Friday, January 21, 2005
Methane rain feeds Titan's rivers
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Methane rain feeds Titan's rivers: "Last Updated: Friday, 21 January, 2005, 10:08 GMT
Methane rain feeds Titan's rivers
Liquid methane rain feeds river channels, lakes, streams, and springs on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan, images from the Huygens probe show.
Scientists have also recovered much data from Huygens that had been thought lost due to a communications failure.
On 14 January, the spacecraft plunged through the moon's atmosphere, sending scientific data - including stunning images - back to ground controllers.
Teams outlined new results at a press conference in Paris, France on Friday.
'We have evidence of many Earth-like processes [on Titan] such as [rain], erosion and abrasion but with very exotic materials,' said Marty Tomasko, Descent Imager Spectral Radiometer (DISR).
Mission scientists added that these processes are active today.
Fluid flowing on the surface of Titan is helping carve channels between ridges of water ice, seen in the pictures returned from the moon.
They confirmed there is liquid methane (a carbon-based 'organic' compound) just below the surface of Titan.
The dark areas seen in the images is organic matter that settles out of the haze on to the surface of Titan. This is then washed into the drainage channels and basins that can be seen in the images.
The pattern of rainfall on Titan may be seasonal.
But Titan's methane must be constantly renewed from some source within the moon.
The European Space Agency (Esa) launched an inquiry into the loss of one of two data channels used to relay information from Huygens to Earth via the Cassini orbiter.
Scientists revealed that missing data could be recovered via a network of radio telescopes that listened for Huygens' signals as it plunged through Titan's atmosphere and settled on the surface on 14 January."
Methane rain feeds Titan's rivers
Liquid methane rain feeds river channels, lakes, streams, and springs on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan, images from the Huygens probe show.
Scientists have also recovered much data from Huygens that had been thought lost due to a communications failure.
On 14 January, the spacecraft plunged through the moon's atmosphere, sending scientific data - including stunning images - back to ground controllers.
Teams outlined new results at a press conference in Paris, France on Friday.
'We have evidence of many Earth-like processes [on Titan] such as [rain], erosion and abrasion but with very exotic materials,' said Marty Tomasko, Descent Imager Spectral Radiometer (DISR).
Mission scientists added that these processes are active today.
Fluid flowing on the surface of Titan is helping carve channels between ridges of water ice, seen in the pictures returned from the moon.
They confirmed there is liquid methane (a carbon-based 'organic' compound) just below the surface of Titan.
The dark areas seen in the images is organic matter that settles out of the haze on to the surface of Titan. This is then washed into the drainage channels and basins that can be seen in the images.
The pattern of rainfall on Titan may be seasonal.
But Titan's methane must be constantly renewed from some source within the moon.
The European Space Agency (Esa) launched an inquiry into the loss of one of two data channels used to relay information from Huygens to Earth via the Cassini orbiter.
Scientists revealed that missing data could be recovered via a network of radio telescopes that listened for Huygens' signals as it plunged through Titan's atmosphere and settled on the surface on 14 January."
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