Posted on 05/06/2019 6:20:46 AM PDT by vannrox
While searching for the source of methane on Saturn’s large moon Titan, researchers found a completely unexpected corridor of methane ice wrapping nearly halfway around the moon.
Three orientations of Titan’s globe. The icy corridor is mapped in blue. Image via Caitlin Griffith/UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.
A research team has discovered huge ice feature on Titan while trying to understand where Saturn’s largest moon gets all of its methane.
Like Earth, Titan has rain, seas and a surface of eroding organic material. However, on Titan it is methane, not water, that makes up the raindrops and fills the lakes.
A team of scientists searching for the source of Titan’s methane discovered something unexpected – a long corridor of ice that wraps nearly halfway around Titan, making it over 4,000 miles (6,400 km) long.
Caitlin Griffith is a professor in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona and lead author on the paper published April 29, 2019, in the peer=reviewed journal Nature Astronomy. Griffith said in a statement:
This icy corridor is puzzling, because it doesn’t correlate with any surface features nor measurements of the subsurface.
Saturn’s largest moon Titan as seen by the Cassini spacecraft. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Titan is the only object in the solar system other than Earth that is known to have liquid rain. On Titan it’s methane rain, not water, which fills the huge lakes that exist on the moon’s surface. Scientists aren’t sure where Titan’s methane comes from. There is no obvious source, except the evaporation of methane from the polar lakes. But Titan’s lakes contain only one-third of the methane in Titan’s atmosphere.
One theory is that the methane could be supplied by subsurface reservoirs that vent methane into the atmosphere. Prior studies of Titan indicate the presence of what looks like a cryovolcano – an ice volcano that erupts slurries of volatile compounds such as water or methane instead of lava.
The research team set out to study the composition of Titan’s surface, analyzing images from the NASA Cassini mission’s flybys of Titan, partly hoping to find subtle small cryovolcano candidates. They analyzed half of Titan’s surface and none were detected, but, in a surprise discovery, came across the ice feature. The researchers wrote:
Titan’s global ice feature presents a puzzle. Ice-rich terrains in other areas of Titan occur only in local regions excavated by craters or exposed by erosion, suggesting that cryovolcanism, if active, is currently not widespread.
Researchers say the presence of the ice corridor raises the question of whether tectonic processes might have been involved in Titan’s formation. Griffith said:
Given that our study and past work indicate that Titan is currently not volcanically active, the trace of the corridor is likely a vestige of the past. We detect this feature on steep slopes, but not on all slopes. This suggests that the icy corridor is currently eroding, potentially unveiling the presence of ice and organic strata.
Bottom line: Researchers have discovered an enormous ice corridor that wraps almost halfway around Saturn’s largest moon Titan.
Source: A corridor of exposed ice-rich bedrock across Titan’s tropical region
No heat, oxygen or ignition source.
Caution: There is NO smoking on Saturn. Or use of tobacco products of any kind. And NO vaping. Thank you for your cooperation.
Well. I am very certain the numbers are not in favor of random chance creating uniqque DNA sequences, not just for every kind of animal, but for every living being.
So whats easier to believe.. an intelligent designer or the absolute impossibilty of random processes.
It’s not 1840 and we need to stop letting others think for us. The evidence is as plain as the nose on your face.
But if Intelligent Design is real, then.. well I can see why it’s easier to accept baby food science than the evidence all around from the telescope to the microscope.
Earth has been here for billions of years. That is an inconceivable amount of time which is sufficient for any random event to occur. The origin of life is IMO intelligent design however earth and humanity are likely not even remotely close to the genesis. We are likely just one example of evolution amoung billions of others scattered across an inconceivably large universe.
Lol.. who was the man in history alive billions of years ago to observe the beginning of the earth? Science is repeatable and observable. Who observed that? Name him or her.
Lack of oxygen to react with.
CH4 + 2O2 ==> CO2 + 2H2O
Or, as you say, "boom".
No; it's not.
Please stop pointing the Hubble at The View!
Ok so enlighten us. What is the origin of life?
The origin of life or the origin of humans?
CA....
Really? Do you think bees and flowers just magically were made dependent on each other? Do you think the venus fly trap came out of the ground for the first time in search of insects to feed on? There are thosands of living things that depend on other living things to survive. That is the result of millions of years of adaptive evolution. The fossil record also demonstrates extensive prove of the evolution of species.
Um ok, did dinosaurs exist? Did you know the moon is made of cheese?
Is that your scientific answer? How boring. I was really enjoying the discussion.
Got to remember to invest in Methane tanker spacecraft.
Are they different? If so both.
Sorry you lost me with this one. No point in continuing really.
Plant or animal?
Or do you want to know how many times ‘life’ emerged from NON-life before it figgered out it had better emerge NEXT time knowing how to REPRODUCE?
Oh?
I thought this was about EVOLUTION.
It DOES?
What it SHOWS is many differing things; but NEVER has it 'shown' any gradual change like...
…That is the result of millions of years of adaptive evolution.
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