Tuesday, Titan puts us in a trance with its mesmerizing Earth-like resemblances.
ＴＩＴＡＮ Iceberg Image Credit: Ron Miller
Today we tour sites on Titan that look strangely familiar. Scientists were astonished by these discoveries, not because they were strange but because they resembled a world like ours.
Both Cassini and Huygens' collective efforts revealed a moon of lakes, mountains, seas, rivers, dust storms and (surprise!) dunes. While these features are familiar, the materials from which they are made are not.
The following excerpt feasts upon Titan's mirror-like resemblance to Earth and explores how rain fills Titan's lakes and seas. However, methane and ethane form Titan's hydrological cycle, not water, and with Titan's frigid climate, this turns into liquid.
Brief but powerful monsoons of liquid methane may lash parts of Saturn's giant moon Titan every few hundred years, suggested by new calculations based on observations with the Cassini spacecraft.
ＴＩＴＡＮ Methane River Image Credit: Ron Miller
Astronomers also think they have observed thunderstorms that form and rain down on the moon. So, with all these dramatic weather conditions, it had to be painted into Titan's symphonic canvas.
And here is how music conjures such stormy scenes:
Background Image Credit: Ron Miller "Methane Monsoon"
Music begins moody to evoke the looming storm developing in the distance over icy mountain terrain. Clouds slowly build and gather where thunder erupts and cracks open Titanian skies with a magnificent outburst of a methane monsoon.
The orchestra too erupts, mimicking the drama with horn rips, cymbal crashes, and gong scrapes to reflect the climax of a methane monsoon. From drama drenched skies, the music eventually turns to delight as we celebrate the illumination of Titan.
We say goodbye to the days when Titan was once a world of helpless haze and celebrate the Earth-like wonders thanks to the glorious achievements of space companions Cassini and Huygens.
III - Titan Methane Monsoons- excerp
ＴＩＴＡＮ - Lake Ligeia Movie Credit: Ed Bell
ＴＩＴＡＮ Infogragh : Credit Ralph Lorenz
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