Home | Community | Message Board
You are not signed in.
Sign In New Account
Forum Index Search Posts Trusted Vendors Highlights Galleries FAQ User List Chat Store Random Growery


This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.

Community > The Pub
Threaded Mode Threaded  Previous topic Previous  View all topics Index  Next topic Next 

Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Unfolding Nature Shop: Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order

Jump to first unread post Pages: 1
The Lagoons of Titan: Oily Liquid Confirmed on Saturn Moon
    #8704150 -

http://www.yahoo.com/s/926379

"Earthlings might be scrambling to find liquid hydrocarbons buried in our planet, but Saturn's moon Titan has plenty to spare.

Scientists say that a dark, smooth surface feature spotted on the moon last year is definitely a lake filled primarily with liquid ethane, a simple hydrocarbon.

"This is the first observation that really pins down that Titan has a surface lake filled with liquid," said the paper's lead author, University of Arizona professor Robert Brown.

The new observations affirm that Titan is one of the likeliest places to look for life in our solar system. Some astrobiologists have speculated that life could develop in the moon's hydrocarbon lakes, although it would have to be substantially different from known life on Earth, which requires liquid water.


Mixed in solution with the ethane, the lake is also believed to contain nitrogen, methane, and a variety of other simple hydrocarbons.

The Cassini-Huygens probe determined the chemical composition of the liquid by the way it reflected light, a technique known as spectrometry that has provided most of our knowledge about other planets' atmospheric compositions.

"It was hard for us to accept the fact that the feature was so black when we first saw it," Brown said. "More than 99.9 percent of the light that reaches the lake never gets out again. For it to be that dark, the surface has to be extremely quiescent, mirror smooth. No naturally produced solid could be that smooth."

Further, the scientists saw the specific absorption signature of ethane, which absorbs light at exactly 2-micron wavelengths.

These kinds of measurements are made more difficult by the hydrocarbon haze that engulfs the moon, making it hard to actually see the Titanic ground. Cassini scientists have to take advantage of narrow observation windows. One of these occurred in December 2007, which allowed them to catch this view of the lake, Ontario Lacus. At 7,800 square miles, it's slightly larger than the Earthbound Lake Ontario

Ethane is the byproduct of a solar-energy-induced reaction that transforms atmospheric methane, aka natural gas. Scientists believe ultrafine particles of ethane fall from the atmosphere to the surface and fill the lake.

Here on earth, ethane is used to create ethylene, which is used as an all-purpose chemical precursor and is the world's most-produced organic compound.

Brown and his team will publish their results in the July 31 issue of the journal Nature."


--------------------
http://www.doctorfungus.org

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/

http://www.textbookofbacteriology.net

http://bugs.bio.usyd.edu.au/learning/resources/Mycology/index.html

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: The Lagoons of Titan: Oily Liquid Confirmed on Saturn Moon [Re: LayYouIn]
    #8704182 -

thats pretty damn cool.


--------------------

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: The Lagoons of Titan: Oily Liquid Confirmed on Saturn Moon [Re: LayYouIn]
    #8704208 -








Lakes and mountains.  There are hi-res pictures from the mission available from JPL

There's also a descent movie from the Huygens probe.


--------------------
Q: We wanted to see if you had the ability to expand your mind and your horizons... and for one brief moment, you did.
PICARD: When I realized the paradox...
Q: Exactly. For that one fraction of a second, you were open to options you'd never considered. That's the exploration that awaits you...not mapping stars and studying nebulae... but charting the unknowable possibilities of existence.

To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening. -Dogen Zenji

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: The Lagoons of Titan: Oily Liquid Confirmed on Saturn Moon [Re: toastandjam]
    #8704224 -

Sweet, lots of fuel for the future, for the first country to exploit it.


--------------------
:awesome:

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: The Lagoons of Titan: Oily Liquid Confirmed on Saturn Moon [Re: Irishdrunk]
    #8704363 -

I remember reading somewhere too that gravity is so light and air pressure is so dense on Titan that you could fly simply by flapping your hands.  Of course, its also freezing cold.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Jump to top Pages: 1

Unfolding Nature Shop: Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order

Community > The Pub
Threaded Mode Threaded  Previous topic Previous  View all topics Index  Next topic Next 

Similar ThreadsPosterViewsRepliesLast post
* Titan drowneduck 412 3 01/14/05 07:29 PM
by Todcasil
* Huygens is Landing on Titan ivi 1,016 11 01/15/05 07:57 PM
by kosmic_charlie
* Saturn enters Leo
( 1 2 3 4 5 all )		 flowstone 5,275 93 07/04/05 03:46 PM
by AbstractHarmonix
* Sounds from Saturn TheCheat 683 10 08/01/05 01:18 AM
by wrestler_az
* Saturn and Venus collide....(Almost) dshak66 403 1 06/29/07 05:12 PM
by DieCommie
* listen to the sounds of saturn KingOftheThing 912 11 07/27/05 10:17 PM
by afoaf
* Saturn's Glowing Hexagon Cannashroom 829 10 11/14/08 10:17 AM
by Tri High
* remember Nights for sega saturn? Liquid_Dimension 811 12 04/02/07 05:05 PM
by Wysefool

Extra information
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: Entire Staff
519 topic views. 10 members, 93 guests and 150 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ]
Search this thread:

Copyright 1997-2026 Mind Media. Some rights reserved.

Generated in 0.024 seconds spending 0.007 seconds on 16 queries.