The European robot lab Huygens found liquid methane on the Saturn satellite Titan, a chemical that seems to have shaped the moon's peculiar landscape and weather system, scientists said Friday in their first detailed assessment of the probe's mission.
"We've got a flammable world. It's quite extraordinary," said University of Honolulu researcher Toby Owen, referring to methane's combustibility with air on Earth.
"There is liquid on Titan. It has been raining not long ago, there is liquid methane," said Jean-Pierre Lebreton, director of the Huygens mission at the European Space Agency (ESA).
"There are truly remarkable processes at work on Titan's surface," he said.
US researcher Marty Tomasko of the University of Arizona said the data sent back by Huygens showed "many familiar earthlike processes: abrasion, erosion, precipitation."
"On the place where we landed, it had been raining not long ago, maybe two days ago," Tomasko said at a presentation to the press at ESA headquarters in Paris.
The rain -- not water but liquid methane, which is toxic to humans -- causes soil to run down from the hills and forms the rivulets and gullies that were visible in the raw images of Titan, shown to the world last week.
Huygens, a 319kg craft fitted with cameras, atmospheric sensors and gas analyzers, landed on Titan on Jan. 14, sending back data to a US mothership, Cassini.
Titan, the largest satellite of Saturn, was chosen as, intriguingly, it is the only moon in the solar system that has a substantial atmosphere.
Its thick mix of nitrogen and methane is suspected to be undergoing chemical reactions similar to those that unfolded on Earth billions of years ago. That process eventually provided the conditions for life on our planet.
Trinidad and Tobago declared a new state of emergency on Friday after authorities accused a criminal network operating in prisons across the country of plotting to kill key government officials and attack public institutions. It is the second state of emergency to be declared in the twin-island republic in a matter of months. In December last year, authorities took similar action, citing concerns about gang violence. That state of emergency lasted until mid-April. Police said that smuggled cellphones enabled those involved in the plot to exchange encrypted messages. Months of intelligence gathering led investigators to believe the targets included senior police officers,
FOREST SITE: A rescue helicopter spotted the burning fuselage of the plane in a forested area, with rescue personnel saying they saw no evidence of survivors A passenger plane carrying nearly 50 people crashed yesterday in a remote spot in Russia’s far eastern region of Amur, with no immediate signs of survivors, authorities said. The aircraft, a twin-propeller Antonov-24 operated by Angara Airlines, was headed to the town of Tynda from the city of Blagoveshchensk when it disappeared from radar at about 1pm. A rescue helicopter later spotted the burning fuselage of the plane on a forested mountain slope about 16km from Tynda. Videos published by Russian investigators showed what appeared to be columns of smoke billowing from the wreckage of the plane in a dense, forested area. Rescuers in
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr is to meet US President Donald Trump this week, hoping Manila’s status as a key Asian ally would secure a more favorable trade deal before the deadline on Friday next week. Marcos would be the first Southeast Asian leader to meet Trump in his second term. Trump has already struck trade deals with two of Manila’s regional partners, Vietnam and Indonesia, driving tough bargains in trade talks even with close allies that Washington needs to keep onside in its strategic rivalry with China. “I expect our discussions to focus on security and defense, of course, but also
RSS