Mystery object in lake on Saturn's moon Titan intrigues scientists

a reply to: TerryMcGuire


LOL! Love Kurt Vonnegut, and I read that book twenty years ago. It is the reason why I got caught up on a very controversial topic here on ATS. Let's not mention it.
So, going back on topic. Cassini also picked up on ripples/waves on Titan.

Cassini Spies Wind-Rippled Waves on Titan

So it goes...

originally posted by: intrptr

originally posted by: PrinceRupertsDog
a reply to: intrptr

I would think it has something to do with the lack of water.

Wait a second, if comets have water ice which contains oxygen, can't an impact cloud spark a wider conflagration?

Water molecules contain oxygen, but you can't burn things in water. The oxygen is bound and not available for combustion.

In effect, that oxygen has already "burnt" the hydrogen, and water is the combustion product or "ash" left behind.

That's just Godzilla's mother. Nothing to worry about, she hasn't flown in thousands of years.

a reply to: rickymouse


Thank you for chiming in. But can you provide any scientific reason as to how this happened? I didn't really like the latest Godzilla movie by the way.

a reply to: Kratos40

Evolution, naturally.

Very interesting post, thank you all.
Better type a second line, no idea what to type though.

obviously different lighting conditions in two pics. The object could have faded in to the shadow.

Also, could be a "floating" island that just...moved away.

It is interesting...but I doubt it's anything too mysterious.

a reply to: Kratos40
I am not a physicist, but I believe the process of sublimation is where a solid changes directly into a gas without turning into a liquid.
Wikipedia: Sublimation

Just to point out - this is not a photo, it's a radar image. Radar picks things up differently from a camera.

For an imaging radar, the returning waves are used to create an image. When the radio waves reflect off objects, this will make some changes in the radio waves and can provide data about the objects, including how far the waves traveled and what kind of objects they encountered.

en.wikipedia.org...

I find it a bit confusing myself, but from what I've read, the brightness and appearance of an object or a surface in a radar image signifies how smooth or rugged it is. Which, for this particular image, may mean a disturbance on the surface of the lake, like bubbles, waves, or indeed some debris floating there.

Fun fact: on Titan, water acts like rock on Earth (hard surface, mountains, boulders, sand.) and methane acts like water on Earth (clouds, rain, snow, rivers, lakes, etc.)

P.S. more explanation here: southport.jpl.nasa.gov...

Radar images are composed of many dots, or picture elements. Each pixel (picture element) in the radar image represents the radar backscatter for that area on the ground: darker areas in the image represent low backscatter, brighter areas represent high backscatter. Bright features mean that a large fraction of the radar energy was reflected back to the radar, while dark features imply that very little energy was reflected.

The backscatter is often related to the size of an object, with objects approximately the size of the wavelength (or larger) appearing bright (i.e. rough) and objects smaller than the wavelength appearing dark (i.e. smooth).

A useful rule-of-thumb in analyzing radar images is that the higher or brighter the backscatter on the image, the rougher the surface being imaged. Flat surfaces that reflect little or no microwave energy back towards the radar will always appear dark in radar images.

I think that after looking at other the pics that all that has happened is that the island was a low lying bit of geology and the level of the lake has risen and covered the bit that disappeared._javascript:icon('')

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

Ahhh, old sic fi from the land before space time.

I hear a sirens call.

originally posted by: PrinceRupertsDog
a reply to: Kratos40

Add some lower-than-earth gravity and tidal forces from Saturn too.

I think this explains it the best. Tidal forces from Saturn have to be amazing and as the tide goes out, more and more land appears. Notice the island on the bottom left. More land mass is appearing at the same time. Granted, we more then likely would not see much of tidal forces as we have nothing to image while these forces are at their height but as the moon rotates and those tidal forces recede, we could see this, I'd imagine.

originally posted by: Kratos40
a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

It could very well be a gigantic iceberg of H2O/N2/CO2 that just crept up and then sunk down. Here on Earth we've had chunks of ice come off the Antartic ice shelf bigger than this.

Agreed. When I saw the photo, I thought that an underwater iceberg had "calved" and bobbed to the surface.

This picture (Titan surface) intrigues me. That weird tube formation to the left that makes a perfect angle.. "L" very weird..

a reply to: Kratos40

To me it looks like an insane tide. You can see more land appear in the island on the bottom left as well as just below the newly visible island. I am guessing once they figure out the high and low tides caused by Saturn they will better understand what they are seeing.

Edit: Looks like others beat me to it, but it makes the most sense to me.

Maybe this lake isn't as frozen as they think it is? The lake is bound by tidal forces. It would be the only explanation, I would think.

originally posted by: Kratos40
a reply to: rickymouse


Thank you for chiming in. But can you provide any scientific reason as to how this happened? I didn't really like the latest Godzilla movie by the way.

I guess Godzilla's mother just got too old to fly, is that scientific enough.

It must be noted that the "island" disappeared again, so it must be some kind of transient phenomenon. Since Titan is nearing a warmer period, it might have been something that got detached from the bottom of the lake and then melted.

Here's the science paper, if anyone's interested: www.nature.com...

article linked by: Kratos40
The atmosphere is so thick, and the gravity so weak, that a human could strap on wings and flap into the air. That air is laced with lethal hydrogen cyanide.

Just noticed that from the article in the original post. Awesome!

originally posted by: PrinceRupertsDog
a reply to: intrptr.

Off the subject, Google FOOF if you're interested in very scary explostions at very cold temperatures.

what the hell man it just came up with something about sniffing bicycle seats!? :-/