I'm more interested in Tholians, myself.
Posted on 02/13/2008 11:10:35 AM PST by Brian S. Fitzgerald
Saturn's orange moon Titan has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, according to new Cassini data. The hydrocarbons rain from the sky, collecting in vast deposits that form lakes and dunes.
The new findings from the study led by Ralph Lorenz, Cassini radar team member from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, USA, are reported in the 29 January 2008 issue of the Geophysical Research Letters.
"Titan is just covered in carbon-bearing material--it's a giant factory of organic chemicals," said Lorenz. "This vast carbon inventory is an important window into the geology and climate history of Titan."
At a balmy minus 179o C , Titan is a far cry from Earth. Instead of water, liquid hydrocarbons in the form of methane and ethane are present on the moon's surface, and tholins probably make up its dunes. The term 'tholins' was coined by Carl Sagan in 1979 to describe the complex organic molecules at the heart of prebiotic chemistry.
Cassini has mapped about 20% of Titan's surface with radar. Several hundred lakes and seas have been observed, with each of several dozen estimated to contain more hydrocarbon liquid than Earth's oil and gas reserves. The dark dunes that run along the equator contain a volume of organics several hundred times larger than Earth's coal reserves.
Proven reserves of natural gas on Earth total 130 thousand million tons, enough to provide 300 times the amount of energy the entire United States uses annually for residential heating, cooling and lighting. Dozens of Titan's lakes individually have the equivalent of at least this much energy in the form of methane and ethane.
"This global estimate is based mostly on views of the lakes in the northern polar regions. We have assumed the south might be similar, but we really don't yet know how much liquid is there," said Lorenz. Cassini's radar has observed the south polar region only once, and only two small lakes were visible. Future observations of that area are planned during Cassini's proposed extended mission.
Scientists estimated Titan's lake depth by making some general assumptions based on lakes on Earth. They took the average area and depth of lakes on Earth, taking into account the nearby surroundings, like mountains. On Earth, the lake depth is often 10 times less than the height of nearby terrain.
"We also know that some lakes are more than 10 m or so deep because they appear literally pitch-black to the radar. If they were shallow we'd see the bottom, and we don't," said Lorenz.
The question of how much liquid is on the surface is an important one because methane is a strong greenhouse gas on Titan as well as on Earth, but there is much more of it on Titan. If all the observed liquid on Titan is methane, it would only last a few million years, because as methane escapes into Titan's atmosphere, it breaks down and escapes into space. If the methane were to run out, Titan could become much colder. Scientists believe that methane might be supplied to the atmosphere by venting from the interior in cryovolcanic eruptions. If so, the amount of methane, and the temperature on Titan, may have fluctuated dramatically in Titan's past.
"We are carbon-based life, and understanding how far along the chain of complexity towards life that chemistry can go in an environment like Titan will be important in understanding the origins of life throughout the universe," added Lorenz.
Cassini's next radar flyby of Titan is on 22 February 2008, when the radar instrument will observe the landing site of ESA's Huygens probe.
But we can’t mine the carbon material from Titan because the evil CORPORTIONS might spill some of the oil raining down form the sky and impact on of the numerou ecologically sensitive native species of plants and animals that just might, maybe, possibly, could inhabit that frozen wasteland. You never know.
Being environmentally sensitive, we simply CANNOT take that chance.
And we can’t allow the transportation of that carbon material through space as there just might be a spill of it into space’s vast wilderness and we CERTAINLY wouldn’t do that.
No! Still, we will be more happy to perform the requisite environmental studies in triplicate for a few eons before issuing our proclamation of “no drilling, scooping, sucking” on Titan.
Sorry y’all. It’s for the children...
btt
This is news to me. Lets keep looking.
Oxygen is a pollutant on titan.
“The hydrocarbons rain from the sky, collecting in vast deposits that form lakes and dunes.”
Bet they have strict NO SMOKING laws on Titan.
the communist want us to pound rocks, if only they can control commissary...
As you noted there is no shortage of oil or gas, and CO2 is a biological nutrient here on earth!
Titan has no pollution at all, the EPA and UN have not arrived yet!
Thanks Fred Nerks.
to All, additional:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=titan
The Oil Glut At The End Of The Universe
Professor of Physics, MIT, Russel Seitz | August 30, 2006 | Russell Seitz
Posted on 09/01/2006 6:01:17 AM EDT by Texas Jack
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1693647/posts
‘Fossil fuel’ theory takes hit with NASA finding
worldnetdaily | December 1, 2005
Posted on 12/02/2005 10:00:55 PM EST by seastay
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1533129/posts
Probe reveals seas on Saturn moon (Titan—hydrocarbon seas, not water).
BBC | Wednesday, March 14, 2007 | Paul Rincon
Posted on 03/14/2007 4:05:51 PM EDT by Jedi Master Pikachu
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1800880/posts
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So much for peak oil. Send in the solar system supertankers!
Didn’t Dr. Velikovsky expect Venus to be like this?
The Origin of Methane (and Oil) in the Crust of the Earth
Thomas Gold
U.S.G.S. Professional Paper 1570, The Future of Energy Gases, 1993
http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/tg21/usgs.html
[snip] Hydrocarbons in our planetary system are certainly very abundant, and in all the extraterrestrial examples mentioned almost certainly not related to biology. Also hydrocarbons are prominent among the gases identified in the molecular clouds of the galaxy, and it is from such clouds that the solar system formed initially. The presence and great abundance of hydrocarbons is universal, and no special mechanism for their generation on the Earth needs to be invoked, unless one knew with certainty that they could not have survived the formation process here, although they did so on many of the other planetary bodies. (No evidence of hydrocarbons has yet been seen on Mars, Moon, Venus and Mercury. The atmosphere of Venus is too hot to have maintained gaseous or liquid hydrocarbons; the other three bodies lack an adequate protective atmosphere to have maintained them on their surfaces.) [end]
In that case, we’ve got to go to Titan to exploit the natural resources there.
Yes there must have been. lol
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