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jupiterzkool
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 05/08/06
Posts: 1341
Loc: Pasadena, CA
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Here is a recent article about the nature of the "sand" discovered on Titan.
Enjoy!
-S
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Scott G. Edgington, Planetary Scientist
Cassini-Huygens: Mission to Saturn & Titan
Yes, Asia, John Wetton Fan
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LadyAstronomer
Bookworm
Reged: 11/15/07
Posts: 2951
Loc: Library of Congress
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What an interesting story! I'm going to have to hit the library for May's Icarus. Thanks for sharing it, Scott.
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"I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." -- Sir Isaac Newton
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llanitedave
Humble Megalomaniac
Reged: 09/26/05
Posts: 10474
Loc: Amargosa Valley, NV, USA
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That sure raises a bunch of questions in my mind:
1. If those dunes are the result of eons of condensation of organics, does that mean Titan's atmosphere has become depleted in organics over time?
2. If not, is there a way to "de-sinter", to return small grains of these particles back into aerosol form and send them back into the atmosphere? That might possibly be an erosional process which would result in a steady state environment.
3. If the dunes have little ice, but the methane rivers are cutting through an icy crust to reach the seas, does that mean there might be ice-sand elsewhere on Titan? Could we be seeing a compositionally diverse surface, with each ingredient being exotic from our own point of view, and interacting in ways unfamiliar to us?
4. Would these grains be soluble in a methane or ethane liquid?
5. Why dunes of loose sand? Why don't they continue to stick together to produce solid rock?
I really think we need to arrange a field trip!
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"S.O.E." (Sauron's Other Eye) 16" Royce conical mirror: A permanent work in progress.
10" Homebuilt dob, old Coulter mirror
Next Project: The "Eye of Sauron" Observatory!
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jupiterzkool
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 05/08/06
Posts: 1341
Loc: Pasadena, CA
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Quote:
That sure raises a bunch of questions in my mind:
1. If those dunes are the result of eons of condensation of organics, does that mean Titan's atmosphere has become depleted in organics over time?
2. If not, is there a way to "de-sinter", to return small grains of these particles back into aerosol form and send them back into the atmosphere? That might possibly be an erosional process which would result in a steady state environment.
3. If the dunes have little ice, but the methane rivers are cutting through an icy crust to reach the seas, does that mean there might be ice-sand elsewhere on Titan? Could we be seeing a compositionally diverse surface, with each ingredient being exotic from our own point of view, and interacting in ways unfamiliar to us?
4. Would these grains be soluble in a methane or ethane liquid?
5. Why dunes of loose sand? Why don't they continue to stick together to produce solid rock?
I really think we need to arrange a field trip!
1. This is a question that atmospheric chemists are trying to deal with. In theory, sunlight should have depleted the methane currently present in the atmosphere. It must have a source which is either sub-surface in nature or biological. (FYI. My former graduate advisor wrote an article last May in Scientific American that looks at this question for Mars and Titan).
3. I'm curious about this, too. Most of Titan's surface should be water ice with a coating of hydrocarbons. Winds will naturally erode this material, so I would have expected the dunes to be mostly of water ice particles with hydrocarbons mixed in.
I'm game for a field trip. Let's go!
-S
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Scott G. Edgington, Planetary Scientist
Cassini-Huygens: Mission to Saturn & Titan
Yes, Asia, John Wetton Fan
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LadyAstronomer
Bookworm
Reged: 11/15/07
Posts: 2951
Loc: Library of Congress
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Quote:
I'm game for a field trip. Let's go!
Me too! I'm in! Now ... where did I leave my Estwing rock hammer? 
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"I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." -- Sir Isaac Newton
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