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Hubble Discovers Dark Cloud in the Atmosphere of Uranus
Marz
post Mar 15 2007, 04:22 PM
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QUOTE (mgrodzki @ Mar 11 2007, 09:35 PM) *
that is interesting… nobody has anything to add to that? i was thinking that recently as well. while we are running out of candidates, i think moons close to their host gas-giants all have the likelyhood that they might experience some io-europa-enceladus type activity. how much of miranda is rock vs ice? i would imagine if it were mostly rock it would seem less likely to have such activity.


Ariel is an excellent candidate; an icy moon with little ancient cratering left on its surface, and those that are show signs of distortion. I wonder what tidal forces Ariel experiences compared to Enceladus?

Miranda seems unlikely, mostly because it's half the size of Enceladus, and perhaps more importantly, was smashed up and lost much internal organization.

Triton seems like a much more interesting target; much larger, more dense, greater surface variation, and almost certainly geologically active.
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tedstryk
post Mar 15 2007, 05:22 PM
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QUOTE (Marz @ Mar 15 2007, 04:22 PM) *
Ariel is an excellent candidate; an icy moon with little ancient cratering left on its surface, and those that are show signs of distortion. I wonder what tidal forces Ariel experiences compared to Enceladus?

Miranda seems unlikely, mostly because it's half the size of Enceladus, and perhaps more importantly, was smashed up and lost much internal organization.

Triton seems like a much more interesting target; much larger, more dense, greater surface variation, and almost certainly geologically active.


Actually, Miranda has an equatorial radius of 235 km, while Enceladus has an equatorial radius of 250 km. For comparison, lumpy old Proteus has a mean radius of 315 km! The solar system is indeed a strange place.

Also, as far as activity, Triton is already known to have plumes. Click here for a movie on Calvin Hamilton's site (Which I believe was made by the Voyager team).



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Jyril
post Jun 14 2007, 10:49 PM
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QUOTE (karolp @ Nov 16 2006, 07:28 PM) *
What's in a name? Uranus would remain as unexplored by any other name... Or would it? Also, there is one major reason to go there: Ariel. In a book called "Moons of the Outer Planets" that I read in the early 1990s it was speculated that it could still be active today. It was also speculated that Enceladus might - and it actually IS. Ariel is the Enceladus of the Uranian system.


Not Miranda which--as already mentioned--is about the same size and even has broadly speaking similar features? Ariel is Uranus' Dione, they're almost exactly the same size. Enceladus is denser than Miranda, and given that Voyager 2's flyby was so close, the value is accurate (as opposed to pre-Cassini Enceladus density value, which was crap)? Titania is bigger version of Ariel/Dione, so it also might be interesting. There's so much to know in the Uranus system that it is sad that the system has got so little attention.


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The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.
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