Titan's changing lakes |
Titan's changing lakes |
Jan 29 2009, 07:22 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
Today's big news?
http://ciclops.org/view/5471/CASSINI_FINDS...ILL_TITAN_LAKES Changes in the south polar region were announced late last year. Is there more to this story now?? |
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Aug 23 2009, 09:08 PM
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8785 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
It's a fascinating result, Ralph, and clearly some impressive instrumentation detective work was involved. Congratulations to you & your associates!
Of course, this apparent extreme flatness begs a lot of questions. Can the surface winds of Titan really be that torpid over such a substantial surface area? You would think that at least a few ripples would be generated by (presumed) small-scale atmospheric convection due to the temperature differential between the liquid & the surrounding shore, unless the whole system is truly isothermal. Alternatively, could the fluid itself be extremely viscous due to the presence of complex organics/contaminants (like runoff sediments from rainstorms), or do we have an inadequate understanding of the gross physical behavior of low-temp methane/ethane/whatever mixtures? As usual, major discoveries always produce many more interesting questions. I don't see some of these being resolved until we splash (or plop) a probe into one of these lakes. -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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