Lost lakes of Titan are found at last


	Lost lakes of Titan are found at last

invictus

1-5-2007 9:25 AM

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tags:

space, astronomy, solar system, planets, saturn, moons, titan

invictus says:

"Indeed, as far as we know," Sotin added, "there is only one planetary body that displays more dynamism than Titan. Its name is Earth."

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/bd89b70d-a773-4a3e-8702-7af3b774c51d/45D0841E-799B-44A0-A6AF-133A30856CD3/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070103/sc_afp/spacesaturntitan_070103193516" href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070103/sc_afp/spacesaturntitan_070103193516" style="font-size: 11px;">news.yahoo.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070103/sc_afp/spacesaturntitan_070103193516"><H1>
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						<A href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/afp/brand/SIG=ofqlv2/*http://www.afp.com"><IMG width="100" height="45" border="0" alt="AFP" src="http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/nws/th/afp_lo_1.gif" /></A>
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Lost lakes of Titan are found at last 
</H1></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070103/sc_afp/spacesaturntitan_070103193516"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/news.yahoo.com/img/165F074D-F6DF-4327-B3C7-EBBCFEBF112C" alt="This image released by NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute shows Saturn's moon Titan in ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths.   Lakes of methane have been spotted on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, boosting the theory that this strange, distant world bears beguiling similarities to Earth, according to a new study.(AFP/NASA-HO/File)" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070103/sc_afp/spacesaturntitan_070103193516"><P>
PARIS (AFP) - Lakes of methane have been spotted on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, boosting the theory that this strange, distant world bears beguiling similarities to Earth, according to a new study.
</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070103/sc_afp/spacesaturntitan_070103193516"><P>
Titan has long intrigued space scientists, as it is the only moon in the Solar System to have a dense atmosphere -- and its atmosphere, like Earth's, mainly comprises nitrogen.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070103/sc_afp/spacesaturntitan_070103193516"><P>
Titan's atmosphere is also rich in methane, although the source for this vast store of hydrocarbons is unclear.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070103/sc_afp/spacesaturntitan_070103193516"><P>
Methane, on the geological scale, has a relatively limited life. A molecule of the compound lasts several tens of millions of years before it is broken up by sunlight.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070103/sc_afp/spacesaturntitan_070103193516"><P>
Given that Titan is billions of years old, the question is how this atmospheric methane gets to be renewed. Without replenishment, it should have disappeared long ago.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070103/sc_afp/spacesaturntitan_070103193516"><P>
A popular hypothesis is that it comes from a vast ocean of hydrocarbons.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/45D0841E-799B-44A0-A6AF-133A30856CD3/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>