Cassini Observes TITAN: Methane Lakes, Natural Plastic, Mysterious Radio Signals, and 'Magic Island'

Reaganite Republican ^ | 24 June 2014 | Reaganite Republican

[Reaganite Republican]

TITAN: rendering of methane lake, view of host planet saturn at night

If you haven't been following, the NASA-ESA Cassini space mission has recently passed-by the largest of Saturn's 150 moons/moonlets:
Titan is a natural satellite 1.5x the size of our own moon that makes up a full 90% of the orbiting mass around the gas giant. 

And while Saturn is a large, windy gas ball, its planet-like moon Titan actually has a solid surface compromised of mostly rocks and water ice, retains an atmosphere (majority nitrogen, same as Earth- yet 2x the pressure), and features massive lakes of methane/ethane -one the size of Lake Superior- with waves/weather/lightning storms, thus spooky Earth-like landscapes such as rivers, canyons, cliffs, and deltas carved by flowing hydrocarbons.

Titan is the only celestial body in our solar system other than Earth with stable liquids on it's surface, and it's the second-largest moon orbiting any planet.
Some say all the building blocks of DNA are present there as well, and data suggests subterranean lakes of water exist that do not freeze until -76C
(high content of ammonia).

Although the moon was first spotted in 1655, the surface of Titan has not actually been possible to observe from Earth, owing to the smoggy atmosphere-
not until 2004 with Hubble and then better-yet the first 2005 Cassini. Now NASA has another go at it with the 'Cassini Solstice' mission.

Interestingly, Titan has some wild features, i.e. naturally occurring plastic, unusual radio signals, possible 'ice volcanos' and a bright, mysterious
'magic island' that appeared and disappeared on subsequent passes (2005/2013) by Cassini spacecraft... click any to enlarge:



Pics/video at Reaganite Republican...

[Reaganite Republican]

***PING***

[fwdude]

Love the conceptual graphic.

[G Larry]

What “mysterious radio signals”??

That’s Art Bell!

[LostInBayport]

“east of the Rockies...”

[cuban leaf]

It sounds EXACTLY like Planet Claire.

[Adder]

Plastic? You mean it says “Made in China”?

[PGR88]

Methane lakes? They really have a a lot of dead dinosaurs.

[al baby]

The kingdom of Nye

[LostInBayport]

I wonder if Red Elk has weighed in yet?

[Flick Lives]

Methane lakes.

Please extinguish all smoking materials!

[Moonman62]

I was just reading an article saying Titan probably formed further out in the solar System and was later captured by Saturn.

[al baby]

I still think he had some thing to do with his wifes death

[taterjay]

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

[Reaganite Republican]

That’s what motivated my to do the post- whadda view, huh

[Reaganite Republican]

Well theres been a lot of discussion where that all came from... similar atmosphere to Earth, too

Maybe it was a planet that was captured by Saturn...

[Reaganite Republican]

I just guessed that!

Titan is very planet-like

[Steely Tom]

They really have a lot of dead dinosaurs.

You got that right.

They must have had so many dead dinosaurs, there wouldn't be any room for the vast steamy rain forests the dinosaurs would have to live in.

In order to have methane oceans, they must have had dinosaurs standing on top of dinosaurs, in layers thousands of dinosaurs thick.

[Revelation 911]

waiting for a good Uranus joke in 3 2 1

[Moonman62]

The article I read said that the nitrogen in Earth’s atmosphere has a different isotope ratio than the nitrogen in Titan’s atmosphere, so they almost certainly have different origins. The subject of the Solar System’s evolution is fascinating. Things like large planets migrating, planetary collisions, planets being expelled into deep space, and the role of water and the orbit where it freezes are some of the awe inspiring subjects.