Titanic Lakes

This just in from "Science @ NASA":

Newly assembled radar images from the Cassini spacecraft are giving researchers their best-ever view of hydrocarbon lakes and seas on the north pole of Saturn's moon Titan, while a new radar image reveals that Titan's south pole also has lakes.

Approximately 60 percent of Titan's north polar region (north of 60o latitude) has been mapped by Cassini's radar. About 14 percent of the mapped region is covered by what scientists believe are lakes filled with liquid methane and ethane:

The mosaic image was created by stitching together radar images from seven Titan flybys over the last year and a half. At least one of the pictured lakes is larger than Lake Superior.

[excerpt from "New Lakes Discovered on Titan", Science @ NASA, 12 October 2007.]

Isn't that fascinating: "hydrocarbon lakes" filled with "liquid methane and ethane"!

The photograph accompanying the press release is really quite lovely — it's what attracted my attention in the first place. Follow the link above to see the photomosaic.

Posted on October 17, 2007 at 17.48 by jns · Permalink
In: All, It's Only Rocket Science

5 Responses

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  1. Written by Bill Morrison
    on Wednesday, 17 October 2007 at 20.31
    Permalink

    Fascinating image, Jeff. The area of many little lakes at the top of the image reminds me a lot satellite views of the Mackenzie Delta area of northern Canada, where again there is a myriad of lakes dotting the tundra/muskeg/permafrost. Of course the climate of the delta is positively balmy compared to that of Titan.

  2. Written by Bill Morrison
    on Wednesday, 17 October 2007 at 20.40
    Permalink

    Another thought/link between the permafrost zone on earth and Titan's seas. It appears that the permafrost is thawing at a much higher rate than scientists had predicted, and it's going to be a (pardon me) snowball effect. Because the permafrost is actually a vast sea of trapped methane (in the form of a many meters' deep layer of permafrozen decayed vegetation millions of years old). As the permafrost melts, the trapped methane is released, adding to greenhouse gases, warming the atmosphere, causing deeper levels of permafrost to thaw, releasing more methane ….

  3. Written by S.W. Anderson
    on Wednesday, 17 October 2007 at 23.06
    Permalink

    Reading the item on Titan's lakes, the thought occurred to me that the odor, over a huge area, must be enough to bow the knees of a full-grown ox.

    Then comes the reminder about all that much closer not-so-permafrost buried vegetation, poised to release humungous amounts of methane. Pee-ewww. Like 100,000 pulp mills gone wild.

    Surely, the stink will sink southward. Thus, I see moneymaking possibilities going forward. If we can just get the government to replace the DEW Line with a line of sort of giant Airwick-like deodorizer pad towers, I want the pad making concession. And, since this will be an international emergency, I expect all contracts to be the no-bid type.

    Hmm, maybe I could make snazzy, Starbuck's-scented nose bibs a fashion trend, with stink-masking benefits, of course. Could bring in billions.

  4. Written by jns
    on Wednesday, 17 October 2007 at 23.34
    Permalink

    I'm wondering whether someone has been sniffing the methane early, or else SW's muse is in a particularly impish mood tonight! (Translation: I wish I'd thought of that.)

    Rather than address the actual problem, SW, you might consider the more typical approach and start fabricating "data" that demonstrate that methane from melting permafrost can solve, oh, let's say 68% of America's energy problem, using your proprietary technology that you generously want to share with your fellow Americans for a small monetary consideration. Now, that should be worth billions in no-bid contracts!

  5. Written by Bill Morrison
    on Thursday, 18 October 2007 at 01.14
    Permalink

    The Distant Air Wick Line! Fabulous.

    Jeff: All we need to do to solve the energy problem, presumably, is to build an enormous plastic bubble over the entire Mackenzie delta, for instance, to collect the methane, and then pipe it south!

    Or mount giant fans along the shoreline of the Beaufort Sea to create massive undular bores of methane gas and blow it south in great waves!

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