Cassini's observations of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, have given scientists a glimpse of what Earth might have been like before life evolved. They now believe Titan possesses many parallels to Earth, including channels, dunes, rain, snow, hills, mountains and possibly sporadic volcanic activity.
Icy particles from the surface jets collectively form a huge plume three times taller than the width of Enceladus. The moon’s diameter is about 300 miles. It is believed that the plume feeds particles into Saturn's most expansive ring, the E ring. Already in the extended mission, the spacecraft has come as close as 15 miles from the moon surface. 5)
The science goals of space study on Saturn are to understand the sources, as well as the disposition of Saturn's plasma, its acceleration and movement.
The brief reconnaissance encounters of the Pioneer 11 and the two Voyager spacecraft have provided most of our current information about the structure and dynamics of Saturn's magnetosphere.
Details of the magnetosphere are set forth: 6)
Saturn's 'bow shock', the region point where the solar wind and the planet's magnetic field meet, much like the bow wave of a ship, is between 20 and 35 times Saturn's radius out into space.
The thickness of the bow shock is about 2000 kilometres.
Saturn's internal magnetic field is closely aligned with the planet's axis of rotation (within 1 degree).
Saturn's magnetosphere appears to be intermediate in nature to those of Earth and Jupiter. As with Jupiter's magnetosphere, the dayside inner magnetosphere is mostly driven by the fast planetary rotation. However at night, it is expected that the nightside and outer magnetosphere is primarily driven by the solar wind, as is the case on Earth.
There is an electrical current (the 'equatorial ring current') flowing with about 10 000 000 Amps around 600 000 kilometres above Saturn.
Saturn Kilometric Radiation (SKR) is the principal radio emission from Saturn. SKR is believed to be linked to the way electrons in the solar wind interact with the magnetic field at Saturn's poles.
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Suppose there is a large quantity of natural gas on Titan. How would this natural gas be extracted and transported to the earth? These details will be the subject of scientific inquiry this century and next.
I've taught approx. 34 sections of collegiate courses, including computer applications, college algebra, collegiate statistics, law, accounting, finance and economics. The experience includes service as a Board Director on the CPA Journal and editor of the
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Article comments
1 - Costello
Hope the program is not in danger with all the cuts.
Is your ID in quotes because it's not your real name?
2 - Dr Dreadful
This article is a mess, and considering the numerous factual errors it contains I assume that the good doctor (if such he is - looks like an anagram to me) is not an astronomer or planetologist.
The most glaring one is the statement that there is crude oil on Titan. It is true that hydrocarbons exist there, and that crude oil is a hydrocarbon, but the two terms are not synonyms. A hydrocarbon is simply a chemical compound comprised of hydrogen and carbon. On Titan, the predominant hydrocarbon is methane.
I'm also perplexed by the author's account of lightning storms on Saturn, which appears to have no connection to anything else in the article. Neither does he explain what the moon's open bodies of liquid have to do with the variability of its magnetic field.
Bizarre.
3 - Dr. Joseph S. Maresca
The presence of crude oil implies that an animal life form existed on that planet, and their bodies decomposed without enough air/gas to decompose properly (as is how the crude oil formed on earth). Titan's water stock is frozen into chunks as hard as granite.
The word implies is being utilized. Next, let me deal with the opening findings of Casini.
"Saturn's orange moon Titan has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, according to new data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. "
The statement by itself justifies the planned explorations. Lastly, the lightening is another potential energy source which can be harnessed. Remember, we are now where the Wright Brothers were at the beginning of the previous century. Look where aviation took us after the Wright Brothers. If we pursue these energy technologies, the best is yet to come for
sure. There is certainly more promise in pursuing hydrocarbons on Titan over the next century than fission nuclear power.
We won't know for sure what's on Titan until the exploratory probes have completed their work. The initial findings provide an important perspective with regard to Titan, its environment and the potential for energy exploration this century and next.
4 - Dr Dreadful
Dr Maresca, you have it backwards. Again, crude oil and hydrocarbons are not the same thing and your assumption that those on Titan came from the decay of living organisms is unwarranted. There are hydrocarbons on Jupiter and Saturn as well - planets without a solid surface. Organic compounds are called that not because they are derived from living organisms, but because they are the building blocks of life.
There may indeed be life on Titan - there's less ethane and acetylene in the atmosphere than there ought to be, and one possible explanation is that something is eating the stuff - but the hydrocarbons in and of themselves aren't the telltale signature.
Agreed that the presence of hydrocarbons on Titan warrants further exploration, but the cost of extracting and exploiting them, even using robotic technology, is so astronomical as to make it unfeasible for the foreseeable future - probably until long after Earth's oil supplies have dried up.
Mining the upper atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn for hydrocarbons might actually be easier, since the tankers wouldn't have such a big gravity well to climb out of in order to ship the stuff back to Earth.
5 - Dr. Joseph S. Maresca
This century will come upon a commercializable "Artificial Sun" or Tokamak. The existence of fusion power will be an important precursor to cheaper space exploration utilizing robotics and similar instrumentalities.
Our Titan probe will take 7 years or so to reach its destination. Again, travel speeds will accelerate much like airplane speeds accelerated from the Wright Brothers to supersonic speeds now experienced in transcontinental flights. By mid-century, we might
be able to reach Saturn in half the time or less.
This will be dependent upon progress made in harnessing the artificial sun or Tokamak.
There may be significant potential for harnessing the tremendous lightening described in the article. Again, transmission technologies are still evolving. In addition, we need to perfect the material sciences in order to have commercializable robotics operating on Titan and its challenging environment.
I agree that mining the upper atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn for hydrocarbons would be easier in all likelihood.
NASA has found an oily liquid lake filled with hydrocarbons on Titan, Saturn's Earth-like moon.
It's the first liquid lake found away from Earth. Named Ontario Lacus, it is bigger than Connecticut and Rhode Island combined. And, it's filled with oil. Or, at least it has liquid ethane, a component of crude oil.
Now all we have to do is figure out how to transport it 800 million miles through space, and the energy crisis is solved. Right?
6 - zingzing
is that free verse?
7 - Dr Dreadful
Nah, he's commenting from his iPhone or something.