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Liquid Lakes On Saturn's Moon Confirmed

Riding with Robots writes "Scientists have been using the robotic spacecraft Cassini to explore what looked to be large lakes of hydrocarbons on the surface of Saturn's planet-sized moon Titan. But they couldn't be entirely sure that the features were actually liquid lakes, and not simply very smooth, solid material. Now, new findings seem to confirm that the observations really do show extensive seas of liquid ethane and other hydrocarbons. In fact, Titan seems to have an entire 'water' cycle of ethane evaporation, rain and rivers."

4 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. Saturn == LA? by dlgeek · · Score: 5, Funny

    FTA: "[T]hese particles form a ubiquitous hydrocarbon haze that hinders the view."
    Sounds just like LA.

  2. I see what you did there... by postermmxvicom · · Score: 4, Funny

    "the energy costs alone would be astronomical" ba dum tis

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  3. Re:Cheesy Joke Thread, and life on Saturn by gsslay · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not "invade". Sheesh, keep to the script why dontcha?!

    Act 1: Locate & Destroy Secret Inter-planetary WMDs
    Act 2: Er, forget that, we never said that, we meant; Liberate oppressed Saturnians
    Act 3: Confuse Saturn For Something Jupiter Did - Meh, they're all gas-giants aren't they?
    Act 4: Ooh, fancy that, you have oil? That we did not know.
    Act 5: Damn Ungrateful Tentacle-heads

  4. Re:So where did these hydrocarbons come from? by hoggoth · · Score: 4, Funny

    > I thought we've always had beaten into our heads that hydrocarbons, and oil and gas in particular were the result of decaying biomass from dinosaurs. So, where did these hydrocarbons come from? Was Titan an outpost for some spacefaring dino species, that got wiped out in a strange intergalactic plague? Or is there a much more sane, reasonable answer that I just haven't seen yet?

    Q: Ethane on Titan comes from:

    A. The decayed, compressed remains of Titanic Dinosaurs.
    A: Xenu dropped his dinosauroid enemies into volcanos on Titan.
    B: The devil planted it there to trick us
    C: Solar radiation hits Methane (CH4), splitting it into (CH3+H), which quickly recombines into Ethane (C2H6)

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