Titan

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I Was Warned in 2018: 'Do Not Get Into That Sub'
I Was Warned in 2018:
'Do Not Get Into That Sub'
longform

I Was Warned in 2018: 'Do Not Get Into That Sub'

Susan Casey shares the years of concerns she heard about OceanGate's Titan

(Newser) - "But like screaming at the screen, nothing that came out of anyone's mouth made any difference to the ending." So writes Susan Casey in her in-depth look for Vanity Fair about what happened to the Titan submersible. It's a fate, she explains, that she feared since...

In the Movement of Saturn's Biggest Moon, a Shocker

Titan is moving away from the planet 100 times faster than thought

(Newser) - Saturn's largest moon is moving away from the planet 100 times faster than thought—a finding that helps cement a new theory on how moons migrate. NASA explains why moons move at all: A moon's gravity tugs on the planet it is orbiting, "causing a temporary bulge...

Forget Mars: Humans May Live Here One Day
Forget Mars: Humans
May Live Here One Day
NEW STUDY

Forget Mars: Humans May Live Here One Day

Titan, Saturn's largest moon, has potential to be home to humans

(Newser) - Move over, Mars: Titan could be the best place for a human colony. As far as extraterrestrial bodies go, Saturn's largest moon is surprisingly like Earth, with a dense atmosphere that could shield delicate earthlings from radiation, reports New Scientist . Titan's candidacy as a settlement isn't new,...

NASA Wants to Send a Submarine to Saturn Moon

Kraken Mare is a liquid methane sea roughly the size of the Great Lakes

(Newser) - Saturn's moon Titan, which happens to be larger than the planet Mercury, is cold. Very cold. As in -290 degrees Fahrenheit is not out of the ordinary. These super low temps, combined with an atmosphere roughly 1.5 times as dense as Earth's, have resulted in a few...

Saturn Moon's 'Magic Island' Reappears, Stumps NASA

Island-like feature on one of Titan's largest hydrocarbon seas just doubled in size

(Newser) - NASA's Cassini spacecraft first spotted a mysterious island-like feature in Ligeia Mare—a large hydrocarbon sea on Titan, the largest of Saturn's moons—in July 2013. When it faded away during later imaging, some scientists dubbed it "Magic Island." Then last month radar images showed that...

'Magic Island' Spotted on Saturn Moon

Mysterious bright spot may be geological activity on Titan

(Newser) - Astronomers are feeling giddy about a flash of light on a very odd moon, phys.org reports. Radar images show that a bright object appeared briefly on Saturn's moon Titan, possible proof of geological activity on a lunar surface that boasts wind, rain, lakes, and seas (though liquid methane...

Cops Bust 4 With Looting Costa Concordia

Men were employed by company hired to salvage the wreck

(Newser) - It seems that there's no rest for the wreckage of the recently raised Costa Concordia : Italian police busted four divers employed by Titan, the group tasked with salvaging the cruiseship, and will be charging them with looting, reports Sky News . The men were spotted via CCTV on the eighth...

New Find on Moon of Saturn: Plastic

Or at least a molecule used to make it

(Newser) - Earth and Saturn now have something in common: plastic. NASA's Cassini spacecraft detected the molecule propylene on Saturn's moon Titan, and propylene is one of the basic ingredients of modern plastic here on Earth, reports the BBC . It's the first extraterrestrial plastic ingredient ever found, reports NASA'...

US CEO Tells France to Keep Its 'So-Called Workers'

They only work 3 hours a day: Titan International's Maurice Taylor

(Newser) - A US tire company boss has no interest in reconsidering his decision not to buy a French Goodyear factory that's set to close—and he's made his reasons perfectly clear. "You can keep the so-called workers," Maurice "The Grizz" Taylor of Titan International wrote to...

Scientists Want 'Space Boat' to Explore Titan's Lakes

Saturn's moon is full of lakes, rivers, seas

(Newser) - If you think the Mars rover is cool, wait until you hear this: Scientists want to send a "space boat" to explore Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The floating probe would land in one of the moon's many methane lakes and would explore its many lakes, rivers, and...

Huge Lake Found in Titan's Tropics

Discovery suggests underground channels

(Newser) - University of Arizona researchers have discovered a massive methane lake in the arid tropics of Titan, they announced today, suggesting that Saturn's biggest moon may have subterranean channels of the liquid. Titan has long been known to contain liquid methane, which forms pools, clouds, and rains much as water...

Methane Rains on Titan... Every 1K Years

Storms are rare, but they're doozies

(Newser) - Scientists think there are only two places in the solar system where liquid rains fall on solid land—the Earth and Saturn's moon Titan. But on Titan, that rain isn't water, it's methane, and it falls as little as once every 1,000 years in parts, according...

Scientists Rank Livable Worlds

Saturn moon, exoplanet top lists

(Newser) - Looking for extraterrestrials? You might want to start with Saturn’s moon Titan. Scientists have ranked it the alien world most capable of supporting life, according to a “Planetary Habitability Index,” the BBC reports. The index takes into account the planet or moon’s surface, the presence of...

'Ice Volcanoes' Spotted on Titan
'Ice Volcanoes'
Spotted on Titan

'Ice Volcanoes' Spotted on Titan

'We finally have some proof that Titan is an active world'

(Newser) - Scientists say they've seen the clearest evidence yet that volcanoes sprout from Titan's icy surface, though a probe may need to land on the Saturn moon should they want to know exactly what the "cryovolcanoes" are spewing out. Three peaks and pits spotted by the Cassini probe are "...

Scientists Think Something Is Living on Saturn Moon

Primitive lifeform may explain absence of hydrogen

(Newser) - Something is sucking up hydrogen on one of Saturn's moons and NASA scientists believe it could be alive. Data from the Cassini probe suggests there is less hydrogen and acetylene on Titan's surface than scientists expected, a phenomenon that could be explained by the existence of primitive, methane-based lifeforms, the...

Hidden Ocean Found on Saturn Moon
Hidden Ocean Found on
Saturn Moon

Hidden Ocean Found on Saturn Moon

Watery Titan and salty Mars could have evidence of life

(Newser) - NASA has unlocked two more of the solar system's secrets, the Orlando Sentinel reports. The Cassini orbiter discovered evidence of an underground ocean churning deep below the surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, and the Mars Odyssey spacecraft has found ancient salt deposits on the red planet. Both discoveries have...

Want Oil? Try Saturn's Titan
Want Oil? Try Saturn's Titan

Want Oil? Try Saturn's Titan

Moon has hundreds of times more oil and natural gas than Earth

(Newser) - Titan, one of Saturn's dozens of moons, has supplies of natural gas and liquid hydrocarbons hundreds of times greater than Earth’s oil reserves, Space.com reports. The unmanned Cassini spacecraft has mapped only 20% of Titan’s surface with radar, and has already discovered dozens of bodies of hydrocarbon...

Iraqis Fleeing to US Hindered
Iraqis Fleeing to US Hindered

Iraqis Fleeing to US Hindered

Workers' lives are in danger, but exit routes are clogged

(Newser) - Iraqis who have worked with the occupation forces, endangering their own lives, face overwhelming obstacles if they want to enter the US as refugees. Tens of thousands of locals work for contractors, but because they're not directly employed by the US government, they're not eligible for special immigration status. The...

NASA Discovers Seas On Saturn's Moon

(Newser) - NASA's radar detected evidence of huge seas—one of them larger than any of the Great Lakes—on the surface of Saturn's moon, Titan. Although the spacecraft, Cassini, cannot confirm that the dark images are liquid until passing over the area again as scheduled in May, scientists believe they are...

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