04-09-2011, 10:29 AM
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#30 (permalink)
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The Reforms
Location: Rarely, if ever, here or there, but always in transition
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Rain on Titan - artwork by David A. Hardy.
Explanation (in full):
Quote:
It's been raining on Titan. In fact, it's likely been raining methane on Titan and that's not an April Fools' joke. The almost familiar scene depicted in this
artist's vision of the surface of Saturn's largest moon looks across an eroding landscape into a stormy sky. That scenario is consistent with seasonal rain
storms temporarily darkening Titan's surface along the moon's equatorial regions, as seen by instruments onboard the Cassini spacecraft. Of course on
frigid Titan, with surface temperatures of about -290 degrees F (-180 degrees C), the cycle of evaporation, cloud formation, and rain involves liquid
methane instead of water. Lightning could also be possible in Titan's thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere.
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+ bonus... author's comments:
I originally painted this, in acrylics, early in 2010, having seen reports of methane rain on the Cassini website. I knew that radio bursts had been detected too,
so wondered whether there actually could be lightning and asked Carolyn Porco, who said it hadn't been seen but that didn't mean there couldn't be any. Then
last week I saw the report of rainstorms on Titan [March 17, 2011 news release], so sent this image! I had to use artist's license to show Saturn through a brief gap in the clouds.
-- David A. Hardy is European Vice President of the International Association of Astronomical Artists (IAAA).
[ APOD.]
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As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves. —Mohandas K. Gandhi
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