[X] My Assistant

[Webscientist]

An interesting news release on the website of the Cassini Equinox Mission:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassinifea...feature20090904

I had noted that propane (C3H8) could also be present as a liquid on Titan. So, we have, at least, three potential candidates for pools of liquids on Titan: methane, ethane and propane.

If the data of wikipedia are correct, propane has a boiling point ( in normal, terrestrial conditons) of -42.09°C and a melting point of -187.6°C.

With environmental conditions similar to those in the landing site of the Huygens probe ( 1467hPA, -179°C), I suppose that propane can form liquid pools, as well.

[Hungry4info]

Feeling an excessive need to rant.

"Titan's atmospheric inventory would fuel about 150 billion barbecue cookouts, enough for several thousand years of Labor Days."

Really? This doesn't tell me a darned thing about the amount of propane on Titan. Unless that's the new unit for measuring the propane abundance.

I can see it now.


Propane on Titan
Abstract:
"Using high resolution mass spectroscopy from instruments aboard the Cassini spacecraft, we are able to measure a C3H8 abundance of 150 +/- 3% Giga-BBQ'-cookouts within three sigma confidence."

(made some of that up, but you hopefully get the point).

[centsworth_II]

...This doesn't tell me a darned thing about the amount of propane on Titan....

They do give this specific estimate: "We estimate there are nearly 700 million barrels of propane on Titan, said Nixon. "That is enough to fill six-billion 20-pound tanks of liquefied propane gas."

[Webscientist]

They do give this specific estimate: "We estimate there are nearly 700 million barrels of propane on Titan, said Nixon. "That is enough to fill six-billion 20-pound tanks of liquefied propane gas."

Regarding the abundance of Propane (700 million barrels of propane), I made a few calculations to get a better idea:
700 millions barrels=11 291 110 m3
If this amount of propane (C3H8) appeared in a lake of pure propane on Titan's surface, it would only represent the equivalent of twice the size of "Lac de Saint-Cassien" ( Var, France ) which has a mean depth of 16 meters and a surface area of 3.7 km².

Therefore, I guess that the potential for lakes of pure propane on Titan's surface is very unlikely.
Traces of propane in the ethane/methane lakes of Titan ? Answer before the lander?