Titan's lakes revealed |
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Titan's lakes revealed |
| Guest_AlexBlackwell_* |
 Jan 3 2007, 06:09 PM
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#1
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The January 4, 2007, issue of Nature has a paper by Stofan et al. and an accompanying News and Views piece by Christophe Sotin on Titan's lakes. See the Editor's Summary for a synopsis and links.
See also the related Space.com story. This post has been edited by AlexBlackwell: Jan 3 2007, 08:20 PM |
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Jan 3 2007, 06:26 PM
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#2
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 Senior Member  Group: Moderator Posts: 3233 Joined: 11-February 04 From: Tucson, AZ Member No.: 23 |
In conjuction with this release, there is also some images releases:
Pseudo-color view of North Polar Lakes http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09102 Hopefully they will release a full-resolution version of Figure 1 from the paper. -------------------- &@^^!% Jim! I'm a geologist, not a physicist!
The Gish Bar Times - A Blog all about Jupiter's Moon Io |
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Jan 3 2007, 06:45 PM
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#3
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 Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8783 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
More details are on the Cassini site now: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/features/feature20070103.cfm
-------------------- 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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| Guest_AlexBlackwell_* |
Jan 3 2007, 07:17 PM
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#4
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New Evidence of Liquid Methane on Saturn’s Moon
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD The New York Times January 3, 2007 |
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| Guest_AlexBlackwell_* |
Jan 3 2007, 08:41 PM
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#5
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Emily has just posted a pretty informative blog entry: Titan's Lakes.
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| Guest_AlexBlackwell_* |
Jan 3 2007, 11:26 PM
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#6
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Moon River: Titan's Polar Surface Dotted with Lakes of Methane
By David Biello Scientific American.com January 3, 2007 |
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| Guest_AlexBlackwell_* |
Jan 3 2007, 11:47 PM
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#7
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Jan 4 2007, 12:35 AM
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#8
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Member Group: Members Posts: 112 Joined: 17-November 05 From: Canberra Member No.: 558 |
Do you think the extremely low reflectivity of these features mentioned by Emily in her blog means that we should not expect specular reflections? These have often been said to be a smoking gun for bodies of liquid, but maybenot.
Jon |
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| Guest_AlexBlackwell_* |
Jan 4 2007, 12:45 AM
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#9
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Perhaps but I suspect the lack of specular reflection detection is due mainly to the lakes' location (i.e., northern hemisphere) and the solar illumination and flyby geometries.
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Jan 4 2007, 03:25 AM
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#10
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Member Group: Members Posts: 112 Joined: 17-November 05 From: Canberra Member No.: 558 |
Aren't we talking about radar here, not solar radiation? There were some reports of specular radar reflections in Arecibo data some years back, but not repleatable and not consistent with any known surface features, as i recall.
Jon |
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Jan 4 2007, 04:09 AM
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#11
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2173 Joined: 28-December 04 From: Florida, USA Member No.: 132 |
Isn't it impossible for Cassini to see any radar specular reflection because
the radar causing it would have to come from a source other than Cassini? As far as solar specular reflections are concerned, is there a forseeable time in the future when the geometries will be proper between the sun, the "lakes", and Cassini to see them? |
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Jan 4 2007, 09:45 AM
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#12
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 Dublin Correspondent Group: Admin Posts: 1799 Joined: 28-March 05 From: Celbridge, Ireland Member No.: 220 |
QUOTE (centsworth_II @ Jan 4 2007, 04:09 AM)  Isn't it impossible for Cassini to see any radar specular reflection because the radar causing it would have to come from a source other than Cassini? Well the opposite has certainly been tried - bistatic radar with Cassini's radar signal being picked up by Earth receivers. |
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Jan 4 2007, 11:44 AM
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#13
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
I thought the liquid surface was suposed to be transparent to RADAR, with the beam penetrating up to tens of metres depth - in which case I don't see how specular RADAR reflections could occur, except maybe at very low angles of incidence.
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Jan 4 2007, 02:47 PM
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#14
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 531 Joined: 24-August 05 Member No.: 471 |
A small contribution from me ...
940 KB: 
-------------------- - blue_scape / Nico -
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Jan 4 2007, 04:09 PM
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#15
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 64 Joined: 11-October 05 Member No.: 525 |
QUOTE (nprev @ Jan 3 2007, 09:45 PM) More details are on the Cassini site now: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/features/feature20070103.cfm It is interesting that "dry lakes have margins or rims and a radar brightness similar to the rest of the surrounding terrain". That could mean that these lakes generally lack radar-dark organic deposits and even not very dark patches should be lakes (shallow ones). |
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