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Astronomers Probe Mysterious Gas In Titan's Atmosphere
sciencehabit writes "A fluorescent glow high in the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, signifies the presence of a gas that astronomers have yet to identify. The glow appears only on the daytime side of the moon at altitudes between 600 and 1250 kilometers, with the largest intensity occurring at an altitude of about 950 km. Detailed analyses reveal that the glow doesn't stem from a problem with the Saturn-orbiting Cassini craft, and it isn't associated with methane or any of the other hydrocarbons already identified as constituents of Titan's atmosphere."
I guess the chances of anything coming from Titan, are a million to one...
Enjoy science fiction? "Turing Evolved" - AI, Mecha, Androids and rail-gun battles. What more could you want?
Oh ho ho! A fart joke! Never would I have seen that one coming! Can you do a uranus joke next! Those are so fucking funny! And nobody has ever done them before ever!
They don't have an emission spectrum that can be analyzed?
An article about astronomical observations of a gas and so far we've already got three fart jokes and one random insult. I see Slashdot is living up to form.
(And what did Phil Plait ever do to you AC? Or do you have an irrational grudge against any scientists who actually tries to educate laypeople?)
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
tibanna gas mine
I have an idea where that gas came from. Probably that Titanurrito I had for lunch.
Well, perhaps they're just celebrating Saturnalia. Given the venue, it would make sense. Who knows what calendar they're using, anyway?
Ezekiel 23:20
So...ura..nostologist? You study senility?
Uranus?
Someone had to do it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycyclic_aromatic_hydrocarbon ...PAHs, subjected to interstellar medium (ISM) conditions, are transformed, through hydrogenation, oxygenation and hydroxylation, to more complex organics - "a step along the path toward amino acids and nucleotides, the raw materials of proteins and DNA, respectively".
Origins of life PAH world hypothesis
Reminds me of a Star Trek episode or two where they mistakenly take about some glowing air or sand or some such and it turns out to be sentient. Or could be some bizarre bacteria that flourishes in that environment. Heck we've found silicon based flora in our own deep oceans.
So we have a planetoid enveloped in a vaporous cloud of mysterious matter, which is unknown to science.
Well, I've seen enough old Star Trek episodes to know that it's almost certainly a malevolent disembodied life form, which was left imprisoned on that desolate moon eons ago to keep it from threatening other civilizations throughout the galaxy.
Unfortunately, the Huygens probe has probably now provided it with the tools it needs to transport itself off the moon, most likely in a bid to attack and take over our planet Earth. Since it's probably invulnerable to any technology we posess, our only hope is to cleverly lure it into some kind of trap where it will destroy itself, most likely in a large explosion.
That's all.
But NASA needs some good PR.
Which is a good enough motive these days.
That IO has left a huge toroid of highly charged sulfur atoms running around Jupiter and that perhaps Titan's atmosphere is just banging into that cloud and what we're witnessing is sulfur ionizing at high altitude? Just a thought? Of course it does seem to have a solar component ("happens on the sunlit side", but that might be explained by expansion of the Titan atmosphere do to solar heating... or not.)
That or it could all be a simple problem with swamp gas... what would compose swamp gas on a frozen hydrocabon planet... AMMONIA!!! And there you have it.
Pumbaa: Hey, Timon, ever wonder what those sparkly dots are up there?
Timon: Pumbaa, I don't wonder; I know.
Pumbaa: Oh. What are they?
Timon: They're fireflies. Fireflies that, uh... got stuck up on that big bluish-black thing.
Pumbaa: Oh, gee. I always thought they were balls of gas burning billions of miles away.
Timon: Pumbaa, with you, everything's gas.
It sounds like a ploy to keep the funds flowing for Cassini.
+5 insightful for this obvious troll post?
Slashdot: +5 Disgraceful
When they're going to probe the mysterious gas in Uranus.
It sounds like a ploy to keep the funds flowing for Cassini.
Yeah. What assholes, finding something new that they haven't identified....
I am not opposed to continuing to fund Cassini, but the fact is that when a project goes to the politicians for more funding they need to demonstrate work which they could continue to do with more money. This very thin article has the feel of something which has been held back to use when the money runs out. Okay they have seen something funny, but they don't have a spectrum. Why not, surely they would be the most obviousl thing to do up front.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Naturally, that's where burrito gas comes from.
Maybe?
They already said it is not methane.
I mean, who doesn't?
It sounds like a ploy to keep the funds flowing for Cassini.
+5 insightful for this obvious troll post?
Slashdot: +5 Disgraceful
Our conspiracy theories are becoming as unsophisticated as our fart jokes. Back in the day, people made up interesting CTs, but nowadays it's always "they want more funding".
Let's here some *good* conspiracy theories for this, then maybe we can have a poll to see which one is best.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
given their ineptitude with launching satellites, i'd say North Korea just tried to nuke us.
Considering that Cassini is a WORKING orbiter around Saturn, a thing we are unlikely to see again in most of our lifetimes, I'm good with them funding the use of it as long as it keeps running, for no other reason than to keep looking for things it missed the first (or hundredth) time around. Same for any other working interplanetary spacecraft. If (and only if) someone can make the case that defunding Cassini will directly free up funding for the next probe to Saturn, then maybe, but I don't believe that will happen.
*groan over the uranus, fartgas, and other dumb jokes.*
Anyway, since this is occuring over the sunlit side of the moon, and that the moon is very far away from the sun, and that solar wind particle action on the moon's atmosphere would be shockingly small, (Saturn's magnetic field would push a good deal away, and even then the distance means a radically lower conentration than we are used to dealing with, meaning solar ions are unlikely as a cause.) Is it possible that there are tiny organic molecules up there with a fluorescent property?
Titan has lots of methane, nitrogen, and ambient radiation from Saturn. Tiny particles just a few molecules in size suspended in the upper atmosphere would be all that's needed. Essentially, glow in the dark organic dust?
It would be interesting to see if there are other re-emission falloff zones in that part of the atmosphere relating to the e-ring charge emissions from Saturn, and other nearby energy sources that could excite a light emitting molecule.
The Apollo ALSEP experiments were defunded and shut down. It seems stupid but it does happen.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
It's GAS MUSIC from JUPITER!!!
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Fry: "Hey, as long as you don't make me smell Uranus." *laughs*
Leela: "I don't get it."
Professor: "I'm sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all."
Fry: "Oh. What's it called now?"
Professor: "Urectum. Here, let me locate it for you."
Fry: "Hehe, no, no, I think I'll just smell around a bit over here."
Or does aurora come to mind?
I'm the only Slashdotter who's read John Varley?
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Now lets get to work on those moon cats!
... they both get excited about a probe to uranus
They just elected a pope.
You had the Titanurrito? I had the Tarantino myself, it was interesting to say the least.
A lot of anger there? - Are you the guy who started the moon hoax meme or just another garden variety conspiracy theorist?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Happen to agree with the original post. NASA funding will be cut 21% due to the sequester. His opinions is not a troll and while neat for an 'oh gee' bit off science.....This is not that big a deal For the guy that attacked him (ThePieces), just because you think there is plenty of $ to around does not mean there are........ you need to learn critical thinking and just why the mission wants the attention......
-1 troll disgraceful.
It's not a gas it's a plasmid, russelian science strikes again!!!
Yeah, I never could understand that one (ALSEP shutdown). By the way, I think it was unjustified for your original post to get modded down like it did (troll and flamebait -- I never got those:)). It sounded a bit trolly on first read but was a worthy speculation.
DUN DUN DUN.
mystery gas in uranus
laconic
The previous (M)Administration attempted to eliminate funding for monitoring the Voyagers, ordered Mariner data destroyed, and got upset when NASA middle managers handed over Pioneer data to the Planetary Society for analysis rather than destroy it as they ordered. I don't understand the mindset of politicians who are not content with simply removing funding for a project, but can't stand the very idea that someone else might be able to take the project over. All the plans from the Apollo missions for the Saturn 5, the rovers and spacecraft were destroyed under orders from DC (IIRC during the Reagan years) so that no one else would ever be able to build on that work. I just don't get it.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin