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ESA's 'shipping forecast' - from Titan!
April 02, 2004ESA could be releasing its own marine weather report next January - but not for any Earthly ocean. Thanks to the NASA/ESA Cassini/Huygens mission, the first data about an extraterrestrial ocean may finally be received, ending 25 years of scientific speculation.
There is a growing body of evidence that at least part of Titan's surface is covered with liquid methane and a related chemical, ethane. On Earth, methane is a gas but at the colder temperatures of Titan, around -180 °C, it could exist as a liquid or be frozen solid into ice. If it is a liquid, it could exist as lakes in craters or even as vast oceans.
Recent radar observations suggest that up to seventy-five percent of the surface may be covered in liquid. In that case, it is highly likely that after its descent through Titan's atmosphere, the Huygens probe will not so much land as 'splashdown'.
To understand what to expect if this happens, the Principal Investigator of the Huygens Surface Science Package, John Zarnecki of the UK's Open University, has teamed up with Nadeem Ghafoor, Surrey Satellite Technology, and colleagues from the Southampton Oceanography Centre.
Together, the team used a computer model to predict the behaviour of the ocean on Titan. They looked at the waves they might encounter. On Earth, wind drives the waves. By placing Titan's characteristics into their computer program, the team discovered that Titan's waves will be slow-motion giants, reaching some seven times the height of a typical wave on Earth. Their height is mostly generated because Titan's gravitational strength is only one seventh that of Earth.
If Huygens does land on an ocean, the Surface Science Package will attempt to measure its composition, and depth using sonar. It will also record the frequency and height of any waves that pass.
Extreme sports fans might find surfing on these waves a wild ride, according to Nadeem Ghafoor, because the waves would look seven times bigger but move three times more slowly than those on Earth.
Of course, the sea would be 180 degrees below zero and it would not smell very good either. The surroundings would be a murky orange-brown because of the permanently overcast conditions and there might be the occasional iceberg to dodge near the shore!
In short, Titan could be like nothing like we have seen before and Cassini/Huygens is due to reveal all on 14 January 2005.
European Space Agency (ESA)
Methane Current Events and Methane News RSSArctic soil reveals climate change clues
Frozen arctic soil contains nearly twice the greenhouse-gas-producing organic material as was previously estimated, according to recently published research by University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists.
IMPACTS: On the Threshold of Abrupt Climate Changes
Abrupt climate change is a potential menace that hasn't received much attention. That's about to change. Through its Climate Change Prediction Program, the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research (OBER) recently launched IMPACTS - Investigation of the Magnitudes and Probabilities of Abrupt Climate Transitions - a program led by William Collins of Berkeley Lab's Earth Sciences Division (ESD) that brings together six national laboratories to attack the problem of abrupt climate change, or ACC.
Curbing coal emissions alone might avert climate danger, say researchers
An ongoing rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide from burning of fossil fuels might be kept below harmful levels if emissions from coal are phased out within the next few decades, say researchers.
NASA study illustrates how global peak oil could impact climate
The burning of fossil fuels -- notably coal, oil and gas -- has accounted for about 80 percent of the rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide since the pre-industrial era. Now, NASA researchers have identified feasible emission scenarios that could keep carbon dioxide below levels that some scientists have called dangerous for climate.
Scientists peel away the mystery behind gold's catalytic prowess
Few materials have exercised as much of a hold on the human imagination, or on human history, as has gold.
Bad sign for global warming: Thawing permafrost holds vast carbon pool
Permafrost blanketing the northern hemisphere contains more than twice the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, making it a potentially mammoth contributor to global climate change depending on how quickly it thaws.
OU Researchers Isolate Microorganisms That Convert Hydrocarbons to Natural Gas
When a group of University of Oklahoma researchers began studying the environmental fate of spilt petroleum, a problem that has plagued the energy industry for decades, they did not expect to eventually isolate a community of microorganisms capable of converting hydrocarbons into natural gas.
Cataloguing invisible life: Microbe genome emerges from lake sediment
When entrepreneurial geneticist Craig Venter sailed around the world on his yacht sequencing samples of seawater, it was an ambitious project to use genetics to understand invisible ecological communities. But his scientific legacy was disappointing - a jumble of mystery DNA fragments belonging to thousands of unknown organisms.
Analysis of Lake Washington microbes shows the power of metagenomic approaches
Today's powerful sequencing machines can rapidly read the genomes of entire communities of microbes, but the challenge is to extract meaningful information from the jumbled reams of data.
New robot scouts best locations for components of undersea lab
Like a deep-sea bloodhound, Sentry - the newest in an elite group of unmanned submersibles able to operate on their own in demanding and rugged environments - has helped scientists pinpoint optimal locations for two observation sites of a pioneering seafloor laboratory being planned off Washington and Oregon.
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