The Lagoons of Titan: Oily Liquid Confirmed on Saturn Moon

The Lagoons of Titan: Oily Liquid Confirmed on Saturn Moon

blog.wired.com

Earthlings might be scrambling to find liquid hydrocarbons buried in our planet, but Saturn's moon Titan has plenty to spare.

Scientists say that a dark, smooth surface feature spotted on the moon last year is definitely a lake filled primarily with liquid ethane, a simple hydrocarbon.

"This is the first observation that really pins down that Titan has a surface lake filled with liquid," said the paper's lead author, University of Arizona professor Robert Brown.

(visit the link for the full news article)

How can there be water (the one link says its water and the actual article calls it "oil" so whatever...) or "liquid" that far out in space? isn't it too cold?

I mean, mars I could understand cause its not too much further out than us but saturns MOON???

If there was life on the surface would it become considered a planet? Even if the life was microbial or one celled?

I dunno, I'm not a science smart kinda gal .... but I thought this was interesting.. even if it does confuse me!

blog.wired.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 7/30/2008 by undiscoveredsoul]

Originally posted by undiscoveredsoul
How can there be water (the one link says its water and the actual article calls it "oil" so whatever...) or "liquid" that far out in space? isn't it too cold?

The temperature on Titan is roughly -290 degrees Fahrenheit. Obviously too cold for liquid water as it freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

The possibility of liquid water on any body in space too far from the Sun to hold to or above that 32 degree mark would depend on how hot the core, or any other heat source under the surface was.

Theoretically a heat source underground could heat the surface enough to sustain liquid water. Whether this is the case on Titan, I'm not sure.

Originally posted by undiscoveredsoul
If there was life on the surface would it become considered a planet? Even if the life was microbial or one celled?

The qualifications of a "planet" are:

-is in orbit around the Sun,
-has sufficient mass so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and
-has "cleared the neighborhood" around its orbit.

source

The size issue is what got Pluto demoted.

For Titan to be a planet, it would have to orbit the Sun, not Saturn. I'm not sure if its big enough to be considered a planet, but the orbiting of Saturn is what will make it keep its title of "moon".

Life isn't a qualification for planets, otherwise Earth would be the only planet.

EDIT: I can't type

[edit on 7/30/08 by NovusOrdoMundi]

big news

another link:

www.breitbart.com...

flagged

Sooooo....

When does the US invasion of Titan Begin?

Originally posted by mopusvindictus
Sooooo....

When does the US invasion of Titan Begin?

Ironic huh? were all fighting over oil resources on this planet and they find lakes of it on some distant moon..... nice.. LOL

where's Captain Kirk when ya need him eh?

Editd to ask jamesder: what is flagged mean?? is that good or bad??

[edit on 7/30/2008 by undiscoveredsoul]

reply to post by NovusOrdoMundi


To Norvusordomundi:

Thank you for that info, seriously... I'm not totally clueless but I can honestly say when it comes to science/astrology ect. I'm just NOT up to date.... heck I can barely keep up with tech IE cell phones/computers/ipods/blackberry's EEK! I'm slowly learning all about them so I'm not in the dark.

When they demoted pluto I just didn't get it...actually I still don't... I mean it does revolve around the sun..... I don't really think size should matter.....





did I just say that???

anyhoo....

I think it would be really wierd to find "life" of any sort on something other than a planet... I mean can you imagine aliens from the moon titan.. or aliens from the comet hale-bopp... you see what I mean...

Just too complicated!


Edited cause I'm just too tired to be typing... gah!

[edit on 7/30/2008 by undiscoveredsoul]

An oil pipeline is out of the question. Perhaps the oil tanker spaceship Exxon Valdez will run aground and pollute Saturn's rings with a 1,000,000 long Ethane slick.

Seriously getting to the surface of Titan would be more trouble than it could possibly be worth.

reply to post by undiscoveredsoul


I believe Pluto's demotion was just because of its size. A body has to meet all of the requirements in the definition of a planet to be called a planet, so it orbiting the Sun wasn't enough to allow it to keep planetary status.

It is difficult to keep up with the information about space. Its hard to know what is true and what is not. Space agencies have an agenda to meet, and we little people aren't privileged to their secrets.


To UFOTECH: Your avatar made me laugh. Just had to tell you that.

reply to post by NovusOrdoMundi


When I saw that image on front page of reddit the other day it made me laugh as well so I had to make it into my avatar.

I hope the Titanians have enough space ships to evacuate their people because sooner or later the Marines will be landing on their cold, icy planet.

Here's a link from Space.com with photos...pretty cool

www.space.com...