All Articles Tagged As: titan

New computer model explains lakes and storms on Titan (1/8/2012)

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is an alien world covered in a thick atmosphere with abundant methane. Titan boasts methane clouds and fog, as well as rainstorms and plentiful lakes of liquid methane. The origins of many of these features, however, remain puzzling to scientists. Now, researchers at the California Institute of Technology have developed a computer model of Titan's atmosphere and methane cycle that, for the first time, explains many of these phenomena in a relatively simple and coherent way. ...> Full Article

What caused a giant arrow-shaped cloud on Saturn's moon Titan? (8/20/2011)

What is Titan, Saturn's largest moon, doing with what looks to be an enormous white arrow about the size of Texas on its surface? ...> Full Article

Cassini spacecraft observes seasonal rains on Titan (3/26/2011)

As spring continues to unfold on Saturn, April showers on the planet's largest moon, Titan, have brought methane rain to its equatorial deserts, as revealed in images captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. "Titan continues to surprise and amaze us," said the UA's Alfred McEwen. ...> Full Article

Surprise hidden in Titan's smog: Cirrus-like clouds (2/14/2011)

Now, thin, wispy clouds of ice particles, similar to Earth's cirrus clouds, are being reported by Carrie Anderson and Robert Samuelson at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The findings, published Feb. 1 in Icarus, were made using the Composite Infrared Spectrometer on NASA's Cassini spacecraft. ...> Full Article

Titan's haze may hold ingredients for life (10/10/2010)

Simulating possible chemical processes in the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, a UA-led planetary research team found amino acids and nucleotide bases in the mix -- the most important ingredients of life on Earth. ...> Full Article

Avoid swimming in interplanetary lakes (9/24/2010)

Professor Akiva Bar-Nun of Tel Aviv University's has determined the composition of lakes recently discovered on Saturn's moon Titan. Taking into account the chemical components of Titan's atmosphere, he has demonstrated that the lakes are not composed of water but contain liquid hydrocarbons like ethane and methane, which are also found in oil and gas wells on Earth. ...> Full Article

Caltech scientists measure changing lake depths on Titan (7/18/2010)

On Earth, lake levels rise and fall with the seasons and with longer-term climate changes, as precipitation, evaporation, and runoff add and remove liquid. Now, for the first time, scientists have found compelling evidence for similar lake-level changes on Saturn's largest moon, Titan -- the only other place in the solar system seen to have a hydrological cycle with standing liquid on the surface. ...> Full Article

Zapping Titan-like atmosphere with UV rays creates life precursors (7/3/2010)

The first experimental evidence showing how atmospheric nitrogen can be incorporated into organic macromolecules is being reported by a University of Arizona team. The finding indicates what organic molecules might be found on Titan, the moon of Saturn that scientists think is a model for the chemistry of pre-life Earth. Earth and Titan are the only known planetary-sized bodies that have thick, predominantly nitrogen atmospheres. ...> Full Article

Scientists discover fog on Titan (12/25/2009)

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, looks to be the only place in the solar system -- aside from our home planet, Earth -- with copious quantities of liquid (largely, liquid methane and ethane) sitting on its surface. According to planetary astronomer Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Earth and Titan share yet another feature, which is inextricably linked with that surface liquid: common fog. ...> Full Article

How erosion formed the Earth-like landscape on Titan, Saturn's moon (12/19/2009)

Titan's ice is stronger than most bedrock found on earth, yet it is more brittle, causing it to erode more easily, according to new research by San Francisco State University Assistant Professor Leonard Sklar. Today, at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting, Sklar and his team presented new measurements from tests on ice as cold as minus 170 degrees Celcius which demonstrate that ice gets stronger as temperature decreases. ...> Full Article

Scientists explain puzzling lake asymmetry on Titan (12/2/2009)

Researchers at Caltech suggest that the eccentricity of Saturn's orbit around the sun may be responsible for the unusually uneven distribution of methane and ethane lakes over the northern and southern polar regions of the planet's largest moon, Titan. On Earth, similar "astronomical forcing" of climate drives ice-age cycles. ...> Full Article

Team unravels the chemistry of Titan's hazy atmosphere (9/19/2009)

A team of University of Hawai'i at Manoa researchers led by Ralf Kaiser, physical chemist at UH Manoa, unraveled the chemical evolution of the orange-brownish colored atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan, the only solar system body besides Venus and Earth with a solid surface and thick atmosphere. ...> Full Article

Professor finds alternate explanation for dune formation on Saturn's largest moon (8/27/2009)

A new and likely controversial paper has just been published online in Nature Geoscience by LSU Department of Geography and Anthropology Chair Patrick Hesp and United States Geological Survey scientist David Rubin. ...> Full Article

Scientists discover storms in the tropics of Titan (8/14/2009)

Saturn's moon Titan is dull, weatherwise. Nothing happens for years, making it hard to understand the carved channels that seem to line the surface. Now Titan has finally been caught in the act. Caltech planetary astronomer Mike Brown and his colleagues set a trap for Titan, waited years for it to be tripped, and, finally, caught their prey: bright but transient clouds over Titan's tropics, a region where clouds were thought unlikely to form. ...> Full Article

Surface features on Titan form like Earth's, but with a frigid twist (8/10/2009)

Saturn's haze-enshrouded moon Titan turns out to have much in common with Earth in the way that weather and geology shape its terrain, according to two pieces of research to be presented at the XXVII General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Wind, rain, volcanoes, tectonics and other Earth-like processes all sculpt features on Titan's complex and varied surface in an environment more than 100 °C colder on average than Antarctica. ...> Full Article

Titan may have subsurface ocean of hydrocarbons (4/8/2009)

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, may have a subterranean ocean of hydrocarbons and some topsy-turvy topography in which the summits of its mountains lie lower than its average surface elevation, according to new research. Titan is also more squashed in its overall shape -- like a rubber ball pressed down by a foot -- than researchers had expected, said Howard Zebker, a Stanford geophysicist and electrical engineer involved in the work. ...> Full Article

4 of Saturn's moons parade by their parent (3/19/2009)

A new Hubble image shows four of Saturn's moons circling the ringed planet. ...> Full Article

NASA and ESA prioritize outer planet missions (2/20/2009)

At a meeting in Washington last week, NASA and ESA officials decided to first pursue a mission to study Jupiter and its four largest moons, and plan for another mission to visit Saturn's largest moon, Titan, and Enceladus. ...> Full Article

Spanish scientists confirm the existence of electric activity in Titan, the largest moon of Saturn (10/25/2008)

The scientific community considers that there is a higher probability that organic molecules precursors to life could form in those planets or satellites which have an atmosphere with electric storms. ...> Full Article

Cassini Instrument Confirms Liquid Surface Lake on Titan (8/3/2008)

Camera shows large hydrocarbon lake is truly wet ...> Full Article

Ocean may exist beneath Titan's crust (3/27/2008)

Cassini has discovered evidence that points to the existence of an underground ocean of water and ammonia on Saturn's moon Titan. The findings were made using radar measurements of Titan's rotation. ...> Full Article

Titan's surface organics surpass oil reserves on Earth (2/14/2008)

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. ...> Full Article

Scientist leads discovery of mountains on Saturn's largest moon (12/25/2007)

By analyzing images from NASA's Cassini Radar instrument, a Brigham Young University professor helped discover and analyze mountains on Saturn's largest moon, additional evidence that it has some of the most earthlike processes of any celestial body in the solar system. ...> Full Article

Organic 'building blocks' discovered in Titan's atmosphere (12/1/2007)

Scientists analysing data gathered by the Cassini spacecraft have confirmed the presence of heavy negative ions in the upper regions of Titan's atmosphere. These particles may act as organic building blocks for even more complicated molecules and their discovery was completely unexpected because of the chemical composition of the atmosphere (which lacks oxygen and mainly consists of nitrogen and methane). The observation has now been verified on 16 different encounters and findings will be published in Geophysical Research Letters on November 28. ...> Full Article

Drizzly Mornings On Xanadu -- Saturn's Moon Titan (10/15/2007)

Noted for its bizarre hydrocarbon lakes and frozen methane clouds, Saturn's largest moon, Titan, also appears to have widespread drizzles of methane, according to a team of astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley. ...> Full Article

Cassini's new view of land of lakes and seas (10/12/2007)

The best views of the hydrocarbon lakes and seas on Saturn's moon Titan taken by the Cassini spacecraft are being released today. ...> Full Article

Handling Turbulence On Titan And Earth (8/30/2007)

Ever spilled your drink on an airline due to turbulence? Researchers on both sides of the Atlantic are finding new ways to understand the phenomenon - both on Earth and on Titan. ...> Full Article

Will Titan Lose Its Veil? (8/29/2007)

The question of whether Titan can retain its thick, organic atmosphere for the rest of its lifetime could hinge on how efficiently methane molecules were packed inside water "crates" during a period of the moon's formation. ...> Full Article