Methane on Titan



In a previous post we have discusses scientists’ predictions on ‘if there was tide on the Titan’s surface’! The robotic explorers who are probing neighboring planets have found evidence of hidden impact craters on Mars and dynamic weather, possibly including lightning, on Saturn’s giant moon Titan, scientists reported. The smog-shrouded Titan is a frigid, dynamic world of ice carved and colored by liquid methane and organic chemicals, scientists report in a series of papers being published this week in two scientific journals.



The winds on Titan decreased at lower altitudes and dropped to walking speed at the surface, researchers informed. The Huygens spacecraft, on its descent of 2 hours 28 minutes to the minus-290-degree surface, found a surprising electrically charged ionospheric layer bearing evidence of lightning, roughly from 85 miles to 25 miles above Titan’s surface.



Via: New York Times