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DonPanic

Member

From: Paris in Astrolia

Registered: 2004-02-13

Posts: 595

Website

Re: Titan

LO
Titan discoveries summary

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,431

Re: Titan

This fits in with this article on Saturn's Largest Moon Has Dramatic Weather

with freezing temperatures, carbon- and nitrogen-rich clouds and possibly lightning, scientists said Wednesday, describing a world that may have looked like Earth before life developed.

The European Space Agency's probe landed on Titan in January, uncovering some mysteries of the methane-rich globe -- the only moon in the solar system known to have a thick atmosphere. Scientists presented detailed results of months of study in the journal Nature and at a news conference in Paris.

Quite the dynamic environment for a moon...

noosfractal

Member

From: Biosphere 1

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 824

Website

Re: Titan

Early Earth haze may have spurred life, says University of Colorado study
http://www.physorg.com/news82056355.html

...
The researchers mimicked Titan's hazy skies by exposing methane gas to an ultraviolet lamp, then added carbon dioxide gas to the mix to see if conditions that were probably present on early Earth would produce a similar organic haze. "It turns out that organic haze can form over a wide range of methane and carbon dioxide concentrations," said Tolbert. "This means that hazy conditions could have been present for many millions or even a billion years on Earth while life was evolving."
...
According to the study, a similar haze hanging over Earth early in its history could have supplied more than 100 million tons of organic material to the planet's surface each year. "As these particles settled out of the skies, they would have provided a global source of food for living organisms," said Trainer.
...
In addition to serving as a source of organic material, a haze layer over Earth could have shielded living organisms from harmful UV rays and helped to regulate Earth's early climate, according to the study.
...

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Fan of [url=http://www.red-oasis.com/]Red Oasis[/url]

Mars_B4_Moon

Member

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: Titan

great youtubed video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD5JWnn66LU