titan has mosquitoes too.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
but are there Sirens?
I've always thought it lame to always look for life similar to Earth, when unless the planet is like Earth, there couldn't be such life there.
It seems like we haven't exhausted the possibilities on this planet: What says that life forms based on convection currents of molten iron cannot exist in Earth's core?
"Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language." - Visual J++ Product Manager
Now that sounds like rain that is finally not going to ruin your camp fire grill party. It's more like "duck and cover, rain is about to hit the fire".
that are supposed to live there. I heard there are some really nice ones there. Thats what that guy with that kazak dog told me anyway......
Monstar L
The first explorers are advised to bring pith helmets and machetes. Personally, I find a brolly quite useful too.
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
So, are there any indications that Titan is experiencing the same global warming effects we are? Or, do we need to send an SUV there to heat things up?
What those who want activist courts fear is rule by the people.
Titan has demagogues blathering on about "man-made" climate change and the tools that follow them like a pack of rabid dogs?
Poor Titan. . .
In any case, not only is Titan not alone, it's not the "only moon large enough..." Ganymede at Jupiter is actually larger than Titan, both in radius and (especially) in mass. If it were only a matter of size, Ganymede would have a thicker atmosphere than Titan. Heck, Titan's surface pressure is 1.5 times that of Earth, so clearly size isn't the only issue.
Sorry for the interruption, please carry on.
Titan must have a severe moon warming problem, since methane is one of the worst of the greenhouse gases. 8X worse than plain CO2.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
It's the humidity that'll kill you. I'll be here all week.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
I think i'm loosing it here on Slashdot This information is not much more then a copy of some science news on many bulletins a few days ago. Well that's not to bad, one might miss some topics and find them back here in slashdot But then slashdot is a discussion board, so the collective brain of all nerds here on earth. At least I would think someone posting an article here putting an opinion, or some thoughts about it here too. So the collective can get amused with some thinking. Well there is no opinion, there is no discussion. Almost all replies are funny as those nerds don't know how to react it seams, on pure information. It's like telling them did you know I can see trough air. (a stupid fact). I thinkwe shouldn't use discussions boards for "hey have you seen this link". We got google for that. So whats wrong here, is it the quality of the article post, or is it the quality of the people posting, what is wrong here there is nothing here which would someone to require to think about, on a discussion board.
I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid. You're afraid of us. You're afraid of change.