Titan may have oily oceans

Titan - Saturn's major moon - may have a surface of oily lakes or oceans, according to the latest radar research.
The giant Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico has transmitted a beam of radio waves towards Titan, and detected a faint echo over two hours later.

Analysis of the dim signal suggests the presence of craters filled with oily oceans or lakes beneath the clouds.

In January 2005 a European Space Agency probe - Huygens - will parachute on to Titan's surface to see what is there.

rest of story here:

news.bbc.co.uk...

Although it ain't proved yet it just goes to show that maybe the bigger mysteries are in our own solar system, and not beyond the stars.
On the bright side if this turns out to be true we wont have to worry when our oil eventually runs out, and it will inspire another great space age to get there.

I certainly think Titan has a lot going on that we will find out in the years to come.

Perhaps this is why we assume that ET's would come for resources.
I am ashamed that we are considering stripping another planet of its natural resources.
It is not ours to take.
We don't know if life in some form that we cannot recognise might be living there already unseen by our human eyes, undetected by OUR 5 human senses.
Shame on us.

We don't know if life in some form that we cannot recognise might be living there already unseen by our human eyes, undetected by OUR 5 human senses.
Shame on us.

quit being so dramatic


this is a great story... ive always thought Titan was hiding something from us...i cant wait to see what the probe finds

[Edited on 3-10-2003 by Creepy]

Originally posted by John Nada
On the bright side if this turns out to be true we wont have to worry when our oil eventually runs out, and it will inspire another great space age to get there.

I dont think oil like we use here, oil that has come from organic matter decomposing over millions of years. Be that as it may, I am very excited about this mission since it launched. There was a stir at the time because the ship uses radioactive material for propulsion. Cassini cost billions of dollars and is the last NASA super ship to launch since NASA began its campaign of smaller, faster and cheaper.

Hydrocarbons - methane and ethane - could form oily oceans on the surface - whose waves lap against shorelines of ice stained by hydrocarbon drizzle from the sky.

Originally posted by NephraTari
Perhaps this is why we assume that ET's would come for resources.
I am ashamed that we are considering stripping another planet of its natural resources.
It is not ours to take.
We don't know if life in some form that we cannot recognise might be living there already unseen by our human eyes, undetected by OUR 5 human senses.
Shame on us.

And what is ours to take do we have set boundaries for eveything that we cannot cross what are they?????

Can you name any other senses that we should have to detect lifeforms.