Tag Archives: Titan

The Lucifer Project

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The Lucifer Project is a conspiracy theory I can not believe has eluded me for some time.  Now, it’s hard to find decent graphics to illustrate what this has mind, so you have to start with this:
jupiter from 2010

Now, the concept in 2010 was the aliens that controllled the obelisks decided Man wasn’t doing such a good job with the intelligence he had given and decided to start afresh.  They didn’t go too far away, jsut a few planets over in the same solar system.  The added mass to Jupiter which caused it to explode into a small star that not only eliminated nighttime on Earth, it provided the heat and ingredients to create life on Europa. 

All These Planets Are Yours Except Europa, Attempt No Landing There…
…Use Them Together, Use Them In peace

Man immediately disobeyed the prime directive.

So, using Arthur Clarke as their motivation, some immediately began wondering what would happen if you just simply dropped a large nuclear bomb on Jupiter.  Well, we did that in 1994.  A little cloud appeared briefly on Jupiter.  That folks, gave birth to the Lucifer Project Conspiracy.  At the end of the Galileo Jupiter probe’s mission, NASA decided to simply crash Galileo into Jupiter.  Now, some think it was to save Europa, some think it was an accident.  And, some think it was to ignite Jupiter thereby creating a new sun, killing off most of humanity, and creating a new garden of Eden for those who survived.  The people who espouse the Lucifer Project believe the non-reporting about the little dark spot on Jupiter is evidence supporting NASA’s secret mission.  And, that apparently all publicly and privately funded astronomers were in on it too.  That would make them a part of the Illuminati I suppose.

Well, since there are no more nuclear bombs destined for Jupiter any time soon, The Lucifer Project had to adjust their plan to accomodate the “end is near” philosophy that makes any conspiracy theory feel important.  The adjusted plan uses the Cassini probe igniting Saturn.  They have lots of science to support their theory.

Only one problem, Saturn doesn’t have the mass to support itself even if “lit”.  Neither does Jupiter.  That’s why Arthur Clarke was so brilliant, he adds MASS to create the ignition, not fire.

So, if Cassini does finish its life by crashing into Saturn.  Most likely, we’ll get a dark spot on Saturn for a few days and every astronomer will know why it’s there.  More likely, we won’t get anything.

But, we’ll have to wait a while.  Cassini’s mission has been extended a couple more years already.

Lake Front property on Titan for sale? ( Part II )

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Phil Platt at Bad Astronomy has turned me on to two cool things in one post.  Namely this:

To wit, there are apparently lakes on Titan.  This is very cool.  See those black blobs?  Those are the lakes.  They do kinda look like this:

See that black streak in the picture?  That’s a lake on Earth.  So, I do see what they are seeing.  This is very cool.  They have a shoreline pic as well, but it’s from about the same distance so I’m not sure what they view would be ground level.  But, I bet it’s very cool! Speaking of “they”, the cool thing #2 is who “they” are.  “They” is a blog called Planetary Society by Emily Lakdawalla.  It seems to be a toned down, just the facts kinda blog that suits me perfectly.  I’ll be keeping an eye on that one.

I’m not EVEN going to try to upstage either of them by pointing them to my post of LAKEFRONT PROPERTY ON TITAN FOR SALE of July 21. I would never do that.  I’m Republican ya see.

Enceladus

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Enceladus is a small moon of Saturn. It’s about as dead as they come. A frozen tundra more hostile than anything imagined on Earth. And, that’s what makes it beautiful. Well, when looking at it from here anyway. The icy shield makes it the most reflective object in the solar system. If it weren’t so small, you could see it from Earth. It’s a close neighbor of Titan. So close, yet so incredibly different.

Turning the switch on, Update

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A couple of weeks ago I was lamenting. Well lo and behold, we get this today:

Radio Telescopes Salvage Titan Wind Data, Huygens Scientists Say

U.S. and European researchers are lauding the effectiveness of a network of ground-based telescopes that has apparently salvaged a wind experiment feared lost during a mission to the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan.

Astronomers were able to use a global group of radio telescopes and a simple signal tone bleated by Europe’s Huygens probe during its Jan. 14 Titan landing to determine the moon’s wind characteristics.

That is pretty dang cool. I’d still like to see more pictures than what we apparently got. Titan’s a pretty funky place apparently.

Visiting Titan

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Richard Branson’s newest adventure is commercializing space travel. Right on the heels of that breakthrough, we now have:

Scientists piecing together data from Europe’s Huygens probe to Saturn’s moon Titan described the hazy satellite today as an environment in which a frequent rain of liquid methane falls through a thick smog onto hills made of water ice.

Now, that sounds a LOT more exciting than Mars. I mean, a trip to the Mojave Desert would be a lot more exciting.

Now, check this out:

Those really are rivers running into an “ocean”. Sounding really cool so far. But, there are obvious downsides:

  1. Little sunlit penetrates the dense hydrocarbon atmosphere. ( I really really like lots of sunshine ).
  2. Surface temperatures on Titan were measured at -290 degrees Fahrenheit. ( I really, really like lots of sunshine for that reason. )
  3. it had rained liquid methane recently before Huygens arrival. ( You can run a car on liquid methane. )

“We can now dream seriously of sending rovers to Titan,” said Huygens project manager Jean-Pierre Lebreton of the European Space Agency (ESA). “All we need is the money.”

Did I mention Richard Branson? Actually, I’ve got another idea. Let’s put some loose ends together and this is what you get:

  1. The world is facing a renewable energy crisis before too long.
  2. Bush is cutting federal budgets accross the board, NASA included.
  3. NASA needs money to send rovers to Titan. ( See above )
  4. SpaceshipOne is wanting commercial business.

Put it all together, and you get this natural conclusion:

Sell the rights to methane on Titan to Branson/SpaceShipTwo, let them build freighters to bring it back and they can become filthy bazillionaires while the world weens itself of dependence on Earth’s limited resources. I mean think about it in a realistic way, it’s raining gasoline on Titan.

Hey Volokh guys, do I have to patent that as a concept?

Sustainable Oil Redux

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A while back I did a piece on sustainable oil. Apparently the topic is making the rounds.

Thomas Gold was not your typical radical. Far from being a mad scientist, he was a brilliant professor of astronomy at Cornell University, but he succeeded in driving many others mad with theories that flew in the face of conventional wisdom…..

Now, a couple of decades after Gold first suggested that hydrocarbons are formed deep underground by geological processes and not just below the surface by biological decay, there is increasing evidence that he may have been on to something.

…..Gold argued that all hydrocarbons are formed in the intense pressure and high heat near the Earth’s mantle, around 100 miles under the ground. If he was right, it means the finite limits of the resources that power our cities and our factories and our vehicles have been vastly overstated.

Here’s the “current event” part:

And the evidence so far suggests that methane, at least, can be produced independent of biological materials.

How’s this for a suggestion:

One photo released Tuesday showed a large body of liquid – possibly liquid methane – jutting into what appeared to be rough, frozen terrain, with the probe appearing to be just meters (yards) from the shoreline.

That article from space.com is talking about liquid methane on Titan, a moon of Saturn. Needless to say, at this point, we are not aware of any biological materials on Titan. Furthermore:

“If it’s not a sea, it appears to be a lake of tar-like material,” said John Zarnecky, principal investigator for the Huygens’ Surface Science Package, which is taking data from the surface of Titan.

On Titan, with no known biological material, there is tar and methane, the precursors to usable oil.

I think Gold may be on to something.

Exploring Titan

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The image appears to show ravines that could have been carved by the liquid hydrocarbons thought to cover much of Titan’s surface. The ravines, stubby drainage-like channels, appeared to funnel toward what appeared to be a shoreline, researchers said during their initial reactions to the image. “If it’s not a sea, it appears to be a lake of tar-like material,” said John Zarnecky, principal investigator for the Huygens’ Surface Science Package, which is taking data from the surface of Titan.

This is very cool!

October 10, 2006 update: This isn’t new, but it’s still extremely cool. It’s a montage of pics from the Huygens’ landing to show what it would have looked like during the landing. Very cool. One of the coolest things I’ve ever seen from space!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meXU1CltyDY]