Huygens...

[JaXanim]

@blobrana

Lake Bitumen. Stick around. Take a cool, cleansing ethane shower and sample the joys of cryovolcanism. Or for those who can't make the trip, enjoy the armchair views from a ninehundred million miles. Amazing eh?

JaX

[blobrana]

Hum,
i suppose the California tar pit isn’t too far away...

[PMC]

Anyone see the Open Uni programme on Friday night?

(yes, instead of being out on the razz, I was in fact lying in bed watching a tv programme about a mission to Titan - a claim to geekdom?)

Someone suggested that below the crust of Titan is a salty ocean, and a geologically active core that could drive geothermal vents in very much the same way as seen in Earth's oceans and very possibly Europa's too.

Could a liquid, warm ocean fed by volcanic activity harbour life of some kind, a billion miles from here?

[Karlos]

PMC wrote:

Someone suggested that below the crust of Titan is a salty ocean, and a geologically active core that could drive geothermal vents in very much the same way as seen in Earth's oceans and very possibly Europa's too.

Could a liquid, warm ocean fed by volcanic activity harbour life of some kind, a billion miles from here?

Sure. If it works here, it can work there too. As long as you have an energy source and the right ingredients it could possibly habour life.

Of course, this all assumes that there are liquid oceans underneath. There's no proof yet.

[Karlos]

Nothing new on the ESA site now for a bit. I'm getting impatient :-)

@PMC

Hmm, an ironic thought. Here on earth we have cold (relatively speaking), salty oceans of water sitting over a crust, under which there exist pools of (presumably much warmer) hydrocarbons. Titan might have it all backwards :-)

[PMC]

@Karlos,

Yeah, strange thought isn't it?  Titan's literally an inside-out world...  Who knows, maybe there's something living under the crust, gaining warmth and nutrition from geothermal vents (and possibly drilling upwards for hyrdrocarbons with which they power their SUVs?).

As for the lack of pics, my orginal guess was that Titan Customs and Excise have impounded the photos and won't release them until we stump up the Duty for them.  I'm sure ESA is negotiating as I type...

And they will be less than impressed at our attempts to smuggle bootleg CDs into Titan if they decide to disassemble Huygens...

[Karlos]

(and possibly drilling upwards for hyrdrocarbons with which they power their SUVs?).

Subterrainian Utility Vehicles?

[cecilia]

what's really happening on Titan.

 :-o

[Karlos]

cecilia wrote:
what's really happening on Titan.

 :-o

:lol:

Surprised he's not wearing a parka. It's a bit chilly out :-D