APOD: South Polar Vortex Discovered on Titan (2012 Jul 24)

[APOD Robot]

South Polar Vortex Discovered on Titan

Explanation: What's happening over the south pole of Titan? A vortex of haze appears to be forming, although no one is sure why. The above natural-color image shows the light-colored feature. The vortex was found on images taken last month when the robotic Cassini spacecraft flew by the unusual atmosphere-shrouded moon of Saturn. Cassini was only able to see the southern vortex because its orbit around Saturn was recently boosted out of the plane where the rings and moons move. Clues as to what created the enigmatic feature are accumulating, including that Titan's air appears to be sinking in the center and rising around the edges. Winter, however, is slowly descending on the south of Titan, so that the vortex, if it survives, will be plunged into darkness over the next few years.

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[bystander]

viewtopic.php?t=29064

[Beyond]

Wow! I actually made it into one of Bystander's View topics! The height of my non-Astronomical non-career I'm speechless.

[Moonlady]

Wow! I actually made it into one of Bystander's View topics! The height of my non-Astronomical non-career I'm speechless.

You are now officially "bystanded", it's the honorary accolade for Asternauts! Congrats

You may now name yourself h. b. a. Beyond

(honorary bystanded asternaut)

[orin stepanek]

There must be a lot of minnows caught in that little whirlpool 'cause the ducks are having a heyday!

[neufer]

NO_xous smog in São Paulo. (The brown coloration is due to NO_x.)

<<Smog is a type of air pollution; the word "smog" was coined in the early 20th century as a portmanteau of the words smoke and fog to refer to smoky fog. The word was then intended to refer to what was sometimes known as pea soup fog, a familiar and serious problem in London from the 19th century to the mid 20th century. This kind of smog is caused by the burning of large amounts of coal within a city; this smog contains soot particulates from smoke, sulfur dioxide and other components. Modern smog, as found for example in Los Angeles, is a type of air pollution derived from vehicular emission from internal combustion engines and industrial fumes that react in the atmosphere with sunlight to form secondary pollutants that also combine with the primary emissions to form photochemical smog. Coinage of the term "smog" is generally attributed to Dr. Henry Antoine Des Voeux in his 1905 paper, "Fog and Smoke" for a meeting of the Public Health Congress. The July 26, 1905 edition of the London newspaper Daily Graphic quoted Des Voeux, "He said it required no science to see that there was something produced in great cities which was not found in the country, and that was smoky fog, or what was known as 'smog.'" The following day the newspaper stated that "Dr. Des Voeux did a public service in coining a new word for the London fog." "Smog" also appears in a January 19, 1893, Los Angeles Times article and is attributed to "a witty English writer.">>

[FloridaMike]

Another Meterology Picture of the Day post on APOD, geez... where is the complaint department?

[neufer]

Another Meterology Picture of the Day post on APOD, geez... where is the complaint department?

The word "meteorology" is from Greek μετέωρος metéōros
"lofty; high (in the sky)" (from μετα- meta- "above" and ἐωρ
eōr "to lift up") and -λογία -logia "-(o)logy".

"Thermospheric" Tholin haze

<<In June 2012, Cassini imaged a rotating vortex on Titan's southern pole, which the imaging team believe is related to a "polar hood" - an area of dense, high altitude haze seen over the northern pole since the probe's arrival in 2004. As the hemispheres are now switching seasons since the 2009 equinox, with the southern pole entering winter and the north entering summer, it is hypothesised that this vortex could mark the formation of a new, southern polar hood.

"VIMS has seen a concentration of aerosols forming about 300 kilometers above the surface of Titan's south pole," said Christophe Sotin, a VIMS team member at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We've never seen aerosols here at this level before, so we know this is something new.">>

[RogerRabt]

Ok... can't resist memes...
"Braaaiiiins"
"Winter is coming." to Southern Titan.

[Guest]

Im wondering if what we are seeing there is actually a hole in the cloud deck and perhaps a glimpse of what is underneath?

[neufer]

Im wondering if what we are seeing there is actually a hole in the cloud deck and perhaps a glimpse of what is underneath?

No.

[500pesos]

That's an awesome picture. I feel so lucky that I live in an era that human technology lets us glimpse such wonders from gazillion miles away.
I still regret though that the Huygens probe wasn't programmed to survive a bit longer than just the descent to Titan. After a voyage that took years and years they could have equipped it at least with a system to send us more photos of the surroundings where it landed for a few months or even weeks... I'm a sad panda about that