Comments on: A hidden world revealed: Titan

By: Matt B.

Matt B. — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:50:30 +0000

Could we get the guy that did that amazing composite of Mercury to work on this? It’s so messy I can barely get anything out of it.

We need to figure out different adjectives for Saturn’s moon Titan and Uranus’s moon Titania. Right now, they’re both “Titanian”, but once both worlds have been colonized, it’s only a matter of time before it’ll have to go to the GalCouRaNaConRes*.

*Galactic Court for Race Name Conflict Resolution, from The Nitpicker’s Guide for Next Generation Trekkers.

By: Titan’s Veil, Uncovered « Undertow851

Titan’s Veil, Uncovered « Undertow851 — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:03:38 +0000

[...] Source: Bad Astronomy [...]

By: Grant

Grant — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 07:07:30 +0000

Those dark areas are hydrocarbon-oceans, right? They look like oceans to me.

Similar-quality image of Earth:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/4482476686/

By: Joey

Joey — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 22:37:39 +0000

And, what about possible bioengineering of Titan to where temperatures could be raised by mirrors on a satellite, and other technologies of the like. Could man with our more rapid science advancements put into better position more possibilities of life-like scenarios here??

By: News from Around the Net: 14-OCT-2011 (Sponsored by Savage Mojo) | Game Knight Reviews

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 11:02:41 +0000

[...] anybody thought to use the new images of Saturn’s biggest moon, Titan, for a campaign world? The images are stunning and I can hardly wait to see more from the various probes traveling [...]

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 09:52:35 +0000

This is so cool! I have to echo the sentiments of others who say this reminds them of the early maps of Mars.

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 09:42:28 +0000

Titan is so fascinating. It’s like a Mr. Freeze version of Earth, with rain and rivers and lakes and even (they think) volcanism, but all with the operative fluids being those that are liquids at cryogenic temperatures. It’s even got a mostly nitrogen atmosphere, at the closest pressure to Earth’s of any body in the solar system (about 1.5 atmospheres).

If we ever encounter intelligent life that’s methane/ammonia based, we’ll be able to make mucho moolah by selling them real estate on the balmy, scenic paradise that is Titan

By: Don

Don — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:36:21 +0000

Can’t we get the probe to slap up a big ass billboard and have Coke™ pay a trainload of cash for the advertising?

By: The Lonely Sand Person

The Lonely Sand Person — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:40:37 +0000

That’s… amazing! Go Cassini go!

By: Justin Chase

Justin Chase — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:23:39 +0000

Can we terraform it to be more temperate?

By: VinceRN

VinceRN — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 04:21:51 +0000

@11 Ken – Google adds are tailored to the viewers browsing, or try to be. I got auto parts, telescopes coatings and EMS training ads. Scary. Maybe they throw out bankruptsy ads when they don’t know you history so well, figuring with the current economy they might get a hit or sixty.

By: Map of Saturn’s Moon Titan Reveals Earth-Like Features | LATEST MOVIES GUIDE

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 01:27:48 +0000

[...] of a moon, including lakes and immeasurable dune fields, for a initial time in color, according to Discover Magazine blogger and astronomer Phil [...]

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 23:35:36 +0000

@ ^ Jason Perry : Thanks & congrats!

Neat map – but by “elevated areas” do we mean actual hills and mountains and plateaux or something else? This has a bit of a jigsaw puzzle look about it too – but is still excellent & appreciated.

Is the black patch at the pole (north presumably) just an area that we don’t have any data on yet?

Will there be more refined, higher resolution maps to come (please!) – & perhaps seasonal ones if it turns out Titans lakes grow and shrink and features change on a seasonal basis?

(Wonders how it compares with the geography described in Baxter’s ‘Titan’ novel – click on my name for wiki-link – & whether we’ll ever land there and see for ourselves in person one day.)

By: Nick Matzke

Nick Matzke — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 23:21:39 +0000

What’s the huge linear feature at 0.18 in the video, or in the upper-left image??? Black is basin and white is upland, IIRC, but why in a straight line for 40% of the circumference of the globe?

By: Jason Perry

Jason Perry — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 23:03:37 +0000

@GK4: the one at latitude 15 north and longitude 15 is Sinlap, most definitely an impact crater. The other is Menrva, an impact basin. Good eyes.

BTW, thanks to Phil for updating his post about our ISS map of Titan. We should have a version for 2011 up in the next few weeks.

By: JB of Brisbane

JB of Brisbane — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 21:30:24 +0000

Eagerly awaiting Google Titan.

By: lqd

lqd — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:05:13 +0000

@Dragonchild–

The TiME (Titan Mare Explorer) mission has been proposed for the next low-cost Discovery Program mission. It would land and float in a Titanic sea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_Mare_Explorer

By: Anton Sherwood

Anton Sherwood — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:03:14 +0000

Who else remembers the obviously patched-together pictures from the Sixties of, I guess, Mercury? I’m surprised that the edges in this globe weren’t smoothed like everything else nowadays.

By: rob

rob — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:51:01 +0000

that’s no moon, it’s a … oh, nevermind.

By: GK4

GK4 — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:25:36 +0000

Is that an impact crater I see?

In the image above, it’s in the upper left corner in the upper left image. In the 2009 map, it’s around latitude 15 north and longitude 15. There’s another, larger one at latitude 25 north and longitude 85, too.

There might be another, but I think I might be suffering from crater pareidolia.

By: Ken B

Ken B — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 18:30:50 +0000

Anyone else get Google ads for bankruptcy attorneys at the bottom of this video? Gotta wonder why Google thinks it’s related.

Even stranger(?), the three ads are “Bankruptcy Atty”, “Sue Debt Collectors”, and “Online Project Mgmt. Cert”.

By: Larian LeQuella

Larian LeQuella — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:31:44 +0000

I am very interested in the chemistry that is going on there. I wonder if we tell the congresscritters that there is a huge suply of petrolium products ready for their taking, if they would fund it? Hmm?

By: CR

CR — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:16:32 +0000

By the way, I love how in the animation above, you can see not only mighty Saturn pass by, but a few of it moons as well.
I’m guessing it (along with the background stars) was added for effect, but it is similar to all those pics of the various moons passing each other, whic Phil has posted about so many times.
Still, I wonder how many uniformed readers out there might not actually read the text in the video and assume this is a ‘real’ video, or that Titan actually looks like those colors because they don’t know it’s a false-color map…

By: CR

CR — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:07:58 +0000

Regarding indirect evidence of lakes on Titan, we have direct evidence: a couple of years ago, Cassini caught a glimpse of reflected sunlight from one of the lakes… follow the “A Titanic wink…” link at the bottom of today’s entry.

Mind you, that’s from orbit, and I for one would love to see a floater sent to get right into the thing. (Why did we only equip Cassini with a single drop probe? Aside from mass vs fuel costs and such, of course? That’s like sending a news crew to film a big breaking news story, but giving them a still camera with only one frame available to take any pictures…)

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:43:58 +0000

I am not sure of the radiation levels on Saturn, I don’t think the magnetic field is as powerful as Jupiter, but if you are going to postulate life, why not life where the radiation, or perhaps movement through the magnetic field provides the necessary energy? Perhaps simple life could incorporate ferrous crystals that would generate an electrical potential to get chemical reactions going. That far from the sun and deep in an atmosphere something besides sunlight will be needed to provide energy for life.