NASA says liquid confirmed on Saturn's moon Titan

[Akoto]

Source: Associated Press

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — At least one of many large, lake-like features on Saturn's moon Titan studied by the international Cassini spacecraft contains liquid hydrocarbons, making it the only body in the solar system besides Earth known to have liquid on its surface, NASA said Wednesday.

Scientists positively identified the presence of ethane, according to a statement from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which manages the Cassini mission exploring Saturn, its rings and moons.

Liquid ethane is a component of crude oil.

-- snip --

Scientists had theorized that Titan might have oceans of methane, ethane and other hydrocarbons, but Cassini found hundreds of dark, lake-like features instead, and it wasn't known at first whether they were liquid or dark, solid material, JPL's statement said.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gB5eQTKqw1yN3wst1UAEVPvzj1JwD928LMDO0

---

I thought this was interesting, but I'm a space nut. :)

[Dogtown]

1. Will the Neocons

"liberate" it for democracy?

:patriot:


Seriously, though. That's the only hope for a viable space program.

:cry:

[nykym]

2. Great

When do we start drilling!

[Ian David]

12. If we drain the lake, where will the Swanny Swans Swim? n/t

[Buzz Clik]

3. Liquid ethane -- a great cold drink on a hot day.

[slackmaster]

8. Nothing like a frosty glass of ethane with a good cigar

[Buzz Clik]

21. LOL!!! Nicely done.

[MaineDem]

4. "Liquid ethane is a component of crude oil."

Now we just need a long hose.

Seriously, this is pretty neat news.

[djp2]

18. Not from Dinosaurs?

This makes me think that our "oil" on Earth is a Natural product of the Earth, not long lost dinosaurs. IF that is the case, then there is no Shortage, just hype, from the oil companies.

[Taverner]

23. That's Creationist BS

Ethane is a component, not crude oil itself

[djp2]

24. ample evidence of Crude being abiotic

see article below
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38645

Of course the oil companies don't want this known, oil could very well be a renewable resource.

Excerpt from the article:

Quote:
"Another interesting fact is that every oil field throughout the world has outgassing helium. Helium is so often present in oil fields that helium detectors are used as oil-prospecting tools. Helium is an inert gas known to be a fundamental product of the radiological decay or uranium and thorium, identified in quantity at great depths below the surface of the earth, 200 and more miles below. It is not found in meaningful quantities in areas that are not producing methane, oil or natural gas. It is not a member of the dozen or so common elements associated with life. It is found throughout the solar system as a thoroughly inorganic product.

Even more intriguing is evidence that several oil reservoirs around the globe are refilling themselves, such as the Eugene Island reservoir – not from the sides, as would be expected from concurrent organic reservoirs, but from the bottom up.

Dr. Gold strongly believes that oil is a "renewable, primordial soup continually manufactured by the Earth under ultrahot conditions and tremendous pressures. As this substance migrates toward the surface, it is attached by bacteria, making it appear to have an organic origin dating back to the dinosaurs."

Smaller oil companies and innovative teams are using this theory to justify deep oil drilling in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, among other locations, with some success. Dr. Kenney is on record predicting that parts of Siberia contain a deep reservoir of oil equal to or exceeding that already discovered in the Middle East."

[Taverner]

25. World...Net...Daily????

:rofl:

Sorry but

:rofl:

[djp2]

26. Source-- National Academy of Sciences

Take pot shots at me all you want, but look at the article and sources, WND may not have the highest credibility, but you show your OIL Co. backings by denying all possibilities of anything other than the usually ACCEPTED Hype. What about having an OPEN MIND? Do your own research into abiogenic petroleum origins.

National Academy of Sciences
http://www.pnas.org/content/99/17/10976.full?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=genesis+of+hydrocarbons+and+the+origin+of+petroleum&searchid=1085470440708_510&stored_search=&FIRSTINDEX=0

ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenic_petroleum_origin

http://www.tccsa.tc/articles/oil_origin.pdf

[cobalt1999]

5. This is very interesting and significant

Now we need a lander to go there.

[geomon666]

6. We already did.

[cobalt1999]

14. I was thinking about something like the Spirt rover at the lake itself.

I wonder why it's all evaporating away?

A natural Titan summer event, or a long term evaporation process.

[geomon666]

17. Well I'm sure they will eventually make something like that.

Need to do a lot more research first. For instance, the usual conditions on the surface of the moon, that means satellites. Then you need to build a rover that can withstand those conditions for a long period of time and then you need to figure out how to power it. Solar is out of the question as the surface of the moon is covered with a very thick atmosphere, blocking out most of the sunlight.

[sofa king]

20. Ethane is extremely volatile.

Its boiling point is -88 deg. C., and it is combustible at temperatures far below that (if there were any oxygen around for it to react with).

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

Perhaps more importantly, its melting point is -182 deg. C, while the average temperatures on Titan are fairly close to that, averaging -179 deg. C. I failed out as a chemistry major, but I think that suggests that the lake is pretty close to a phase change point, and that may mean the lake is prone to vaporizing--maybe sublimation? I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, so I'd better let someone who does give a real explanation.

Anyway, at temperatures like that you wind up with something of a problem exploring Titan. Few mechanical components work very well at temperatures that stay that low, and batteries tend to die fast. Solar energy is comparatively weak, so that pretty much leaves a nuclear option for powering and keeping a rover at operating temperature. Therefore the rover itself might be be changing the environment around it as it moves.

However, those sorts of problems are mere challenges to scientists and engineers, and JPL has already floated a concept:

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005AGUFM.P51C0941B

[mcjackson]

7. Jupiter's core....

....is made of solid diamond.

[krispos42]

10. Someone knows their Arthur C. Clarke!

(it was him, right?)

[TechBear_Seattle]

11. The idea was in "2010: Odyssey Two," but it wasn't his to begin with

As I recall from his notes on the novel, he got the idea from an article originally published in Scientific American.

[mcjackson]

13. Yes sir..

...something they completely ignored when they made the movie. I actually wouldn't mind seeing a movie made of 3001.

p.s. Clarke's last novel comes out next week. Sounds like it might be pretty interesting.

[krispos42]

9. In related news...

NASA's budget just quadrupled, 82nd Airborne renamed "82nd Spaceborne", and the Titanese government rumored to be stockpiling anthrax.

[edbermac]

15. But what about the brown stuff they found in Uranus?

:7

[mcjackson]

19. nice

[montanto]

16. This is history, not news.

I don't mean to be rude, but this "LBN" has been out for a long time. And think about it. Should we really spend trillions of dollars in equipment and resources, a decade of someone's life, going to Titan to pick up a bucket of slush? Or should we conserve here, now?


Seriously, if we had the tech to get there we wouldn't need the stuff that is there.

[AndyTiedye]

22. OIL HO!