Saturn’s Moon Titan Has Salty Sea

americanlivewire.com ^ | Will Phoenix

[BenLurkin]

According to new findings just published in this week’s edition of the journal Icarus, NASA’s Cassini Mission has brought to light new evidence of an actual ocean inside Titan, Saturn’s biggest moon. Furthermore, the ocean in question might even be as salt-laden as Earth’s Dead Sea.

This is but the latest discovery resulting from an analysis of data on topography and gravity gathered during the past decade. Scientists discovered that an extremely high density was needed for the surface ocean of Titan to explain the information on the gravity. This means that Titan’s ocean has to be a very “salty brine of water mixed with dissolved salts” like potassium, sodium or sulphur. The team also learned that density of Titan’s outer ice shell differs from spot to spot. This indicates that the shell is currently freezing solid.

Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist, concluded: “Titan continues to prove itself an endlessly fascinating world. With our long-lived Cassini spacecraft, we’re unlocking new mysteries as fast as we solve old ones.”

[muir_redwoods]

In evolutionary terms, the Dead Sea is minutes old. Life that evolved to live in the Atlantic has yet to adapt to such brine. If such a high salt sea were all that existed, I don’t doubt that originating life could deal with it.

[left that other site]

Oh look!

A Timeshare Salesman!

RUNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:-)

[Las Vegas Dave]

Did you mean: Outsiders (Known Space)?

Look for Outsiders (Known Space on one of Wikipedia’s sister projects.)

Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. Please search for Outsiders (Known Space in Wikipedia to check for alternative titles or spellings).

[Las Vegas Dave]

FYI:
http://screencrave.com/2013-02-13/the-incredible-shrinking-man-remake/

‘The Incredible Shrinking Man’ Is Getting A Remake.

MGM announced today (February 13th, 2013), that they had purchased the rights to the classic science-fiction novel The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson for a planned film adaptation—making it an ostensible reboot/ remake of The Incredible Shrinking Man, the 1957 classic sci-fi film that also adapted the novel.

According to /Film, Universal had previously owned the rights to the story “for decades,” and until recently had planned to have Brett Ratner direct Eddie Murphy in a comedic remake in which Murphy would have played a magician who shrinks due to magic, which is pretty much the worst idea in the world ever.

Now that the rights have lapsed and MGM has snapped them up, the film studio has even managed to hire Richard Matheson himself, now 86 years old, to write the script with his son, Richard Matheson, Jr.

[blueunicorn6]

If Titan also has a sea made of tequila, then I volunteer to lead that mission.

[Awgie]

Wonderfully clarifying explanation

[SunkenCiv]

regarding the subthread:

Sea Monkeys, Ferns and Frozen Frogs: Nature’s Very Own Resurrecting Organisms
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/sea-monkeys-ferns-and-frozen-frogs-natures-very-own-resurrecting-organisms-8407900/

links

http://deadsea.com/info/dead-sea-animals

Unlike most other seas and lakes throughout the world, the Dead Sea is not teeming with life. The reason for the lack of organisms is the high salinity of the sea, which is approximately 36%, making it one of the highest salt content lakes in the world. That is not to say that life does not exist in the Dead Sea although it is called the Dead Sea for a reason. Unfortunately, there is not a long list of Dead Sea animals to provide as there is a lack of life.

What Dead Sea animals do exist are those that seem to spring to life during a particularly rainy season. The floods from the rain wash sources of life into the sea, providing some form of life to be had. That is not to say that life disappears completely when the rainy season has dried up and gone away. In fact, scientists have recently discovered several craters along the sea bed that spew fresh water filled with bacteria. What once seemed like a barren atmosphere is now crawling with bacterial organisms.

and (freshwater springs)

New Life-Forms Found at Bottom of Dead Sea
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/09/110928-new-life-dead-sea-bacteria-underwater-craters-science/

and

The Age of the Dead Sea
http://www.varchive.org/itb/deadsea.htm

[MUDDOG]

It's turtles all the way down.

I love that story. The old lady in the audience at the astronomy lecture says modern astronomy is bunk, and the earth is really supported on the back of an elephant standing on a turtle.

The astronomer thinks he's got her when he asks, "What's the turtle standing on?"

She says, "You can't fool me, young man. It's turtles all the way down."

[MUDDOG]

That was a really scary movie.

I remember him fighting off the cat.

[a fool in paradise]

Mmmm... intergalactic taffy...

[Jed Eckert]

"[closing soliloquy narration] Scott Carey: I was continuing to shrink, to become... what? The infinitesimal? What was I? Still a human being? Or was I the man of the future?

If there were other bursts of radiation, other clouds drifting across seas and continents, would other beings follow me into this vast new world?

So close - the infinitesimal and the infinite.

But suddenly, I knew they were really the two ends of the same concept. The unbelievably small and the unbelievably vast eventually meet - like the closing of a gigantic circle.

I looked up, as if somehow I would grasp the heavens. The universe, worlds beyond number, God's silver tapestry spread across the night. And in that moment, I knew the answer to the riddle of the infinite.

I had thought in terms of man's own limited dimension. I had presumed upon nature. That existence begins and ends in man's conception, not nature's. And I felt my body dwindling, melting, becoming nothing.

My fears melted away. And in their place came acceptance. All this vast majesty of creation, it had to mean something. And then I meant something, too. Yes, smaller than the smallest, I meant something, too.

To God, there is no zero. I still exist! "

..........The Incredible Shrinking Man - 1957

One of best sci-fi movies made. Guaranteed they'll screw up the remake and I bet they never mention God.

[MUDDOG]

Great movie. It's a good topic to hang a tale on.

I always wonder though what happens when you get small enough for quantum effects to kick in. It's not just a matter of scale; it's a whole new set of rules.

[MaxMax]

I’m not trying to make your head explode but that’s just one molecule type out of infinity.

[RoadGumby]

“In the beginning, God....”

[MUDDOG]

There's a good scene in Faust where he is trying to translate "In the beginning was the Word" from the Greek, and he can't decide how to translate "Logos."

He says "Word" is too weak. He tries "Mind," "Power," "Action," and finally drives Mephistopheles crazy, who has snuck into the room on the form of a poodle.

[colorado tanker]

Titan has my vote for the next moon in the Solar System to investigate.