Re: Is Titan a saturnian Europa/Ganymede?
From: The Plankmeister (plankmeister_at__NOSP_AM_hotmail.com)
Date: 07/03/04
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Date: Sat, 3 Jul 2004 19:29:15 +0200
"Jack" <merde44spinks@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:B1oFc.15098$%_6.2360@attbi_s01...
> Bjørn Sørheim wrote:
>
> > Just watched the Cassini Team news briefing today, Friday 2. of July.
> > They gave out the information that in the best images sofar they had of
> > Titan - better very soon coming up - that there is visible linear
> > crisscrossing features at some parts of Titan, and called them tectonic
> > linear features...
> >
> > It occurred to me that if crisscrossing linear features are seen, they
might
> > be linear cracks of an ice-covered body, just like the two (or three) of
thr
> > galilean moons of Jupiter. We haven't heard much about water ice on
Titan in
> > its history of exploration, but then Titan has a thick atmosphere (1.5
of
> > the earth's).
> > Of course it might be possible that the ice is the frozen result of not
> > water, but a mix of several ingredients, I don't know much different
liquids
> > might seperate at this temperature and environment or not.
> > Is it possible that Titan to a not neglectable degree experiences
> > gravitational heating just like Io, Europa, Ganymede (and Callisto) of
> > Jupiter that warms up its interior to make water and other compounds
liquid
> > under a thick ice cover?
> >
> > Bjørn Sørheim
>
> I think it may be more like Io. There is plenty of methane in
> the atmosphere, and that is a non-equilibrium condition (like
> oxygen in our atomosphere). Something must be pumping methane
> into the atmosphere, and assuming it's not life, then it could
> be due to tidal squeezing of the planet which forces frozen
> methane out of the planet and into the atmosphere, like
> sulfur is forced out of Io.
> Of course, if life were doing it, it would be so much more
> interesting!
> Jack
I don't know much about bio-chemistry or life sciences, but I think there is
ammonia based life on Titan... (This of course has nothing to do with the
fact that I have just finished reading Stephen Baxter's fine sci-fi novel
"Titan". : )
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