What Causes the Bright Streaks on Saturn's Moon Titan?

[Phobos]

Just wanted to share some of the discoveries from the ongoing Cassini mission to Saturn (and in particular, Saturn's moon Titan)...

source: "Cassini Targets Titan" by Richard Talcott, Astronomy magazine Feb 2005

Radar imaged ~1% of the surface of Titan with a resolution ~ 300 m
(1) possible indication of hydrocarbon lakes...although the expected bright “glints” were not seen as would be expected from a lake surface
(2) relatively flat terrain (variations of up to 150 m)
(3) no clear sign of impact craters (i.e., indicates a young surface/geologically active surface)
(4) many bright streaks (surface features) that suggest wind effects (or it could be from migrating ice sheets or flowing liquid hydrocarbons)

No strong magnetic field was detected for Titan (may still have a weak one).

Sampled Titan's upper atmosphere and among the organic molecules detected, there was methane, benzene, & diacetylene.

Based on N-15/N-14 ratios in the upper atmosphere, it looks like Titan has lost 3/4 of its atmosphere since its formation (makes the currently dense atmosphere even more amazing).

Not many clouds detected on Titan (mainly one large cloud complex near the south pole). The clouds might not be made of methane, as was expected.

Cassini discovered up to 6 additional small moons of Saturn.

 

[Janitor]

Iapetus turns out to have a tall, narrow linear ridge running for a long way parallel to and near the equator. It's one of the stranger-looking features I have seen on a moon.

 

[s3nn0c]

I agree, an amazing feature, covered by many craters what indicates its old age. Iapetus seems to be a very mysterious moon.

 

[japam]

sounds of titan

at this site http://www.planetary.org/sounds/huygens_sounds.html there is the best collection of sounds of titan during descending and landing, more processated data comes from 18 tuesday

 

[meteor]

The Cassini spacecraft has also discoveredhttp://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6902 moving away from Saturn. The dust streams come from the A ring, it seems. Similar dust streams were discovered before emanating from Jupiter, but there was not knowledge that they were also present in Saturn


It is also interesting the speculation of some investigator that such streams could also exist in Earth

I will wait impatiently till a more complete report of the discoveries in Titan will be presented the 21 January by the scientists of the mission

 

[Akihiro]

Are those sounds of the descent of Huygen from its engines or is it air currents rushing past it?? (Weird... why would anyone be bothered with sounds anyway ... )

I wonder if Huygen detects any trace of amino acid. There's probably carbon-based life on Titan. I recall reading about one experiment which involves flashing electrical currents through an enclosed area filled with methane gas, and amino acid was produced.

 

[Garth]

Are those sounds of the descent of Huygen from its engines or is it air currents rushing past it?? (Weird... why would anyone be bothered with sounds anyway ... )

Huygens didn't have engines.

Garth

 

[wimms]

The Cassini spacecraft has also discoveredhttp://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6902 moving away from Saturn. The dust streams come from the A ring, it seems. Similar dust streams were discovered before emanating from Jupiter, but there was not knowledge that they were also present in Saturn

It is also interesting the speculation of some investigator that such streams could also exist in Earth

Is it a referring to Sprites & Jets? http://elf.gi.alaska.edu/

 

[meteor]

Is it a referring to Sprites & Jets?

I don't think so. Notice that Blue Jets are electromagnetic radiation irradiated by accelerated electrons, so they don't have any relation with dust. Sprites are caused by ions and electrons, so no dust here neither. The phenomenon called http://www-star.stanford.edu/~vlf/optical/press/elves97sciam/ that is due to the glowing of athmospheric gas, is unrelated too

 

[wimms]

Well, blue jets seem related. Why not suppose dust particles getting charged and accelerated by electric fields in the area?

"The dust particles are accelerated to speeds above 100 kilometres per second. This is because solar radiation causes some particles in the outer regions of the A ring to become positively charged. These are then accelerated outwards by electrical fields generated by the interaction of the charged particles and the planet's magnetic field."

This is what caught my attention and reminded of blue jets. Of course, I'm more likely wrong than anything, but if there is dust in the area of blue jets, why not think it will get accelerated outwards and cause dust stream?