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Astronomy Picture of the Day - Waves on Titan
NASA ^ | 30 Apr, 2026 | Video Credit: Una Schneck Text: Cecilia Chirenti (NASA GSFC, UMCP, CRESST II)

Posted on 04/30/2026 12:59:43 PM PDT by MtnClimber

Explanation: Have you ever thought about surfing on an alien world? We can now expand the search for the perfect wave from Earth to the rest of the Solar System, and beyond. Scientists have developed a new model for simulating waves on other planets. Titan is one of the 274 confirmed moons of Saturn to date, and the only object in the solar system (besides Earth) known to have liquid lakes and seas on its surface. The featured video shows a simulation of waves on Earth (right) and on Titan (left), under the same conditions (the scale marker is in meters). A light breeze would create taller, slower-moving waves on Titan than on Earth, because the lakes there are filled with light liquid hydrocarbons, and because of Titan's low gravity and higher atmospheric pressure. In a couple of years, NASA expects to launch the Dragonfly mission, which will travel for 6 years and send a rotorcraft to explore Titan and study its microbial habitability.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa
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Todays image is a short video at the source link.

1 posted on 04/30/2026 12:59:43 PM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; A Navy Vet; A_perfect_lady; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; ...
Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

Todays image is a short video at the source link.

2 posted on 04/30/2026 1:00:20 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

3 posted on 04/30/2026 1:03:31 PM PDT by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic... )
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To: MtnClimber

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m9h8hxBY7pk


4 posted on 04/30/2026 1:06:12 PM PDT by Seruzawa ("The political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence." -Marx the Smarter (Groucho.))
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To: MtnClimber

E.T. Don’t Surf!!!


5 posted on 04/30/2026 1:11:04 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Remember, King Hakeem and his butt buddy, Schumer are still going to try to reopen the border.)
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To: MtnClimber

Surf’s up!


6 posted on 04/30/2026 1:17:25 PM PDT by P8riot (You will never know Jesus Christ as a reality in your life until you know Him as a necessity.)
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To: MtnClimber
the lakes there are filled with light liquid hydrocarbons

Just say it, fossil fuels!

7 posted on 04/30/2026 1:20:50 PM PDT by mikey_hates_everything
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To: FlingWingFlyer
CharlieDontSurfShirt

Love the smell of light hydrocarbons in the morning...

8 posted on 04/30/2026 2:21:47 PM PDT by MikelTackNailer (simulating wisdom at discount prices.)
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To: MtnClimber

When I was a kid it would have been possible to memorize all the names of the moons of the planets (but I think the smaller moons of Jupiter may not have been given names yet). Jupiter had 12 known moons and Saturn 9. I’d hate to take an astronomy course now if you had to memorize all the names of all the moons of the planets of the solar system (even without the moons of the “dwarf planets”).


9 posted on 04/30/2026 2:26:14 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: MtnClimber

Those are real waves??


10 posted on 04/30/2026 6:35:41 PM PDT by SkyDancer ( ~ Am Yisrael Chai ~)
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To: MikelTackNailer

11 posted on 04/30/2026 7:11:17 PM PDT by Delta 21 (None of us are descendants of fearful men!)
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