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Mysterious object in Titan Lake
Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 7:07 pm
by BMAONE23
An un-as-yet-identified object has been seen in images of one of Titan's lakes
Astronomers have named the blob the "magic island" until they have a better idea what they are looking at. "We can't be sure what it is yet because we only have the one image, but it's not something you would normally see on Titan," said Jason Hofgartner, a planetary scientist at Cornell University in New York. "It is not something that has been there permanently."
More at The Guardian
Re: Mysterious object in Titan Lake
Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 9:29 pm
by orin stepanek
Notice the difference in lighting? I think it is submerged land that only shows up when the light hits it right! The lake is probably fairly shallow! IMHO!
Re: Mysterious object in Titan Lake
Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 10:20 pm
by geckzilla
Not sure I follow your reasoning, orin, but it's a fascinatingly dynamic moon for sure.
Re: Mysterious object in Titan Lake
Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2014 1:55 am
by neufer
http://www.universetoday.com/112768/ghost-object-appears-disappears-on-titan/#more-112768 wrote:
Among the explanations from the [Cassini] team are:
- 1) Northern hemisphere winds may be kicking up and forming waves on Ligeia Mare. The radar imaging system might see the waves as a kind of “ghost” island. Scientists previously have seen what they think are waves in another nearby Titan sea, Punga Mare.
2) Gases may push out from the sea floor of Ligeia Mare, rising to the surface as bubbles.
3) Sunken solids formed by a wintry freeze could become buoyant with the onset of the late Titan spring warmer temperatures.
4) Suspended solids in Ligeia Mare, which are neither sunken nor floating, but act like silt in a terrestrial delta.
Re: Mysterious object in Titan Lake
Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2014 4:58 pm
by BMAONE23
Another possibility might be the methane cycle. As the liquid Methane of the lake evaporates, the lake level drops and exposes a small islet. This methane is then rained down upon the surrounding area and runs off into the lake submersing the islet again. It could be a seasonal feature
Re: Mysterious object in Titan Lake
Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 4:46 pm
by Viperone
I would expect a fantastic tides due to Jupiters immense gravity.
Re: Mysterious object in Titan Lake
Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 4:51 pm
by geckzilla
Titan is a satellite of Saturn.
Re: Mysterious object in Titan Lake
Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 5:38 pm
by neufer
geckzilla wrote:Viperone wrote:
I would expect a fantastic tides due to Jupiters immense gravity.
Titan is a satellite of Saturn.
Titan has a tiny eccentricity (0.0288) and is tidally locked with Saturn.
Therefore, Titan only experiences about the same sort of periodic tidal forces that the Moon induces upon the Earth.
(Besides... we are just talking about lakes in Titan's polar regions.)
Re: Mysterious object in Titan Lake
Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 2:24 am
by BMAONE23
Looking again at the images, I note other changes visible in the smaller land mass on the left of the images. It also appears to have increased land space where the lake darkness once was
Re: Mysterious object in Titan Lake
Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 5:44 pm
by rstevenson
The angle of incidence of the light is different too, which may be enough to explain the appearance of the "island."
Rob
