New evidence of underground ocean on Titan monday
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Under the surface of Titan, the largest moon of planet Saturn ring, is under a geophysical of Stanford University may have an ocean of liquid hydrocarbons, a group of organic compounds which, inter Alia, methane belongs. Until conclusion Howard Zebker and the team of researchers that he led with the help of measurements carried out with the space probe Cassini, which is the last time radar signals to the surface of the moon sent.
With a diameter of about 5150 kilometers, the satellite larger than rocky planet Mercury and unlike most objects in the solar system of comparable size Titan is not a perfect sphere, as evidenced by the recently completed research. The moon is flat in his poles, where land is more than seven hundred meters lower than it is to the equator. This fits well with a proposed explanation for the fact that the lakes of hydrocarbons on the carbon Titans surface - composed of liquid ethane and methane may also - only in the polar regions can be found.
If there is actually an underground ocean occurs in the interior of the moon, these lakes are simply places where the surface low enough to expose a portion of it to go. However there is also another explanation for the remarkable spread of the lakes at all: the conditions in the polar regions are such that in times of hydrocarbons raining. The Cassini must answer the next time about trying to give.
More information: "Titan may have Subsurface ocean or hydrocarbons (SpaceRef)
Translated version of http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=27912
Source: astroversum
Translated version of http://www.astroversum.nl/
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Under the surface of Titan, the largest moon of planet Saturn ring, is under a geophysical of Stanford University may have an ocean of liquid hydrocarbons, a group of organic compounds which, inter Alia, methane belongs. Until conclusion Howard Zebker and the team of researchers that he led with the help of measurements carried out with the space probe Cassini, which is the last time radar signals to the surface of the moon sent.
With a diameter of about 5150 kilometers, the satellite larger than rocky planet Mercury and unlike most objects in the solar system of comparable size Titan is not a perfect sphere, as evidenced by the recently completed research. The moon is flat in his poles, where land is more than seven hundred meters lower than it is to the equator. This fits well with a proposed explanation for the fact that the lakes of hydrocarbons on the carbon Titans surface - composed of liquid ethane and methane may also - only in the polar regions can be found.
If there is actually an underground ocean occurs in the interior of the moon, these lakes are simply places where the surface low enough to expose a portion of it to go. However there is also another explanation for the remarkable spread of the lakes at all: the conditions in the polar regions are such that in times of hydrocarbons raining. The Cassini must answer the next time about trying to give.
More information: "Titan may have Subsurface ocean or hydrocarbons (SpaceRef)
Translated version of http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=27912
Source: astroversum
Translated version of http://www.astroversum.nl/