APOD: Northern Summer on Titan (2017 Jun 22)

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APOD: Northern Summer on Titan (2017 Jun 22)

Post by APOD Robot » Thu Jun 22, 2017 4:07 am

Image Northern Summer on Titan

Explanation: While yesterday's solstice brought summer to planet Earth's northern hemisphere, a northern summer solstice arrived for ringed planet Saturn nearly a month ago on May 24. Following the Saturnian seasons, its large moon Titan was captured in this Cassini spacecraft image from June 9. The near-infrared view finds bright methane clouds drifting through Titan's northern summer skies as seen from a distance of about 507,000 kilometers. Below Titan's clouds, dark hydrocarbon lakes sprawl near the large moon's now illuminated north pole.

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Re: APOD: Northern Summer on Titan (2017 Jun 22)

Post by distefanom » Thu Jun 22, 2017 10:57 am

I wonder what would be to stand aside those shores or to sail in a methane ocean....
Are there seawaves-like under the (methane?) wind, see franking of the methane seawaves?
Would methane evaporate partially when slams on the rocks?
would you be surprised if founding some kind of living being floating in there?

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Re: APOD: Northern Summer on Titan (2017 Jun 22)

Post by neufer » Thu Jun 22, 2017 11:50 am

distefanom wrote:
I wonder what would be to stand aside those shores or to sail in a methane ocean....
I remember going to summer camp (Camp Pocomoonshine) on the shores of Lake Champlain back in 1957. They had wonderfully dark skies from which I got to observe the beautiful Comet Mrkos. Lake Champlain is quite similar to the lakes on Titan except that the swimming in Lake Champlain was much colder :brr: .
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Re: APOD: Northern Summer on Titan (2017 Jun 22)

Post by Devil Particle » Thu Jun 22, 2017 12:08 pm

When does summer begin on the Earth's moon?

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Re: APOD: Northern Summer on Titan (2017 Jun 22)

Post by neufer » Thu Jun 22, 2017 12:28 pm

Devil Particle wrote:
When does summer begin on the Earth's moon?
The angle between the ecliptic and the lunar equator is always just 1.543° so the Moon doesn't really have much in the way of seasons.
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Re: APOD: Northern Summer on Titan (2017 Jun 22)

Post by Guest » Thu Jun 22, 2017 12:36 pm

Is that bright ring an Aurora?

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Re: APOD: Northern Summer on Titan (2017 Jun 22)

Post by Chris Peterson » Thu Jun 22, 2017 1:01 pm

Guest wrote:Is that bright ring an Aurora?
An aurora wouldn't be visible in a daylight, near-IR image. Just methane clouds. Also, as Titan doesn't have much of a magnetic field, it shouldn't be possible to have auroras in the usual sense. Instead, you might have diffuse, whole hemisphere glows, but they'd be difficult to detect.
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Re: APOD: Northern Summer on Titan (2017 Jun 22)

Post by Guest » Thu Jun 22, 2017 1:29 pm

Ok, so any guess at what the bright arc is?

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Re: APOD: Northern Summer on Titan (2017 Jun 22)

Post by Chris Peterson » Thu Jun 22, 2017 1:34 pm

Guest wrote:Ok, so any guess at what the bright arc is?
As noted, methane clouds.
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Re: APOD: Northern Summer on Titan (2017 Jun 22)

Post by MarkBour » Thu Jun 22, 2017 11:58 pm

distefanom wrote: I wonder what would be to stand aside those shores or to sail in a methane ocean....
This article also wonders, and provides a few relevant, fun facts: https://futurism.com/a-day-swimming-in- ... -of-titan/
neufer wrote:I remember going to summer camp (Camp Pocomoonshine) on the shores of Lake Champlain back in 1957. They had wonderfully dark skies from which I got to observe the beautiful Comet Mrkos. Lake Champlain is quite similar to the lakes on Titan except that the swimming in Lake Champlain was much colder :brr: .
Must have been a bad year, if the water was colder than -178C . :-)
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Re: APOD: Northern Summer on Titan (2017 Jun 22)

Post by Boomer12k » Fri Jun 23, 2017 1:43 am

Well.... on the surface, it sounds romantic... BUT....I will take OUR Summer, and hot dogs, and picnics... etc.... :D

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Re: APOD: Northern Summer on Titan (2017 Jun 22)

Post by distefanom » Mon Jun 26, 2017 8:42 pm

Many Thanks MarkBour : I loved alot to read those funny facts about titan....
BTW, I wonder if wouldn't be interesting to "recreate" other planet's environement in kinda "sandbox" here on earth, where from the outside scientists could directly "see" how the enviorenemt reacts to certain stimuli, like i.e. try to directly "see" if liquid methane at those freezing temperature could really "carve" terrain as we imagine and how or "see" the Methane rain in reality.
In general, I think scientists should "pay" some time in relevant simulations in REAL chambers (sandboxes) where to check if certain experiments have a true significance or not.
Lurking on the net, I've found some (little) temptatives, but almost all of them have the size of a bin or a shoebox.
I think a LIFESIZE sandbox, would give interesting info's right before actual getting there.

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