First Ocean Waves Spotted on Alien World of Titan
Source: International Business Times
First Ocean Waves Spotted on Alien World of Titan
By Hannah Osborne March 18, 2014 14:14 GMT
Waves have been spotted on an alien world for the first time by Nasa scientists studying Titan, Saturn's largest moon.
The space agency's Cassini spacecraft noticed several abnormal glints of sunlight on the surface of one of the moon's hydrocarbon seas, Nature Magazine reports.
Researchers have been looking for waves rippling on Titan's oceans for years but to no avail, until recently.
Scientists at the University of Idaho in Moscow noticed tiny movements, not more than two centimetres, disturbing the surface of Punga Mare, one of Titan's oceans.
Read more: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/first-ocean-waves-spotted-alien-world-titan-1440804
Lucky Luciano
(11,254 posts)jtuck004
(15,882 posts)raccoon
(31,110 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)waving ?
Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)FSogol
(45,484 posts)Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)dgauss
(882 posts)scientists have figured out a way to detect 2 cm waves on the surface of one of its hydrocarbon seas. Amazing stuff.
former9thward
(32,003 posts)Weird.
Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)(yes, I know he died 20 years ago.)
Xithras
(16,191 posts)Hell, it took almost 75 years to find the Titanic, and we knew roughly where it sank. It took two years to find the Air France flight that went down in the Atlantic, and we knew its flight path.
Somebody will find the Malaysian 777 someday, but that "someday" could be two days from now or two centuries from now.
former9thward
(32,003 posts)We can measure a 2 cm wave hundreds of millions of miles away but can't find a massive plane here on earth which was loaded with electronic communication equipment.
Xithras
(16,191 posts)It took billions of dollars and years of searching for that satellite to find that wave. If we spend billions of dollars and years searching for that 777, we'll probably find it too.
Baclava
(12,047 posts)psychopomp
(4,668 posts)the sun is going to be much dimmer than that out on Titan. How many orders of magnitude, I can't say, but it'd look quite different.
Baclava
(12,047 posts)you earthlings think you know everything from a couple foggy day pics
Baclava
(12,047 posts)Saturn's eccentric orbit might be the cause of the uneven distribution of ethane and methane lakes on the ringed planet's moon, Titan.
Images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft reveal that liquid methane and ethane lakes in Titan's northern high latitudes cover 20 times more area than lakes in the southern high latitudes.
http://www.space.com/7662-saturn-eccentric-orbit-explain-moon-lopsided-lakes.html
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)I thought we already knew this?