I hope the Titan explorer has a digital video camera. I want to see flowing methane rivers, dunes forming from hydrocarbon particles, and waves lapping at shores.
Distance data would have to travel makes it impossible, dont forget it seems longer when just taking a mile from Earth and time speeds up, Mars aleeady causes issues that Titan would be just shxt for any video and the Clouds are pretty thick so a signal would struggle some, not a problem like underground.
There is this thing named 'data transfer rate' ontop of a 5 hour signal distance. While our data processing capabillities have significally improved, the data density of our space network has stayed pretty much the same. Things are about to change. Laser communication technology has absolved the test phase and is now being installed for general useage.
For me it's the atmosphere, surface liquid and weather. Only three terrestrial bodies in the solar system have an appreciable atmosphere (Earth, Venus and Titan) and only two have liquid on the surface (Earth and Titan). So that just makes Titan super cool in my opinion. (You might have guessed it's also my favorite moon).
Fantastic. Thank you Anton. I am celebrating my 70th trip around the Sun. It has been a great ride. The only thing that saddens me is knowing I won't be here for the next mission to Titan, Pluto and so on. I urge all of you, especially young people let your representatives know how much you care about learning and exploiting our Solar System. Be the squeaky wheel! :) And remember, “The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.” ― Carl Sagan
As someone who hasn’t even made two dozen trips around the sun, I can assure you that I plan to live as long as possible if only to see how far we’ll reach. And hey, never say never.
I’m amazed at the depth of your knowledge about Titan. It sounds like a very cool place to visit, especially with a place called Zanadu! Thanks for the great update.
Thanks again for yet another excellent vid. Interesting moon for all of us to focus on. Maybe one day this will be a vintage vid that people will watch for a throw back while working on mining colony.
Titan's atmosphere and mass pose a unique challenge to rocketry. Titan's atmosphere is ~1.4x Earth's at sea level, whilst its gravity is only ~0.14 of Earth's. It's atmosphere is also super thick, distance wise, as the gravity that holds it is so low, whilst the surface barometric pressure is so high. A rocket leaving TItan's surface would need to travel slowly, to start (due to atmospheric friction), and would not require much propulsion. Atmospheric drag would play a heavier role than gravity in resistance, so the Max Q threshold would need to be ridden most of the way up. Horizontal speed would need to increase relative to the decrease in barometric pressure, and escape velocity would be super low. It introduces a whole other foundation of constants to the science of transport.
Yeah, but we also have to take in consideration that titan is the perfect place for winged flight and baloons. Althrough it's atmosphere is 4x denser than earths, the fact that it has such a low gravity-even a bit lower than our own moon- makes it have only about 1.5x pressure at ground in relation to our own sea level pressure. Don't forget, if a human streaped wings in its arms it could probably fly in titan. Yeah, that's how easy winged flight should be in titan. Imagine spacex starship landing on it... to not use the sustentation from wings would be a sin lol. Other option is to use high altitude ballons. If this can be used in earth, imagine in titan. With such low gravity and almost no winds would be a great place for zapellins also, and since it's atmosphere doesn't have oxygen, you could use hydrogen withouth fear of an explosion. I would love to see an air breathing engine made to titan. The "fuel" would be oxygen, while the nitrogen/methane atmosphere would provide the methane to be mixed up 😂 But yeah, Max Q would be very high up. Could be like 200-300 km high. Titans atmosphere acording to google goes up at least 600km.
@@leuk2389Maybe an electric propellor system for the dense low altitudes. Once it's cleared the really dense parts it can stow those blades and then switch to a Methane Powered Jet Engine System fueled with onboard oxidizer. That will get it going high and fast enough to then switch to a ram-jet or something to start approaching sub-orbital velocities. Then all that's needed is a final tihy kick from rocket stage to achieve orbit.
I remember originally hearing about the landing on Titan with Cassini Huygens mission. I was in like 6th grade and my brother who is a few years older than me was trying to explain to me the methane Lakes. Basically he said if you took fart gas and turned it into a liquid and then had big lakes of it
That's the only other place in the solar system where you wouldn't have to wear a pressure suit. You'd need air and insulation, but the pressure is just a little higher than on Earth.
There may be more water than methane below the methane on Titan... I'm just saying a bit of electrolysis to free up oxygen for combustion of the methane and... you might not even need the insulation... you would have an ocean of fire creating atmosphere in record time. Just sayin.
@@attemptedunkindness3632 I like that you said "a bit" of electrolysis lol. Just a smidge. Has anyone done any back-of-the-napkin math to determine just how much energy you'd have to provide, I wonder?
597 billion volt 810 thousand Amp rapid plasma blasts 3 million per second for 17 thousand years at a cost off 12 billion a day and job will be done...
With a name like Kraken Mare I was hoping for another explanation for the disappearing islands. Ah, well... The solution they came up with amazing too.
I don't mean to overlook our own, but Titan has by far been my favourite moon of the entire solar system since I was like 5 lmao I'm super hyped for this stuff Hopefully we won't end up turning the whole moon into one giant oil refinery tho...
@@oberonpanopticon On the bright side, exhausting the products of traditional fuel combustion into space isn't problematic in the way it is on Earth. People were wrong when they thought the ocean or the atmosphere was too big to pollute. But in the case of space, they'd be correct. You could burn the entire mass of Titan into space and not hurt anything (other than Titan). But yeah, hopefully we find something more advanced instead, I agree regardless.
At the time humanity can do anything more than photograph Titan we won't be using oil for anything but extraxting chemicals (if we don't find a better way to synthesize chemicals by that time)
Snow acts freaky here on Earth, if the snow is 16 degrees or colder & you walk on it you will hear the snowflake crystals making a squeaking sound because the pressure of your weight walking on it wasn't enough to melt the snow, this is why you will not get the squeak when the snows temp is above 16 degrees. And if you having the right clothing & just happen to be at a Alpine Skiing Resort, you are in for one of the best days skiing, doubly so if you have fresh powder on the mountain. The powder snow will stay powder after people ski on it, & it being 10 degrees colder than most people have the clothing to wear to enjoy the resort, you will have a very empty slopes, along with no wait at the lifts. If you Ski or Snowboard the trick is do not buy a coat or a jacket, buy shells, for your upper & lower body, all they will do is block the wind & keep the snow off you, you just need to put on the right layers under your shells to keep you warm. And as a long time alpine glade skier, if you keep your hand & feet dry they will stay warm, & how do you keep your skin dry you stop them from sweating. Try this, after your morning shower towel dry your feet & hands thoroughly while sitting on your bed spray your feet & hands with antiperspirant, then lay back & watch the weather report for 5 mintues so the spray can completely dry. Then you put on your silk and/or wool socks on, & yes 100% they need to be either silk or wool. There are the ONLY TWO clothing materials on the Earth that will still keep you warm when wet or even a little damp, no other cloth can do this especially anything man-made. I just wear wool socks, but a lot of people get rashes from wool & they'll layer silk between the wool socks. If you fell thru the ice on a lake & got out, you'd be better off stripping completely nude to lose less body heat UNLESS you are wearing layers of silk and/or wool, this is the only time you'd be better off wearing the soaking wet clothing, they will STILL keep you warmer where everything else would strip your body heat away. ...and IMHO wool blankets are amazing, they are the OG, they'll keeps you warm w/o you waking up in a puddle of your own sweat in the morning. btw most bed comforters are filled with puffed polyester wrapped in a polyester shell, you might as well be sleeping with a plastic trash bag wrapped around you, hence waking up in the puddle of sweat. If any of your wool items have other materials mixed in go for the blend with the least amount of man made polyester products, a tiny bit of spandex I think it is will help the socks keep their shape and last I hell of a lot longer. And a little bit of cotton isn't bad for comfort because it's soft softer than the wool, but the higher the wool content more of the benefit you will get from it being wool. ...took a pill to help me sleep, been waiting for it to kick in, it has ...hope what I wrote makes sense, good night.
@@CandideSchmylesThey genuinely do have some striking similarities though. Both have an atmosphere of mostly nitrogen, and Titan is in fact the only place in the solar system apart from earth that has a full weather cycle, complete with rivers, lakes, and in general a landscape carved through liquid erosion
maybe there's a layer on the surface where the ice is very fluffy/low density like hairs or dust or fluffy snow. could be sharp or hazardous like quicksand and heavy things might crush right through it. some things like asbestos are hazardous because of the shape/consistency it's formed into.
1 thing we must keep in mind about the methane lakes (if those lakes are teuly methanes): methane ice is DENSER than methane liquid. That means it sinks instead of floating like water ice. So what it also means is that those lakes are probably quite shallow and rapidly become slushy when goind down a little. That can partly explain their flat, waveless surface.
Anton, you really are awesome for all of us science nerds. It's so great to get fun random scientific facts on such a regular basis. You really are awesome ☝️😎👍
I can't wait to see some awesome footage from the surface of titan. I wish I was younger. Hope I live long enough to experience being on these moons like we have with mars.
I love the way your answers lead us to more questions! Are there fires on Titan? Is there oxygen or something else that could support combustion? Or other sudden chemical energy changes?
First time viewer and new subscriber. I love your channel! I remember waiting for launch and subsequent arrival of Horizons mission. I hope we all make it to see Dragonfly open a new chapter in cosmic exploration!
Ooids grow through the addition of concentric layers of calcium carbonate. The concentric layers can form because ooids gently slosh back and forth in warm, carbonate-saturated tidal environments. They require the liquid medium. Are you suggesting Titan's ooid-like grains might form in the methane lakes?
I love all of your videos, Anton. You are amazing. Side note, you have some kind of a hair or a scratch on your camera, when you are in front of Saturn it shows when your face is in frame but not when you aren't.
13:27 got me thinking about a Solar System where each world has manufacturing for a specific product. "This shipment of plastic came in this morning, from Titan".
You can tell how dense the atmosphere is in those initial shots from behind where the light makes the edges of the planet look so fuzzy. It’s because it’s reflecting so much light because of the density of particles, right?
This is intriguing! Oh before I forget. I think my countrys ( Norway )one band TNT have a music track named " So far away ", the lyrics are about the moon Titan afaI remember 😁 I think they made that track around the time of the Titan exploration vessels, Cassini? checked its atmosphere 🤔 As a tribute
The way you described the formation of that "organic sand" basically formed an entire sci fi theory of abiogenesis in my head. If chemicals such as but not necessarily amino acids were captured at the heart of the formation with enough regularity, one could imagine replication occurring inside if it can filter feed and breathe through cracks in the sand, and eventually it bursts, mixing genetic material with nearby other sand grains, more successful combinations naturally becoming central to another microscopic grain. That would select for ones that can breathe and feed better, and form their own sand cell quickly and efficiently, and have better "sex", maybe leading to gametes etc, better selection methods. It's also occurred to me how soft currents at the bottom of an early earth lake could cause disturbances enough for cells to form a bit like that from rolling in sand, which would then select for a lipid layer and the ability to float. That could work here.
There's a speculation out there that abiogenesis on Earth started out as hydrocarbon crystals that themselves are self-replicating (as crystals tend to be), which does provide a very plausible bootstrap to getting enough basic amino acids in the system to get us to RNA world. So, yeah! You might be on to something here.
So interesting! Can't wait for the mission! However, the most interesting object in the solar system is the sun (except if there is a black hole beyond Pluto), and 2nd is Jupiter.
Best intro in a while yes it is potentially the coolest so very very fascinating. Lets strap in and see what they find. If anyone's knew here it's the best place around, comprehensive reports
A mission to Titan has always been an exciting prospect to me, but I wonder if by doing so we might contaminate the surface. I know we have already sent a probe. I only say this because of the similarities of Titan and primordial Earth. Just my opinion!
Contamination is a potential issue with every interplanetary mission, but somebody’s gonna send something everywhere someday, so we might as well make sure that it’s sterilized.
-180C??? That's nothing, I live in Edmonton. Question? If you were to walk on the methane "sand," would you be more or less likely to sink than snow on earth? Would snow shoes help? How would the lower gravity impact this?
Titan may become the gasoline station for coming missions to the outer soloar system. These new missions may explore the Kuiper Belt for instance and go back to Titan to renew their fuel reserves. So they may be in the region outside the orbit ofJupiter for decades or longer.
I hate it when my attention is caught by a great expedition is planned like this one to Titan won’t come to fruition for ten years in the future! I want it Now!
No doubt Titan is as lifeless as I suspect the rest of the universe will prove to be... but: If it's not it raises some intriguing possibilities. 'Cold life' on the surface, and 'life as we now it' in Titan's subsurface water ocean? So maybe a single body hosting *two* wholly independent geneses? If so and there is a universal principle here, what might Earth host in it's mantle? Following this line of thought, could the universe be host to a whole hierarchy of life stratified by temperature?
AFAIK those are organic molecules that form in the atmosphere. The methane gets broken up by UV radiation an then the components combine into larger hydrocarbon molecules. Those can stick together and fall down as flakes and then form those "sand grains" on the ground.
Very interesting video about the most interesting moon in the solar system. It's amazing what scientists have been able to deduce from the data of a mission long dead and the implications these conclusions may have for future travel to this world. These conclusions may have to be revised due to the extended length of seasons on Titan, but I'm sure we're far enough along in the study of Titan to be able to find any workarounds new knowledge may require.
I once heard titan's atmosphere is so thick, humans could potentially fly with their own power if wearing a suit with artificial wings. No idea how true that is, but would be so cool if you could
I would expect they could avoid a lot of this buildup of methane ice by adding methanotrophic coatings to the surface of the copter. Recent studies have been done at ambient temperatures and pressures, but expanding those parameters to Titan's atmospheric conditions should result in some good findings. The other simple solution would be to heat the skin of the copter and propellers. It doesn't take much to melt methane ice, and the waste heat of the systems could be used for this purpose.
I love seeing the patreon names at the end of each video. The list keeps getting longer 😊 plus it gives me time to look at the comments without getting distracted
Titan must smell pretty bad, if it has that many hydrocarbons!working at the plastic plant would be unpleasant, if not poisonnous! Thanks or the Titan update, wonderful Anton!
Dude, u rock. This video was cool! I never knew how similar Titan was to Earth with the methane cycle and all. Friggin awesome. Could we use methane for rocket fuel and make Titan an interplanetary gas station?
Yes, but we’d need to find a way to get oxygen to burn it with. And hopefully by the time we have the technology and infrastructure to get to titan we’ll be beyond chemical propulsion.
Question; Why do those "magic islands" on moon Titan, and the mountains on Pluto move around.(in different directions? Do they just walk away or burrow under ground?
I have a feeling that Titan was another (smaller) gas giant in our solar system that was captured by Jupiter, and what we're looking at is the core after Jupiter leached the bulk of the atmosphere.
I wonder if it's possible to make "ice sand" with safe chemicals that you can use to fill an ice cooler and get better contact with your drink bottles.
I hope the Titan explorer has a digital video camera. I want to see flowing methane rivers, dunes forming from hydrocarbon particles, and waves lapping at shores.
Distance data would have to travel makes it impossible, dont forget it seems longer when just taking a mile from Earth and time speeds up, Mars aleeady causes issues that Titan would be just shxt for any video and the Clouds are pretty thick so a signal would struggle some, not a problem like underground.
Also Dragonfly isn't going to be landing anywhere near the lakes. 😢
Livestream from Titan lesgoo
There is this thing named 'data transfer rate' ontop of a 5 hour signal distance. While our data processing capabillities have significally improved, the data density of our space network has stayed pretty much the same.
Things are about to change. Laser communication technology has absolved the test phase and is now being installed for general useage.
I hope you are young and technology grants your dream.
Glad Titan is getting covered again, its my favorite moon in the Solar System
Why is it your favorite? I find it interesting you have a favorite moon. Now I want a favorite too.
For me it's the atmosphere, surface liquid and weather. Only three terrestrial bodies in the solar system have an appreciable atmosphere (Earth, Venus and Titan) and only two have liquid on the surface (Earth and Titan). So that just makes Titan super cool in my opinion. (You might have guessed it's also my favorite moon).
@@tattoomarkwood I say go with Phobos... that poor rock looks sickly and needs some love and attention.
@@stfletch Also, Titan probably has an under-ice water ocean, like Europa. Plenty of ingredients for life there.
There absolutely is life there.
One of the best channels on UA-cam
Fantastic. Thank you Anton. I am celebrating my 70th trip around the Sun. It has been a great ride. The only thing that saddens me is knowing I won't be here for the next mission to Titan, Pluto and so on. I urge all of you, especially young people let your representatives know how much you care about learning and exploiting our Solar System. Be the squeaky wheel! :) And remember, “The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”
― Carl Sagan
Very happy 70th trip to you 🎉
Hey! Our sun has made 20 laps around our galaxy since it was born 4,543,000,000 +/- 50 million years ago.
In two days it will be 72 for me.
As someone who hasn’t even made two dozen trips around the sun, I can assure you that I plan to live as long as possible if only to see how far we’ll reach.
And hey, never say never.
Live long and prosper, good sir.
I’m amazed at the depth of your knowledge about Titan. It sounds like a very cool place to visit, especially with a place called Zanadu! Thanks for the great update.
Thanks again for yet another excellent vid. Interesting moon for all of us to focus on. Maybe one day this will be a vintage vid that people will watch for a throw back while working on mining colony.
It's comforting to know there are places even colder than Minnesota right now.
Titan's atmosphere and mass pose a unique challenge to rocketry.
Titan's atmosphere is ~1.4x Earth's at sea level, whilst its gravity is only ~0.14 of Earth's.
It's atmosphere is also super thick, distance wise, as the gravity that holds it is so low, whilst the surface barometric pressure is so high.
A rocket leaving TItan's surface would need to travel slowly, to start (due to atmospheric friction), and would not require much propulsion. Atmospheric drag would play a heavier role than gravity in resistance, so the Max Q threshold would need to be ridden most of the way up. Horizontal speed would need to increase relative to the decrease in barometric pressure, and escape velocity would be super low.
It introduces a whole other foundation of constants to the science of transport.
Ya took the words right outa my mouth. 😂 But the real question is obviously, does Titan stink to high hell or not?
Titan does not stink. It's like the fresh air of farm land.
wonder if at this point its better to use something winged together with a high efficiency rocket engine to get most of the altitude from lift
Yeah, but we also have to take in consideration that titan is the perfect place for winged flight and baloons. Althrough it's atmosphere is 4x denser than earths, the fact that it has such a low gravity-even a bit lower than our own moon- makes it have only about 1.5x pressure at ground in relation to our own sea level pressure.
Don't forget, if a human streaped wings in its arms it could probably fly in titan. Yeah, that's how easy winged flight should be in titan. Imagine spacex starship landing on it... to not use the sustentation from wings would be a sin lol.
Other option is to use high altitude ballons. If this can be used in earth, imagine in titan. With such low gravity and almost no winds would be a great place for zapellins also, and since it's atmosphere doesn't have oxygen, you could use hydrogen withouth fear of an explosion.
I would love to see an air breathing engine made to titan. The "fuel" would be oxygen, while the nitrogen/methane atmosphere would provide the methane to be mixed up 😂
But yeah, Max Q would be very high up. Could be like 200-300 km high. Titans atmosphere acording to google goes up at least 600km.
@@leuk2389Maybe an electric propellor system for the dense low altitudes.
Once it's cleared the really dense parts it can stow those blades and then switch to a Methane Powered Jet Engine System fueled with onboard oxidizer.
That will get it going high and fast enough to then switch to a ram-jet or something to start approaching sub-orbital velocities.
Then all that's needed is a final tihy kick from rocket stage to achieve orbit.
I remember originally hearing about the landing on Titan with Cassini Huygens mission. I was in like 6th grade and my brother who is a few years older than me was trying to explain to me the methane Lakes. Basically he said if you took fart gas and turned it into a liquid and then had big lakes of it
Your brother sounds wise.
Oh shiiit, thats how I would have explained it to a 2nd grader ....
😂 he's not wrong. Titan smells like a world of farts
@MichaelWinter-ss6lx yeah at 6th grade in 2004 I probably had the maturity of a 2nd grader
SOME TIMES FARTS ARE LIQUID...ie SHARTING 💨💩😂
How cool would it be if humanity develops to the point where a suited astronaut can sit down beside one of these methane lakes in person
Wonderful as always Anton. Thank you. 👍😁❤️
This was a detailed, well-analyzed unpacking of a deeply interesting topic. Warmest compliments. Thank you, sir. :)
That's the only other place in the solar system where you wouldn't have to wear a pressure suit. You'd need air and insulation, but the pressure is just a little higher than on Earth.
There may be more water than methane below the methane on Titan... I'm just saying a bit of electrolysis to free up oxygen for combustion of the methane and... you might not even need the insulation... you would have an ocean of fire creating atmosphere in record time. Just sayin.
@@attemptedunkindness3632 I like that you said "a bit" of electrolysis lol. Just a smidge. Has anyone done any back-of-the-napkin math to determine just how much energy you'd have to provide, I wonder?
@@delphicdescant None. Electrolysis of water requires 237 kJ of energy per mole, and methane combustion releases 890 kJ per mole.
597 billion volt 810 thousand Amp rapid plasma blasts 3 million per second for 17 thousand years at a cost off 12 billion a day and job will be done...
@@jshaw4757 17k years to shift an entire atmosphere, that's still probably a record. 😂
Thanks Anton
With a name like Kraken Mare I was hoping for another explanation for the disappearing islands. Ah, well... The solution they came up with amazing too.
Frigid Nessie needs hydrocarbon ice for its alien soda
The kraken died working in a plastic plant
This is exactly the content I subscribed for . Really love your channel 🤘
I don't mean to overlook our own, but Titan has by far been my favourite moon of the entire solar system since I was like 5 lmao
I'm super hyped for this stuff
Hopefully we won't end up turning the whole moon into one giant oil refinery tho...
Hopefully by the time we have the technology and infrastructure to make using titan for fuel feasible we won’t need to.
@oberonpanopticon we probably ded by then :(
@@oberonpanopticon On the bright side, exhausting the products of traditional fuel combustion into space isn't problematic in the way it is on Earth. People were wrong when they thought the ocean or the atmosphere was too big to pollute. But in the case of space, they'd be correct. You could burn the entire mass of Titan into space and not hurt anything (other than Titan).
But yeah, hopefully we find something more advanced instead, I agree regardless.
You’re part of that species too genius.
At the time humanity can do anything more than photograph Titan we won't be using oil for anything but extraxting chemicals (if we don't find a better way to synthesize chemicals by that time)
Snow acts freaky here on Earth, if the snow is 16 degrees or colder & you walk on it you will hear the snowflake crystals making a squeaking sound because the pressure of your weight walking on it wasn't enough to melt the snow, this is why you will not get the squeak when the snows temp is above 16 degrees. And if you having the right clothing & just happen to be at a Alpine Skiing Resort, you are in for one of the best days skiing, doubly so if you have fresh powder on the mountain. The powder snow will stay powder after people ski on it, & it being 10 degrees colder than most people have the clothing to wear to enjoy the resort, you will have a very empty slopes, along with no wait at the lifts.
If you Ski or Snowboard the trick is do not buy a coat or a jacket, buy shells, for your upper & lower body, all they will do is block the wind & keep the snow off you, you just need to put on the right layers under your shells to keep you warm. And as a long time alpine glade skier, if you keep your hand & feet dry they will stay warm, & how do you keep your skin dry you stop them from sweating. Try this, after your morning shower towel dry your feet & hands thoroughly while sitting on your bed spray your feet & hands with antiperspirant, then lay back & watch the weather report for 5 mintues so the spray can completely dry.
Then you put on your silk and/or wool socks on, & yes 100% they need to be either silk or wool. There are the ONLY TWO clothing materials on the Earth that will still keep you warm when wet or even a little damp, no other cloth can do this especially anything man-made. I just wear wool socks, but a lot of people get rashes from wool & they'll layer silk between the wool socks.
If you fell thru the ice on a lake & got out, you'd be better off stripping completely nude to lose less body heat UNLESS you are wearing layers of silk and/or wool, this is the only time you'd be better off wearing the soaking wet clothing, they will STILL keep you warmer where everything else would strip your body heat away.
...and IMHO wool blankets are amazing, they are the OG, they'll keeps you warm w/o you waking up in a puddle of your own sweat in the morning. btw most bed comforters are filled with puffed polyester wrapped in a polyester shell, you might as well be sleeping with a plastic trash bag wrapped around you, hence waking up in the puddle of sweat.
If any of your wool items have other materials mixed in go for the blend with the least amount of man made polyester products, a tiny bit of spandex I think it is will help the socks keep their shape and last I hell of a lot longer. And a little bit of cotton isn't bad for comfort because it's soft softer than the wool, but the higher the wool content more of the benefit you will get from it being wool.
...took a pill to help me sleep, been waiting for it to kick in, it has ...hope what I wrote makes sense, good night.
The fascination of Titan for me, is that it is so similar to Earth and at the same time so different.
💀
Yeahhhh mannnn.... it's like round and everything.... sooooo profound!
@@CandideSchmylesThey genuinely do have some striking similarities though. Both have an atmosphere of mostly nitrogen, and Titan is in fact the only place in the solar system apart from earth that has a full weather cycle, complete with rivers, lakes, and in general a landscape carved through liquid erosion
@@CandideSchmylesthey both have rich nitrogen atmosphere, methane, and water ice.
@@meino6465Methane cycle*
the weather forecast for Guabonito on Titan: foggy, windy, rainy and ultracold. Don't let that spoil your holidays 🌴
Isn't that just Scotland?
maybe there's a layer on the surface where the ice is very fluffy/low density like hairs or dust or fluffy snow. could be sharp or hazardous like quicksand and heavy things might crush right through it. some things like asbestos are hazardous because of the shape/consistency it's formed into.
1 thing we must keep in mind about the methane lakes (if those lakes are teuly methanes): methane ice is DENSER than methane liquid. That means it sinks instead of floating like water ice.
So what it also means is that those lakes are probably quite shallow and rapidly become slushy when goind down a little.
That can partly explain their flat, waveless surface.
wonderful petrov, your hair has turned green. Love the new style
Excellent lecture, Professor Anton.
Titain as plastics generation. Pure SciFi. Love it!
Thanks Anton. Very enjoyable
Anton, you really are awesome for all of us science nerds. It's so great to get fun random scientific facts on such a regular basis.
You really are awesome ☝️😎👍
I've always been interested in titan. Cool to know there will he a mission there. I'll be 46 by that time comes. None the less excited 🎉
You are 100% correct that Titan is the most interesting object after Earth. There's so much to learn! I hope it gets more focus in the future.
Super interesting place. Never gonna be a dream vacation spot for most people, though.
I saw it too, bought some the other day and it arrived in my account the same day. Now waiting for the listing day.
I am very much looking forward to a more in depth mission to Titan.
I can't wait to see some awesome footage from the surface of titan. I wish I was younger. Hope I live long enough to experience being on these moons like we have with mars.
Titan is an amazing place, I can see it becoming a major tourist destination in a distant future... If we've find a way to still be around that is!
I love the way your answers lead us to more questions! Are there fires on Titan? Is there oxygen or something else that could support combustion? Or other sudden chemical energy changes?
There is no Oxygen on Titan so combustion is not possible.
First time viewer and new subscriber. I love your channel! I remember waiting for launch and subsequent arrival of Horizons mission. I hope we all make it to see Dragonfly open a new chapter in cosmic exploration!
Ooids grow through the addition of concentric layers of calcium carbonate. The concentric layers can form because ooids gently slosh back and forth in warm, carbonate-saturated tidal environments. They require the liquid medium. Are you suggesting Titan's ooid-like grains might form in the methane lakes?
They look like Mozarella !!! That's pizza-cheese.
I love all of your videos, Anton. You are amazing. Side note, you have some kind of a hair or a scratch on your camera, when you are in front of Saturn it shows when your face is in frame but not when you aren't.
13:27 got me thinking about a Solar System where each world has manufacturing for a specific product. "This shipment of plastic came in this morning, from Titan".
My wondering about Titan began when I saw a Vonnegut book in the library: The Sirens of Titan.
Fascinating stuff!
You can tell how dense the atmosphere is in those initial shots from behind where the light makes the edges of the planet look so fuzzy. It’s because it’s reflecting so much light because of the density of particles, right?
We need to fast track more missions to Titan. Super hi-res orbiter, several landers, with hi-res cameras, IR, UV, etc.
Great,very interesting video,very enjoyable, thanks 👍❤
This is intriguing! Oh before I forget. I think my countrys ( Norway )one band TNT have a music track named " So far away ", the lyrics are about the moon Titan afaI remember 😁 I think they made that track around the time of the Titan exploration vessels, Cassini? checked its atmosphere 🤔 As a tribute
Titan. One of my favorite subjects.
Moderately interesting. Thx Anton.
The way you described the formation of that "organic sand" basically formed an entire sci fi theory of abiogenesis in my head. If chemicals such as but not necessarily amino acids were captured at the heart of the formation with enough regularity, one could imagine replication occurring inside if it can filter feed and breathe through cracks in the sand, and eventually it bursts, mixing genetic material with nearby other sand grains, more successful combinations naturally becoming central to another microscopic grain. That would select for ones that can breathe and feed better, and form their own sand cell quickly and efficiently, and have better "sex", maybe leading to gametes etc, better selection methods. It's also occurred to me how soft currents at the bottom of an early earth lake could cause disturbances enough for cells to form a bit like that from rolling in sand, which would then select for a lipid layer and the ability to float. That could work here.
There's a speculation out there that abiogenesis on Earth started out as hydrocarbon crystals that themselves are self-replicating (as crystals tend to be), which does provide a very plausible bootstrap to getting enough basic amino acids in the system to get us to RNA world. So, yeah! You might be on to something here.
Earth: "You have a very strange liquid cycle."
Titan: "Look who's talking!"
So interesting! Can't wait for the mission! However, the most interesting object in the solar system is the sun (except if there is a black hole beyond Pluto), and 2nd is Jupiter.
Best intro in a while yes it is potentially the coolest so very very fascinating. Lets strap in and see what they find. If anyone's knew here it's the best place around, comprehensive reports
Thank you 😊
It would be really something if they discovered a "Ferris Wheel," on Titan!
A mission to Titan has always been an exciting prospect to me, but I wonder if by doing so we might contaminate the surface. I know we have already sent a probe. I only say this because of the similarities of Titan and primordial Earth.
Just my opinion!
Have you read "Titan" by Baxter?
@@angelaguidolin4822 No I haven't. I'll check it out when I get the chance.
Contamination is a potential issue with every interplanetary mission, but somebody’s gonna send something everywhere someday, so we might as well make sure that it’s sterilized.
@@angelaguidolin4822 I have! :)
There is not much similarity between Titan and primordial Earth. Titan is far, far colder.
Great video Anton.
Ooh, those rocks if you want to land there are gonna be very tricky.
Anything to do with saturn or its moons, im all ears ! Ty Anton
Well, Titan is one of my all-time faves, so... a little cold, you say? I got an excellent parka. Off we go.
Cool, more plastics!!
Titan has to be the coolest moon in the Solar System. Not the coldest, but the coolest.
Titan: a land of contrasts.
Thx Anton.
Ganymede and Titan: Yes, sir, I've been around: But there ain't no place: In the whole of Space: Like that good ol' toddlin' town
-180C??? That's nothing, I live in Edmonton. Question? If you were to walk on the methane "sand," would you be more or less likely to sink than snow on earth? Would snow shoes help? How would the lower gravity impact this?
Titan may become the gasoline station for coming missions to the outer soloar system. These new missions may explore the Kuiper Belt for instance and go back to Titan to renew their fuel reserves. So they may be in the region outside the orbit ofJupiter for decades or longer.
I would like to see a list of all your videos longer than 15 min. Create something on your channel where all the 1 to 3 hrs videos will be.
I hate it when my attention is caught by a great expedition is planned like this one to Titan won’t come to fruition for ten years in the future! I want it Now!
No doubt Titan is as lifeless as I suspect the rest of the universe will prove to be... but:
If it's not it raises some intriguing possibilities. 'Cold life' on the surface, and 'life as we now it' in Titan's subsurface water ocean? So maybe a single body hosting *two* wholly independent geneses? If so and there is a universal principle here, what might Earth host in it's mantle?
Following this line of thought, could the universe be host to a whole hierarchy of life stratified by temperature?
exiting mission, i wish they could go tomorrow.
Low temperature chmistry is fascinating.
Thank you, Anton. You had me at Titan. I wonder now, what we mean by “tholins”.
AFAIK those are organic molecules that form in the atmosphere. The methane gets broken up by UV radiation an then the components combine into larger hydrocarbon molecules. Those can stick together and fall down as flakes and then form those "sand grains" on the ground.
Good work 👏
Yeah ice is crazy in our solar system. I think we confirmed that with this study. Thats petty awesome.
Thanks Anton ✨️ 🖖✨️😊
Very interesting video about the most interesting moon in the solar system. It's amazing what scientists have been able to deduce from the data of a mission long dead and the implications these conclusions may have for future travel to this world. These conclusions may have to be revised due to the extended length of seasons on Titan, but I'm sure we're far enough along in the study of Titan to be able to find any workarounds new knowledge may require.
*Pop Goes The Weasel intensifies*
*WE DON'T NEED MORE PLASTICS ANTON*
we can't properly deal with all the plastic we've created so far.
I once heard titan's atmosphere is so thick, humans could potentially fly with their own power if wearing a suit with artificial wings. No idea how true that is, but would be so cool if you could
Titan and Europa are my favorite Moon's, even ignoring their potential for life.
Those are just symetriads! Straight from the "Solaris" novel by Stanisław Lem.
I may have missed it, but what is the gas that is contained in the bubbles in the ice?
Quite interesting actually, it's a combination of many different molecules and some that we find here on 🌎
Interesting, so they’re somewhere between icebergs and pumice rafts in structure!
Sirens of titan my favorite book thought you all should know
So cool. I hope I'm alive for the dragonfly flights.
Excellent video as always! Sign me up for the first rocket to Titan! It’s an election year and I’m looking for an escape.
I would expect they could avoid a lot of this buildup of methane ice by adding methanotrophic coatings to the surface of the copter. Recent studies have been done at ambient temperatures and pressures, but expanding those parameters to Titan's atmospheric conditions should result in some good findings. The other simple solution would be to heat the skin of the copter and propellers. It doesn't take much to melt methane ice, and the waste heat of the systems could be used for this purpose.
So in other words, living in Northern Minnesota is great preparation for building a colony on Titan. Gotcha.
Jupiter and Saturn are probably interesting if we could get down there
Collecting source materials for plastic production? That's insanity.
I love seeing the patreon names at the end of each video. The list keeps getting longer 😊 plus it gives me time to look at the comments without getting distracted
Titan must smell pretty bad, if it has that many hydrocarbons!working at the plastic plant would be unpleasant, if not poisonnous!
Thanks or the Titan update, wonderful Anton!
Dude, u rock. This video was cool! I never knew how similar Titan was to Earth with the methane cycle and all. Friggin awesome.
Could we use methane for rocket fuel and make Titan an interplanetary gas station?
Yes, but we’d need to find a way to get oxygen to burn it with. And hopefully by the time we have the technology and infrastructure to get to titan we’ll be beyond chemical propulsion.
Question;
Why do those "magic islands" on moon Titan, and the mountains on Pluto move around.(in different directions?
Do they just walk away or burrow under ground?
So universe is the big chemistry lab...
I have a feeling that Titan was another (smaller) gas giant in our solar system that was captured by Jupiter, and what we're looking at is the core after Jupiter leached the bulk of the atmosphere.
These are not really discoveries but hypotheses and in some cases best guesses.
The reality could turn out very different when we get there.
Put 2 or 3 different types of aerial drones on the probe. 1 with heaters in the blades.
I wonder if it's possible to make "ice sand" with safe chemicals that you can use to fill an ice cooler and get better contact with your drink bottles.
Assuming the mission lands successfully, how long til we would possibly see some results?
Aren’t they also on Pluto ( geological effects ) think I saw a report that it had something similar to tectonics there)