Lakes in the limelight, the 2013 image bonanza continues |
Lakes in the limelight, the 2013 image bonanza continues |
Sep 13 2013, 02:20 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
A fantastic collection of new images of the northern lakes has just arrived: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawi...?imageID=298704
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May 3 2017, 03:20 PM
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Director of Galilean Photography Group: Members Posts: 896 Joined: 15-July 04 From: Austin, TX Member No.: 93 |
So, how long before you guys wrangle a stream/sand table into one of those refrigerated chambers? Smash a little water ice "sand" and place an ethane lake at the shallow end, and make it rain!
"Try this at home" is not likely, but maybe a similar experiment could be done with seltzer water and another commonly available solvent - alcohols or mineral oils? It's intriguing to think there could be an equivalent to thermohaline (thermonitro?) circulation on Titan. Colder parts of the seas cause surface methane to dissolve nitrogen and increase in density, descending to the bottom and drawing in new low density methane from warmer areas. So based on my read of Mike and Ralph's excellent paper, methane rain would be colder, denser, and carrying more nitrogen than the lake they are flowing into - so my bet is it tends to stay in submerged valleys as it enters the lake. If there is a gradient in the lake of methane/ethane mixing, then as the flow reaches deeper areas it will start encountering/mixing with more ethane, causing nitrogen release. Though I would expect this to happen all around the lake margins where the rain is occurring, instead of a single location. So if the Magic Island is caused by nitrogen bubbles, it must be something more localized like a thermal vent. And once these events start, they could be self-sustaining. Just amazing. Mike, based on your comments, it sounds like the N2 doesn't stay supersaturated very easily in the liquids. So it's not like a glass of cold water warming up and bubbles forming on its sides, but Mentos/Diet Coke? Sorry getting into this so late, life and all that. -------------------- Space Enthusiast Richard Hendricks
-- "The engineers, as usual, made a tremendous fuss. Again as usual, they did the job in half the time they had dismissed as being absolutely impossible." --Rescue Party, Arthur C Clarke Mother Nature is the final inspector of all quality. |
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