Titan is a Multilayered Secret
Globe and Mail
___________
Paris (France):
Saturn's planet-size moon Titan has dramatic weather, with turbulent high-altitude winds, periodic floods of liquid methane and possibly lightning, scientists said Wednesday in describing a world that may look like Earth before life developed.
The European Space Agency's probe landed on Titan in January, uncovering some mysteries of the methane-rich globe — the only moon in the solar system known to have a thick atmosphere. Scientists presented detailed results of months of study in the on-line edition of the journal Nature and at a news conference in Paris.
“It's a very strange fantasy world made of ice, with things like gasoline and tar that make up the rivers and the lake beds,” said scientist Jonathan Lunine of the University of Arizona, when asked how he would explain the finding to a child.
Titan, located more than a billion kilometres from Earth, has long intrigued researchers because it is surrounded by a thick blanket of nitrogen and methane. Until recently, scientists believed the most likely explanation for the methane was the presence of a methane-rich sea of hydrocarbons.The Huygens probe and its mother ship, Cassini, have offered evidence against that theory.
The $3.3-billion (U.S.) Cassini-Huygens mission to explore Saturn and its moons was launched in 1997 from Cape Canaveral, a joint effort involving NASA, ESA and the Italian space agency.
Nov 30, 2005
Globe and Mail
___________
Paris (France):
Saturn's planet-size moon Titan has dramatic weather, with turbulent high-altitude winds, periodic floods of liquid methane and possibly lightning, scientists said Wednesday in describing a world that may look like Earth before life developed.
The European Space Agency's probe landed on Titan in January, uncovering some mysteries of the methane-rich globe — the only moon in the solar system known to have a thick atmosphere. Scientists presented detailed results of months of study in the on-line edition of the journal Nature and at a news conference in Paris.
“It's a very strange fantasy world made of ice, with things like gasoline and tar that make up the rivers and the lake beds,” said scientist Jonathan Lunine of the University of Arizona, when asked how he would explain the finding to a child.
Titan, located more than a billion kilometres from Earth, has long intrigued researchers because it is surrounded by a thick blanket of nitrogen and methane. Until recently, scientists believed the most likely explanation for the methane was the presence of a methane-rich sea of hydrocarbons.The Huygens probe and its mother ship, Cassini, have offered evidence against that theory.
The $3.3-billion (U.S.) Cassini-Huygens mission to explore Saturn and its moons was launched in 1997 from Cape Canaveral, a joint effort involving NASA, ESA and the Italian space agency.
Nov 30, 2005
