Magic Islands |
Magic Islands |
Jan 13 2024, 01:25 AM
Post
#1
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1585 Joined: 14-October 05 From: Vermont Member No.: 530 |
Generic thread title, struggled with where to put this.
https://www.utsa.edu/today/2024/01/story/pr...turns-moon.html QUOTE JANUARY 5, 2024 — Titan’s “magic islands” are likely floating chunks of porous, icy organic solids, a new study by UTSA professor Xinting Yu finds, pivoting from previous work suggesting they were gas bubbles
|
|
|
Jan 28 2024, 06:49 AM
Post
#2
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2998 Joined: 30-October 04 Member No.: 105 |
HSchirmer, relating terrestrial magma to the rich ices on Titan is a brilliant observation. I'll need to read up on that.
The Dragonfly mission will answer so many questions about Titan as well as raise so many more. --Bill -------------------- |
|
|
Jan 29 2024, 12:01 PM
Post
#3
|
|
Member Group: Members Posts: 684 Joined: 24-July 15 Member No.: 7619 |
QUOTE (Bill Harris) HSchirmer, relating terrestrial magma to the rich ices on Titan is a brilliant observation. --Bill Thanks, although this analogy was pointed out to me a long time ago, when I was helping U-Penn botanists and a Penn-State geologist get landowner permission for biodiversity surveys. The geologist was interested in the contact zone between intrusive diabase and shales, especially the grain sizes and crossbedding at the bottom of the magma chamber. When I asked about fine layering and bedding in the diabase, the geologist explained that the magma chamber was like a snow-globe; the layers I was seeing in solid rock were mineral crystals that 'snowed out' as the magma chamber cooled, blown into drifts by convection currents, which eventually avalanched down the sides of the magma chamber to form the swirling pattern that was now set in stone. Amazing to perceive an 'estuary' of mineral grains in a magma chamber, with different generations of mineral grains snowing down as the liquid cools and minerals fractionate out. |
|
|
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 6th June 2024 - 05:02 AM |
RULES AND GUIDELINES Please read the Forum Rules and Guidelines before posting. IMAGE COPYRIGHT |
OPINIONS AND MODERATION Opinions expressed on UnmannedSpaceflight.com are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of UnmannedSpaceflight.com or The Planetary Society. The all-volunteer UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderation team is wholly independent of The Planetary Society. The Planetary Society has no influence over decisions made by the UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderators. |
SUPPORT THE FORUM Unmannedspaceflight.com is funded by the Planetary Society. Please consider supporting our work and many other projects by donating to the Society or becoming a member. |