Landing the Big One

Landing the Big One

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Quick, tell the oil companies!


Hey, Chevron! Hey, Exxon and Shell! Here's challenge for you- recover hydrocarbons from Saturn moon:
Nasa's Cassini probe has found evidence for seas, probably filled with liquid hydrocarbons, at the high northern latitudes of Saturn's moon Titan.

The dark features, detected by Cassini's radar, are much bigger than any lakes already detected on Titan.

The largest is some 100,000 sq km (39,000 sq miles) - greater in extent than North America's Lake Superior.

It covers a greater fraction of Titan than the proportion of Earth covered by the Black Sea.

The Black Sea is the Earth's largest inland sea and covers about 0.085% of our planet's surface.
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While there is no definitive proof that these seas contain liquid, their shape, their dark appearance in radar that indicates smoothness, along with other properties, point to the presence of liquids.

The liquids are probably a combination of methane and ethane, given the conditions on Titan and the abundance of methane and ethane gases and clouds in Titan's atmosphere.
More here from NASA. Including an animation found here.

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