The faucet keeps running
Cassini space craft is back in the news this weeks with claims of discovering geysers that erupt spewing water. You can check out the latest images http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html
Something doesn't appear quite right with these images, for some reason the moons gravity doesn't curl any of the water vapor back to the moon. The water vapor just seems to float right out into space. I am not making any claims here. For all I know this is perhaps exactly how a geyser on Enceladus should behave. Its Just, when you look at the volcano's on Jupiters moon IO the material spewed returns to the moon (granted it is sulfurous material rather than water vapor) after being spewed 500 kilometers. It seems we are obsessed with finding water in our solar system so we can say it might have life. It was the stated purpose of sending the two rovers to mars. I am afraid we have a serious bias to discovering water. When water could have nothing to do with extra-terrestrial life.
These pictures are obviously some meaningful discovery, I am just not sure they are as simple as water geysers. But I know J.P.L. can analyze the light spectrum to get info on chemical make up, so if they say its a geyser spewing water then it must be. Just seems to float awfully far into space as if the moon has no gravity.
Anyway if you check out the Cassini web site look at some of the radar images from Titan. They show all types of different typography, from what could be oceans with shore lines to sand dunes. Some pretty cool stuff. The hazey atmosphere of Titan makes it impossible to see, but their radar images are in such high resolution that it almost looks like a photo image.
The Cassini space craft has been flying (or orbiting for better term) around the Saturn system since the middle of 2004 (launched in 1997) , and will keep on doing so for years to come.
Something doesn't appear quite right with these images, for some reason the moons gravity doesn't curl any of the water vapor back to the moon. The water vapor just seems to float right out into space. I am not making any claims here. For all I know this is perhaps exactly how a geyser on Enceladus should behave. Its Just, when you look at the volcano's on Jupiters moon IO the material spewed returns to the moon (granted it is sulfurous material rather than water vapor) after being spewed 500 kilometers. It seems we are obsessed with finding water in our solar system so we can say it might have life. It was the stated purpose of sending the two rovers to mars. I am afraid we have a serious bias to discovering water. When water could have nothing to do with extra-terrestrial life.
These pictures are obviously some meaningful discovery, I am just not sure they are as simple as water geysers. But I know J.P.L. can analyze the light spectrum to get info on chemical make up, so if they say its a geyser spewing water then it must be. Just seems to float awfully far into space as if the moon has no gravity.
Anyway if you check out the Cassini web site look at some of the radar images from Titan. They show all types of different typography, from what could be oceans with shore lines to sand dunes. Some pretty cool stuff. The hazey atmosphere of Titan makes it impossible to see, but their radar images are in such high resolution that it almost looks like a photo image.
The Cassini space craft has been flying (or orbiting for better term) around the Saturn system since the middle of 2004 (launched in 1997) , and will keep on doing so for years to come.
posted by Jim Fisher at 5:36 AM
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