FOG has been spotted on Titan, the first evidence that the Earth isn't the only body in the solar system to have a hydrological cycle. Yet Titan's cycle is based on methane.
Saturn's moon Titan is known to have lakes, clouds and river beds, hinting that surface liquid evaporates and returns as rain. But proof is lacking: the lakes might not evaporate, the clouds might not rain, and the river beds might be relics from a wetter past.
Now Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and his team have used NASA's Cassini spacecraft to view methane fog at Titan's south pole. The only explanation is evaporated surface methane condensing into humid air, say the team (www.arxiv.org/abs/0908.4087).
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Have your say
I know you qualified it and I expect it was in the original press release (how clumsy to have to say "hydrological but with water instead of methane), but rheological might be the generic term for such evaporation/precipitation cycles... unless there's already a specific term... methanological?
I'm voting for "hydrocarbon cycle" myself.
Sounds like some old methological tale to me...
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Hydraulic fluid used in machinery isn't strictly water either. Sometimes words evolve away from their original intent.
I personally have always considered the word 'humane' to be highly ironic.
Hydrological?
Wed Sep 16 08:09:43 BST 2009 by MaDeR
http://madcio.no-ip.org/index.php/Butterfly
Yes, hydrological cycle. As in "cycle of dominating liquid on this globe".
or even "methane instead of water"
I have another less scientific explanation for the methane cloud around Titan's bottom...
(Sorry ed. - I couldn't help myself)
I assume you mean that Terrance and Phillips have beaten NASA to Titan?
Methane? maybe an organic substance decomposing there? perhaps some bacteria ... definitely a possible life signature.
Life Signature
Wed Sep 16 08:07:17 BST 2009 by MaDeR
http://madcio.no-ip.org/index.php/Butterfly
Definitely not. On this moon, methane is naturally occurring.
No life on Saturn or its moons, son.
Its far too cold. Like trying to find life in a bottle of liquid nitrogen.
Even if there was ultra-primitive life in that bottle, it would not contribute to humankind. Better off looking in our own seas if we want to find new primitive lifeforms.
If you want to see primitive life forms, just go any UK town center at 2am on a Saturday morning....
Son? daddy? Is that you, Pop? We thought you had run off to Titan back in '88!
Momma says you was here and gone before she could get you to the alter... and that we should all be sure to think about you when we was digging taters out in the field 'cause we would never be as smart as you.
('Son', my big old fat butt.)
I would say that cold isn't the issue. It is know that there are lakes and clouds and now fog, and possibly rain on titan. Liquidity is the key here, severe cold is only a hazard to life on earth because it freezes the water necessary for celular function, however it is the liquidity and not the chemistry of that water that is most important, it is not correct to assume that a cold titan is a lifeless one given that it has its own hydrogen based liquid system, celular organisms could develop in that environment, they just wouldn't use water for soluble nutrient transport.
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