Paris - New findings by the mission to Titan, reported on Wednesday by the European Space Agency (ESA), say Saturn's orange moon has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth.
This massive reserve is at least 1.2 billion kilometres away from Earth, on a tiny inhospitable world where on a warm day it's minus 179 degrees Celsius.
Methane and ethane fall like rain from the sky, forming massive lakes and seas, while complex organic molecules called tholins are believed to make up Titan's oily dunes, ESA said.
"Titan is just covered in carbon-bearing material. It's a giant factory of organic chemicals," said scientist Ralph Lorenz, a member of a team poring over radar data sent back by the US space probe Cassini, which dispatched a European probe, Huygens, to the moon's surface.
Understanding Titan's carbon-chemistry cookbook may unlock knowledge as to how Earth's carbon-based life began.
go
Full Version: Saturn moon has huge energy reserves
Oh God here we go again....another 100 years of oil for us to kill our planet with
QUOTE (Cherus @ Feb 16 2008, 12:25 PM) 
Oh God here we go again....another 100 years of oil for us to kill our planet with
Not at all. The fact that these hydrocarbons are on Saturn means that for the forseeable future they are out of our reach. It would take more fuel to collect them than you could retrieve. This makes it impracticale and uneconomic.
If we can find a way of economically returning these hydrocarbons then it is highly likely that the process that makes this economic will also have made it unnecessary.
QUOTE (Waspie_Dwarf @ Feb 16 2008, 06:48 AM)
Not at all. The fact that these hydrocarbons are on Saturn means that for the forseeable future they are out of our reach. It would take more fuel to collect them than you could retrieve. This makes it impracticale and uneconomic.
If we can find a way of economically returning these hydrocarbons then it is highly likely that the process that makes this economic will also have made it unnecessary.
If we can find a way of economically returning these hydrocarbons then it is highly likely that the process that makes this economic will also have made it unnecessary.
But it is so reassuring to know that there is a backing for my hypothesis that the moons at one time were part of the planet and the planets were part of the whole and somebody, perhaps a itchy scientist, created something that would prove once and for all that there was a big bang. And boy did he prove it! He may have had something similar to the LHC in Geneva, Switzerland that they're getting ready to spark up.
Hydrocarbons, that's life! Hydrocarbons and Methane means life that lives off methane which means we may have been the first life in this solar system. There is methane on this earth and it is explosive at high temperatures, I think.
The experiment done with life has so far produced minimal results; I think we'll go on to another planet.
QUOTE (Owlscrying @ Feb 14 2008, 05:10 AM)
Paris - New findings by the mission to Titan, reported on Wednesday by the European Space Agency (ESA), say Saturn's orange moon has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth.
This massive reserve is at least 1.2 billion kilometres away from Earth, on a tiny inhospitable world where on a warm day it's minus 179 degrees Celsius.
Methane and ethane fall like rain from the sky, forming massive lakes and seas, while complex organic molecules called tholins are believed to make up Titan's oily dunes, ESA said.
"Titan is just covered in carbon-bearing material. It's a giant factory of organic chemicals," said scientist Ralph Lorenz, a member of a team poring over radar data sent back by the US space probe Cassini, which dispatched a European probe, Huygens, to the moon's surface.
Understanding Titan's carbon-chemistry cookbook may unlock knowledge as to how Earth's carbon-based life began.
go
This massive reserve is at least 1.2 billion kilometres away from Earth, on a tiny inhospitable world where on a warm day it's minus 179 degrees Celsius.
Methane and ethane fall like rain from the sky, forming massive lakes and seas, while complex organic molecules called tholins are believed to make up Titan's oily dunes, ESA said.
"Titan is just covered in carbon-bearing material. It's a giant factory of organic chemicals," said scientist Ralph Lorenz, a member of a team poring over radar data sent back by the US space probe Cassini, which dispatched a European probe, Huygens, to the moon's surface.
Understanding Titan's carbon-chemistry cookbook may unlock knowledge as to how Earth's carbon-based life began.
go
"organic chemicals", does that = life ?
Not necesarily.
QUOTE (Cherus @ Feb 16 2008, 09:55 PM)
Oh God here we go again....another 100 years of oil for us to kill our planet with
"Hmmm"
That might be so, but they have to get to it first!
QUOTE (Rocket88 @ Feb 18 2008, 07:46 PM)
"organic chemicals", does that = life ?
Not at all. Although living beings are composed of this kind of matter.
Organic material is mostly composed of Carbon (main material), nitrogen, hidrogen, oxigen and there is another which right now I can't remember.
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.