Just a quick post to get my “blogging legs” back after a hiatus spent in Death Valley. There was a pretty slick article in Science recently (Lorenz et al, 2008: Science v. 319, 21 March 2008, p. 1649-1651) that claims to have found evidence for an ocean of water beneath the surface of Titan.
The workers were analyzing surface features on Titan, and noticed that they had drifted from a fixed point, which they explained as a result of increased rotation of the moon. The mechanism they evoke to explain this relies on the powerful winds in Titan’s atmosphere, which applies such a large torque on the surface, that it changes the rotation pattern. According to the models, this would only work if there was an ocean of liquid water under the surface.
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2 comments:
That's quite a jump - from the deserts of Death Valley to the oceans of Titan! :)
Will you have any D.V. photos? Hope the trip was a good one and not too hot yet.
I think all the tourists at the Las Vegas airport made me yearn for the true isolation of Titan!
I will have some pictures going up fairly soon. It was an awesome trip!
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