Saturn Moon Titan Looks Like Earth - http://clapway.com/2015/12/11/saturn-moon-titan-looks-like-earth123

NASA has released a new image of Saturn moon Titan, and it looks an awful lot like the Earth, except coated in a teal hazy atmosphere. There’s something that resembles water, land and clouds in the picture, and it’s giving the astronomical community a lot of excitement.

Unfortunately, The Colors in the Image Are Fake

The colors in the picture are not meant to mean anything, it’s only a measurement of the wavelengths of light collected by the Cassini capsule, who had a great flyby of Saturn moon Titan on November 13. The capsule’s infrared mapping spectrometer instrument measures blue at 1.3 microns, 2.0 microns in green, and 5.0 microns in red. Visible light is at around 0.5 microns.

Image: NASA

Saturn Moon Titan Still Has Some Earthly Qualities

Titan has tall dunes, lakes and rivers. It’s also the only moon with a thick atmosphere, much like Earth. There are a few meteorite craters on its surface, so it’s likely that the new landscape is young.

On the other hand, the average temperature on Titan is -179 degrees Celsius. The sand on the atmosphere is dark hydrocarbon grains. All solid surfaces is rock-solid water ice. The liquid on the surface is methane, which is a gas on Earth, as is most of the air.

In Other Words, Titan is Like Earth Before it Housed Life

Although the image is quite striking, there’s very little chance of Saturn moon Titan to be able to sustain life, at least for now. Perhaps in a few million years it will be capable of developing life, but for now, it is uninhabitable. Travel to Titan could be an exciting topic someday, though it may happen a few generations down the line. Meanwhile, all of NASA’s efforts lie in getting a manned crew to Mars, and the ESA is all for exploring the dark side of the moon.

 

Saturn Moon Titan Looks Like Earth

Mars Will Look Like Saturn Soon - http://clapway.com/2015/11/24/mars-will-look-like-saturn-soon123/

Brand new research suggests that the Martian moon Phobos may collide with Mars, making it a gas planet and transforming itself into a ring, like Saturn. The biggest planets in the solar system are the gas titans: Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, and it looks like Phobos might help Mars join those ranks.

Mars and Saturn Will Look Like Siblings

The study, published in Nature Geoscience, suggests that these gas titans weren’t always aerated and that Phobos may become a ring around Mars as opposed to its largest moon. According to the study, every moon has one of three destinies: it will either stay in orbit infinitely, drift away or crash against its host planet. This is set to be Phobos destiny.

Part of Phobos Will Become a Tiny Moon and Another a Ring

The research, led by Benjamin Black and Tushar Mittal from the University of California, Berkeley, says that this all depends on what Phobos is made of. Phobos, which was hit by a crater and had its total area decimated, is a very porous moonlet, with low density. The experiments led the team to believe Mars will break apart a fraction of Phobos in 20 to 40 million years, forcing the moonlet to form a ring similar to the ones on Saturn. This ring could remain in place for as long as 100 million years.

If the Research is Accurate, We Now Know How Planetary Rings Form

The rest of Phobos will likely remain the same until it crashes against Mars, that is. More data acquired from probes like the PADME, PANDORA or MERLIN can verify these claims with time. Assuming the research is accurate, it’s possible that the same thing happened to the gas giants of the solar system.

Mars Will Look Like Saturn Soon

Saturn"s Moon Enceladus Has Primordial Core - http://clapway.com/2015/10/28/saturns-moon-enceladus-has-primordial-core123/

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will zoom close to Saturn’s moon Enceladus in an attempt to fly through a plume of icy spray thrown up from the alien world’s surface. This flyby will shed light on new research published this week suggesting that Enceladus, sixth largest of many moons that orbit the famous ringed planet, has a core that is similar to primitive meteorites found on Earth.

Saturn’s moon Enceladus with plumes spraying from fractures in the south polar region. Courtesy of NASA.

CHEMISTRY BENEATH THE SURFACE

Analysis of the chemical composition of the geyser-like plumes that erupt from the moon suggests that chemical reactions are taking place between water and rock deep beneath the surface, according to the research which appears this week in the academic journal Nature Communications.

These plumes have been studied for some time by the Cassini space probe which has been in orbit around Saturn since 2004. They have been found to consist of ice and tiny silica-rich particles that are thought to originate from deep within the moon. Experiments conducted back on Earth by the scientists who have written the new paper indicate that the make up of the rocks that give rise to these silica particles must be very similar to the primordial mixture of minerals thought to date from the very earliest days of the solar system.

This discovery means that the formation of Enceladus and Saturn date back to within just four million years of the formation of the entire solar system around 4.6 billon years ago, the researchers state – a mere blink of an eye in astronomical terms.

Courtesy of NASA

Ice Cold Ocean Sits On Warm Rocky Bed

This research suggests that the south pole of Enceladus, where the plumes are seen, consists of a shell of ice perhaps 19 miles (30km) thick which floats on top of an ice-cold ocean of water that is maybe 6 miles (10km) deep that itself sits on a bed of warm, porous, rock. Reactions between the warm rock and water determine the chemical salts that are dissolved in the ocean and hence the composition of the geysers which erupt through the moon’s icy surface.

The researchers are unsure whether the whole core of Enceladus is warm due to residual heat left over from the formation of the moon or whether it is just the upper layers of the core that are warm due to geological activity or even a meteor impact. The porous nature of the core means that it would probably lose heat rapidly and this suggests that a recent ‘incidental heating’ event may be responsible, they report.

Cassini Flyby Of Enceladus

The Cassini probe’s ‘deep dive’ Enceladus flyby will gather more data on the plumes which may help to corroborate the findings reported by this research. The spacecraft will make its closest approach to Enceladus at 15.22 GMT/11.22 EDT on Wednesday at an altitude of 30 miles (49 km) above the moon’s south polar region.

---

Take SHOWME Laser Keyboard on your Trip to Saturn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5cxM-g_b9w

Saturn"s Moon Enceladus Has Primordial Core

Swapping out Mars for Titan... - http://clapway.com/2015/06/23/forget-mars-were-moving-to-saturns-moon-titan/

Our planet is the most amazing miracle. Not even just ours, but planets in general. Space has always interested me. You might have seen my blog on the most interesting Black Holes recently, so you know all about my youth as a space nerd. If you don’t, check it out. Black holes are insane. Anyway, so I was a space nerd and I know I’m not the only one either. Ancient Aliens on the History Channel is doing quite well in their ratings.

One of my favorite family trips was to the McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis, Texas. They would have special viewings and events and such, and one year when we went, I got to see Saturn. I have to tell you that from what I saw in that telescope, Saturn is just amazing. It’s so beautiful! While I don’t think any other planet compares to Earth when talking about beauty, (who can forget about the amazing sunsets we see and places like the Grand Canyon or the beaches of Greece?) Saturn came close. But what I’ve learned about Saturn’s moon, Titan might make it my second favorite rock.

Saturn’s Moon, Titan, Has More Earth Like Similarities

Scientists previously made a huge discovery that some of you, like myself, might’ve missed. Apparently, Saturn’s moon, Titan was found to have actual liquid on its surface. It houses a sea made of liquid methane. Not an ideal location to start planting your farm or anything, but it’s a pretty awesome discovery. Now, scientists are thinking that Titan might actually have an internal ocean made of water and ammonia. Massive movement of surface structures suggested that they had been resting on liquid. This theory hasn’t yet been fully proven, but they’re confident that it’s there and making changes to the surface of the moon.

Mars or Titan: Where will you build your new home?

Recent research suggested that Mars at one point might have had living organisms on it. Signs of water have been found and according to NASA, Mars might’ve had as much water as Earth’s Arctic Ocean. These new discoveries show not only an amazing advancement in our technology, but in our knowledge of the solar system we are a part of.

I think I’ll stay on Earth a bit longer, I kind of like it here. But won’t it be cool when we eventually see not only flights to Mars, but to Titan too. Would you take the opportunity to live on another planet? 

---

 

Filmin has a product for your long-distance Saturn-Earth romances:

Forget Mars, We’re Moving to Saturn’s Moon, Titan

"Astrobiologists also place Titan high on the list of bodies in the solar system where extraterrestrial life might exist today." - http://clapway.com/2015/06/21/lakes-on-titan-fill-earth-like-sinkholes-124/

Researchers suggest that some of the lakes and oceans covering Saturn’s moon Titan reside in sinkholes.

THE LIQUID BODIES OF TITAN

Titan is likely too cold for liquid water to exist on the moon’s surface. But liquid methane rains down from the sky and fills the bodies of liquid. Rivers and streams fill many of these large, deep liquid bodies. But other smaller, shallow lakes appear to exist on their own, independent of any stream or river.

Based on new data collected by the joint NASA/European Space Agency (ESA) Cassini mission, researchers believe that geological features found on Earth can explain these stand-alone lakes.

A team led by ESA planetary scientist Thomas Cornet surmises that geologic features known as karst landforms provides a possible explanation. This type of landscape forms on Earth when water drains into the ground, resulting in erosion of rocks and other materials over time, which can lead to sinkholes. The thought is that sinkholes form on Titan like they do on Earth, and are filled with liquid by rainfall and underground sources.

“By comparing Titan’s surface features with examples on Earth and applying a few simple calculations, we have found similar land-shaping processes that could be operating under very different climate and chemical regimes,” explains ESA’s Cassini project scientist Nicolas Altobelli. She continues, “This is a great comparative study between our home planet and a dynamic world more than a billion kilometers away in the outer solar system.” The team’s research was recently published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, Planets.

A COMPLEX ALIEN WORLD

Planetary scientists and astrobiologists routinely look to Earth to explain features and behaviors on other worlds, and to better understand the conditions in which life can exist.

Aside from holding the title of the second largest moon in the solar system (Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is the largest), Titan is one of the most exciting bodies in the solar system because of its atmosphere’s similarity to Earth’s atmosphere, and because, as far as scientists are aware, it is the only other body in the solar system with bodies of liquid on its surface. And, based on its tilt and movement, scientists suspect a vast ocean sits beneath Titan’s surface.

Astrobiologists also place Titan high on the list of bodies in the solar system where extraterrestrial life might exist today. Previous studies of Titan have shown the moon to have a chemically complex surface on which exotic forms of life could exist. The Cassini mission has been a tremendous success, and it continues providing valuable information about Saturn and its moons to researchers.

---

 

Space cadets — check out this review of Space Scouts Summer Adventure: 

 

 

Lakes on Titan Fill Earth-Like Sinkholes

New Dust Ring Around Saturn Is The Biggest In The Solar System And Is Now Fully Visible For The First Time - http://clapway.com/2015/06/11/new-dust-ring-around-saturn-is-the-biggest-in-the-solar-system-and-is-now-fully-visible-for-the-first-time-678/

Saturn and its dust rings are already well established within common knowledge of planets in our solar system. However, we’ve never been able to fully get a perfect look at one of the newest ones. Now, thanks to a team of University of Maryland, University of Virginia and California Institute of Technology researchers, we have finally found a way to reveal this new ring, called the Phoebe ring, in all of its glory. They also discovered that this ring is the biggest is the entire solar system.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE PHOEBE RING

“For the first time ever, we have the ring image in its entirety,” University of Maryland’s Douglas Hamilton said proudly. But he was not alone, as University of Virginia’s Michael Skrutskie and CalTech’s Anne Verbiscer also stumbled upon the ring along with him.

“We know how big this ring is now and we didn’t before,” Hamilton continued. “The outer edge is starting to give us interesting information about what is happening inside the ring, the forces and processes that make it function.”

DETAILS OF THE PHOEBE RING ITSELF

This new ring around Saturn was originally discovered back in 2009, and currently rests at the far ends of the Saturnian system, with an orbit tilted 27 degrees from its main ring plane. A large portion of its material begins nearly 4 million miles away from the planet and extends outward roughly 7.4 million miles. To illustrate its massive size, it’d take about a billion Earths placed directly next to each other to fill the voluminous ring. Hamilton and his colleagues theorize that the material for the ring comes from one of the moons farthest from Saturn, Phoebe – hence the ring’s name.

And with some additional information on the particles, the researchers were able to gain solid proof that this new ring is the reason Saturn’s moon’s Iapetus happens to be shaded darkly on one side and bright on the other. The astronomer Giovanni Cassini was the first person ever to have spotted the moon, centuries ago in 1671, and years later discovered it has a dark side, which is now named Cassini Regio, in his honor.

“The Phoebe ring is absolutely immense and so it’s huge wide open spaces and very few particles,” Hamilton said. “What this means is the collision times are really, really long so the lifetime of these particles can be millions of years or billions of years depending on the sizes.”

WAS THERE EVIDENCE OF THE PHOEBE RING’S EXISTENCE BEFORE THIS?

One of the moons of Saturn, Iapetus, gave evidence of the existence of the ring before that structure was seen by astronomers. This satellite, covered in ice, is in a tidal lock with Saturn. Much like Earth’s moon, Iapetus always has a side which faces its home planet. As it orbits around the planet of Saturn, astronomers discovered the side that leads is covered in dark material, while the side that follows is completely white, which is understandable considering the ice. What this told researches is that the moon was traveling right through a large cloud of dust, which was collecting on the leading face.

 

 

Here’s a fun way to teach your kids about space and science.

New Dust Ring Around Saturn Is The Biggest In The Solar System And Is Now Fully Visible For The First Time