[X] My Assistant

[Spirit]

Is it possible to light the atmosphere of Titan. I think that the methane could burn. What will happen if we set a fire on Titan? Will the atmosphere burn and melt down the water ice?

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

Yeah, we've discussed this before. You can't set Titan on fire without oxygen (or it would have burst into flame at the first meteorite impact!)

But it has been pointed out that you can run a gas burner on Titan by doing the exact reverse of what a gas burner does on Earth -- that is, instead of squirting methane into an oxygen atmosphere and then striking a spark, you squirt oxygen into a METHANE atmosphere and then strike a spark. And this could even be used to provide the internal heat for a space suit on Titan (which would also be unique in not having to be pressurized like the space suit necessary on the surface of any other world in the Solar System).

[RNeuhaus]

Yeah, we've discussed this before. You can't set Titan on fire without oxygen (or it would have burst into flame at the first meteorite impact!)

Titan has some few meteorite craters and around this must have melt ice and forms some rivers around any impact crater. The meteorite must be very hot when it enters to the high density Titan's atmosphere plus the burning flame of meteorite.

Rodolfo

[mchan]

The heat from atmospheric friction would be carried off by boil off of the meteorite surface. Rock / ice is a fair insulator. The short time of passage thru the atmosphere would not allow for the interior of the meteorite to increase significantly in temperature. But even if the meteorite could absorb much of the energy from atmospheric deceleration, that energy would be low compared with the energy released by the surface impact.

Rivers forming from impact craters would imply some energy release sustained over time. I guess there would be no large flows.

[edit] There could be shock heating of the meteorite interior during the atmospheric passage.

[Guest_Richard Trigaux_*]

The heat from atmospheric friction would be carried off by boil off of the meteorite surface. Rock / ice is a fair insulator. The short time of passage thru the atmosphere would not allow for the interior of the meteorite to increase significantly in temperature. But even if the meteorite could absorb much of the energy from atmospheric deceleration, that energy would be low compared with the energy released by the surface impact.

Rivers forming from impact craters would imply some energy release sustained over time. I guess there would be no large flows.

[edit] There could be shock heating of the meteorite interior during the atmospheric passage.

On Earth meteorite were found which were icy cold just after falling. A meteorite called of Dhurmsala (or Durmsalah, spelling can vary) which fell at the end of the 19th century 80kms north east of Dharamsalah, India, was so cold that it gave frost and make fingers dumb a quater of an hour after falling. This cold was, of course, from space (it was a light grey stone chondrite, which equilibrium temperature in space is far bellow zero). Of course, the outside layer of this meteorite burned into the air, and heat difference made the meteorite break appart, low enough into the atmosphere so that the inner blocks could no more be heated. This configuration may be relatively rare, but it proves that a meteorite is not necessarily hot when it falls on the ground.