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Cassini Discovers First River On Another World
AbsoluteXyro writes "NASA's Cassini orbiter, which has been dutifully exploring the Saturn system since 2004, has captured images of the first river ever observed on another world — and it's a biggun. 200 miles of flowing hydrocarbons meandering down a valley in the north polar region of Saturn's moon Titan, emptying into the awesomely named Kraken Mare — itself a body of liquid roughly the size of the Mediterranean Sea back on Earth. But don't think of going for an extraterrestrial skinny dip quite yet, temperatures on Titan average a brutally cold 290 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit)."
The reason for reporting temperatures in Fahrenheit is because they have intuitive meaning for us Merkins.
Minus two ninety doesn't fit that description; shoulda been Celsius.
if it's that cold? Or is the river a river of oil?
No bombing.
Diving permitted at deep end only.
NO SMOKING.
NASA does not use the metric system even for temperatures!?!?
The white spots on the river banks look like population hot-spots on earth.
Let the conspiracy theorists begin making up stuff.
Surely they will claim something about extra-terrestrial cities and FBI secrets.
~ Best man at your service.
I mean, it could be a river, or it could be something else. Let's plan on taking a closer look before deciding what this thing really is.
I am officially gone from
Next up on Fox News - Terrorists on Saturn's moon are out to destroy America! Support out troops! Praise the lord and pass the ammunition!
I don't get how this is new. Cassini has been detecting branching river systems and large lakes (Great Lakes size) filled with liquid methane since early in the mission. This latest release is adding to the mapped area, but isn't particularly new in that regard. However, if you read the original NASA press release on the Cassini web site, it makes more sense. This is not the first, but the longest river system that has been observed so far on Titan, at about 400km long.
Hmm, hydrocarbons and not a plant in sight? I'm thinking we might want to stop calling oil and natural gas fossil fuels.
IMHO
Using the Fahrenheit scale for low temperatures in the popular press is bad.
It leads PHBs to insist on using non-standard scientific measurements for designs.
Even Rankine would be better.
If someone doesn't know something they shouldn't be coddled.
They can get off FaceBook/Twitter and google the temperature and learn something.
It's only -179 C. Not exactly shorts weather, mind you.
I'm quite ignorant of organic chemistry, but I thought hydrocarbons were fossils. How can there be hydrocarbons without life?
Or am I WAY off in my ASSumptions?
Coooool. You can see vague horizontal lines on the sea. Waves perhaps?
So, just out of curiosity, does anyone know which it is? (200 miles is about 320 km)
Does anyone have a decent browser plugin that converts the fucking imperial units on web pages to the metric system automagically?
I can start planning my black water rafting trip.
River of hydrocarbons and no one is blaming BP for the spill?
That is 94 Kalvin, really the only scale that make any sense for numbers this low.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Awesome science stuff happens, queue 300 posts of retards bitching about the unit of measurement a writer chose to use so the public he writes to can relate easier.
If you have an issue with the measurement don't bitch and moan, do the conversion and move on. That's what those of us raised on the imperial scales do when we see metric stuff posted (unless we were those fortunate to have grown up learning both)
If more than 5% of the world were American that might be a good reason.
What are miles? What is Fahrenheit?
I don't speak doofus.
At some point, you've got to stop complaining and just do the math. (or find a website to do it for you).
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
Please use a freaking metric scale. Celcius or Kelvin. This old-school English measuring system has to stop. What is with you Americans and Burmese and Liberians?
Looking at the image on the NASA page, it jumps out at you: it's a fractal. To quote Marathon 1, "They're eveywhere!"
-- haaz.
Open a window will yah?
I mean, first of all, a "scientific" article using Fahrenheit, that already is ridiculous.
Then pointing out that -290 degrees is neither Celsius nor Kelvin, my day is saved.
(Absolute zero is at -273 celsius, or 0 Kelvin)
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Awesome science stuff happens, queue 300 posts of retards bitching about the unit of measurement a writer chose to use so the public he writes to can relate easier.
If you have an issue with the measurement don't bitch and moan, do the conversion and move on. That's what those of us raised on the imperial scales do when we see metric stuff posted (unless we were those fortunate to have grown up learning both)
While I agree that bitching and moaning is unpleasant, as an American I still find it much easier to think about such low temperatures in Kelvin. As all numbers are used to compare to other numbers, it's the only unit of measurement that people use to deal with such low temperatures... unless of course you're one of those rare people who actually use the Rankine scale.
A 1, a 2, a 1, 2, 3... "Moooonn, riiiiveeer"... that's what comes to my mind.
200 miles of flowing hydrocarbons meandering down a valley in the north polar region of Saturn's moon Titan, emptying into the awesomely named Kraken Mare â" itself a body of liquid roughly the size of the Mediterranean Sea back on Earth.
Wouldn't that be a sight. I'd love to watch a high definition video of this river. Imax!
You must gather your party before venturing forth.
Next week, they'll find it has a shopping cart and most of a bike in it.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
How do the NASA scientists know that these pictures are of rivers and not long inlets? In other words, how do they know the hydrocarbons are flowing?