Titan's changing lakes |
Titan's changing lakes |
Jan 29 2009, 07:22 PM
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#1
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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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Nov 30 2009, 05:53 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3242 Joined: 11-February 04 From: Tucson, AZ Member No.: 23 |
Where are the south polar dry lakes? What do you think those low, flat areas are in the RADAR sar data that match up with ISS dark areas? That being said, the north polar region seems to have more dedicated lake basins while the south pole has mostly opportunistic playas (though there are a few of those up north too).
As for Kraken Mare, again, I think it is still plausible that Mezzoramia is the south polar version of that sea. -------------------- &@^^!% Jim! I'm a geologist, not a physicist!
The Gish Bar Times - A Blog all about Jupiter's Moon Io |
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Nov 30 2009, 07:05 PM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 131 Joined: 30-August 06 From: Moscow, Idaho Member No.: 1086 |
Where are the south polar dry lakes? What do you think those low, flat areas are in the RADAR sar data that match up with ISS dark areas? I think they're dark areas. They could be anything. If the ethane content of Kraken Mare is substantial, then there's just no way to move it around on seasonal timescales. Oded's Milankovic timescales, maybe. - Jason PS -- I can't even get a copy of this paper -- I guess we're not subscribed to Nature Geoscience here for some reason? |
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Dec 1 2009, 11:23 PM
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#4
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Member Group: Members Posts: 613 Joined: 23-February 07 From: Occasionally in Columbia, MD Member No.: 1764 |
If the ethane content of Kraken Mare is substantial, then there's just no way to move it around on seasonal timescales. Oded's Milankovic timescales, maybe. Right. Likely difficult to determine remotely (detecting that ethane is there is one thing, as for VIMS/Ontario ; measuring an abundance is another thing. In principle microwave radiometry might be able to do it (or RSS bistatic), might need assumptions about roughness or depth etc.) Titan Mare Explorer will do a bang-up job on lake composition... If Kraken is deep (as its size suggests it should be) it is hard to see that it could be seasonal, regardless of composition. I have been on a jihad for some time to stress Croll-Milankovich. James Croll figured it all out in the 1860s. Milankovich just came along later and did the astronomical math a bit better. (Croll I think was the first to calculate how much colder Europe would be without the Gulf stream, for example ; he studied boulder clays and geological evidence, as well as the astronomical forcing and heat budget.) |
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Dec 2 2009, 05:54 PM
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#5
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Member Group: Members Posts: 131 Joined: 30-August 06 From: Moscow, Idaho Member No.: 1086 |
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