8 replies to this topic

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Saturn moon Iapetus' huge landslides stir intrigue

www.bbc.co.uk said:

Saturn's moon Iapetus frequently plays host to a huge type of landslide or avalanche that is rare elsewhere in the Solar System, scientists report.

Sturzstroms or "long-runout landslides" move faster and farther than geological models predict they should.

They have been seen on Earth and Mars, but there is debate about their causes.

Now, images from the Cassini space mission, reported in Nature Geoscience, suggest that heating of icy surfaces helps the landslides keep going.

Read more...

[OverSword]

I would guess that these extended slides are not caused by the same thing that they speculate causes them on Terra and Mars.  Admitedly I know nothing about this but intuition makes me think that the immense gravitational forces that the squat moon is subject to is the bigger influence than heating.  Iapetus is the moon that most fascinates me in the solar system with its strange shape, the rise that encircles it directly on its equator, the drastic difference in reflectivity that seems to make a ying and yang symbol, and if I recall nearly identical craters equadistant from each other longitudinaly.

Edited by OverSword, 01 August 2012 - 02:30 PM.

[spud the mackem]

I guess thet they travel 30 times as far there is because they have no air resistance to slow them down.

[Abramelin]

The Iapetus moon sure is an odd thing, but some are getting totally crazy about it, lol:

http://rense.com/general95/indisp.html

http://www.bibliotec...naiapetus01.htm


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Edited by Abramelin, 04 August 2012 - 08:39 AM.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Abramelin, on 04 August 2012 - 08:38 AM, said:

The Iapetus moon sure is an odd thing, but some are getting totally crazy about it, lol:

http://rense.com/general95/indisp.html

http://www.bibliotec...naiapetus01.htm


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That's a few wasted minutes of my life I'll never get back. I'm sure that total drivel must have killed a few of my brain cells.
Every time we discover something new in the universe some one makes a baseless claim that it is proof of ancient alien civilisations. All it is actually proof of is the gullibility of mankind.

[Abramelin]

Wasted minutes?

I thought it was hilarious.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Abramelin, on 04 August 2012 - 08:23 PM, said:

Wasted minutes?

I thought it was hilarious.

If I want to suffer from loss of brain cells and listening to half-baked ideas I'll go to the pub.

If I want to read crazy theories about aliens I'll go to Extraterrestrial Life forum.

I came here because I wanted to read about science and astronomy.

[Abramelin]

Must be fun to have a drink with you in the pub...

[BaneSilvermoon]

Clearly there's soul sand under the ice.