Scientists report definitive evidence of the presence of lakes filled with liquid methane on Saturn’s moon Titan in this week’s journal Nature cover story. Radar imaging data from a July 22, 2006, flyby provide convincing evidence for large bodies of liquid on Titan today. A new false-color radar view gives a taste of what Cassini saw.
Colorized radar image
-Some lakes appear partly dry, while others seem liquid-filled. Some of the partly filled lakes may never have filled fully, or may have partly evaporated at some point in the past. The dry lakes have margins or rims and a radar brightness similar to the rest of the surrounding terrain, making them appear devoid of liquid.
-The varying states of how full the lakes are suggest that lakes in this region of Titan might be temporary on some unknown timescale.
Seems to me the first time I saw this view was in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Arthur Clarke probably was the first extra-terrestrial to work in Earth cinema.
REALLY???
And we STILL dont use this for power??
Actually, the theory that there might be lakes of methane is quite old. This is just a *spectacular* confirmation.
The Titan cows still fart but it’s so cold the farts liquefy instead of going into the atmosphere. From this one could extrapolate that the way to solve Global Warming (TM) would be to cool the Earth to -162′ C thus preventing methane from going into the atmosphere.
It would probably be for the best for vacationers to Titan avoid smoking while water -er, methaneskiing.
Don’t forget that Clark, somehow, predicted exactly how Europa would appear before we even had pictures. A visionary, that is the only word for that man.
This going to be George Bushes new idea for getting the US off of foreign OIL.
Just go to titan and harvest all that gas.
It will only cost 10 trillion…
This going to be George Bushes new idea for getting the US off of foreign OIL.
Just go to titan and harvest all that gas.
It will only cost $10 trillion…
Yes I can’t spell or type…