Yellow MagpieScience and Technology »

Titania: Uranus’s Largest Secretive Moon

Yellow Magpie — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:25:00 +0000

A potential liquid ocean, seasons that last 42 years and a possible tentative atmosphere are just some of the reasons why Uranus’s moon, Titania is worthy of our attention.

Titania orbits Uranus, within its magnetosphere, at a distance of 435,000 kilometres (271,000 miles), taking just under eight days and 17 hours to complete one trip around the Icy Giant.

Named after the queen of the fairies in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, at 1,578 kilometres (986 miles) in width, Titania is the largest of Uranus’s moons.

Core And Composition

Given the fact that scientists know how dense it is, it is believed that Titania is composed of nearly equal measures of rock and ice. The core is thought to be comprised of rock, with a potential boundary layer of liquid water separating the core from the mantle. The mantle consists of ice. The surface is quite dark and red in appearance with the sites of newer impacts, being blue in colour.

The fact that Titania’s orbit resides wholly inside Uranus’s magnetosphere has meant that the satellite has been subjected to plasma. Some scientists maintain that this caused the darkening of its hemisphere.

Colossal Canyons And Capacious Craters

The surface of Titania is pock-marked by large craters resulting from heavy impacts with huge objects. Some of the larger craters are over 300 kilometres (180 miles) in width. At 326 kilometres (203 miles) across, Gertrude is the largest crater to have been found on the surface of the moon.

Nonetheless, Titania is no where near as cratered as one might expect. This suggests that the satellite underwent some sort of resurfacing.

Other surface features include colossal canyons which are thought to have been created by expansion. The largest canyon, Messina Chasma, is 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) long travelling virtually from the equator to the south pole.

All throughout the moon’s surface a serious of massive faults, known as scarps, reside. Surface features on Titania are named after characters from Shakespeare’s works.

A Liquid Ocean?

As mentioned previously, scientists believe that Titania may harbour a layer of liquid water separating the mantle from the core. It has been speculated that this layer may be an ocean of water kept unfrozen by the presence of ammonia. This ocean could be anything up to 50 kilometres in thickness.

Atmosphere? To Have Or Not To Have?

We still don’t know how the Titania came to have carbon dioxide present in its atmosphere. Several hypotheses have emerged seeking to explain its origin. One idea is that either organic matter or carbonates is producing carbon dioxide through the aid of ultraviolet radiation being emitted from the Sun.

Scientists highlight the potential of ancient carbon dioxide trapped deep within its interior that is slowly making its way to the surface. This leaking could have been made possible through geological activity at some point in Titania’s past.

Others using infrared spectroscopy to determine what elements and compounds reside on the surface of Titania found that the moon may have what is called a tentative atmosphere. The spectroscopy revealed the presence of both liquid water and carbon dioxide. If there is an atmosphere on Titania it is billions of times less dense than our own.

Regardless of how the carbon dioxide got there, Titania is believed to have originally had much larger quantities of the compound than it has now.

A Hot Formation

Like many of the moons in the Solar System, Titania is thought to have been born from an accretion disc of particles that orbited Uranus. Gradually, over a long period of time, the particles coalesced to form larger and larger bodies until eventually satellites such as Titania were formed.

It is thought that Titania would have taken several thousand years to reach its size. During that time the outer layer of the moon would have been heated due to the friction generated by the impacts caused by coalescence. However, after the satellite was formed the outer layer would have cooled and a new heating process would have started deep within the moon’s core.

The decay of radioactive elements in the core would have heated Titania causing its interior to expand. Eventually cracks and fault lines would have occurred on its surface as a result of this expansion and the subsequent contraction when it cooled down. This would have caused the canyon and scarp features that are present on Titania’s surface.

Scientists maintain that this heating phase of the interior would have only lasted roughly 200 million years or so. Nevertheless, this time would have been more than enough to separate the ice from the rock and so the moon became differentiated.

Titania And Tomorrow

Who knows what the future will bring for mankind and Titania. As of yet very little is known about the moon. Up to 2011 only 40 per cent of the satellite’s surface had been mapped. We still don’t know whether it has a tentative atmosphere or not. Neither do we know if it contains a liquid ocean deep within its surface. Who knows what other secrets it harbours? Perhaps we will eventually find out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtKKVpONlgs

Highly Recommended Reading

Check out Yellow Magpie’s The Planet Saturn: The Ringed Wonder Of The Solar System for more insight into the largest planet in the Solar System.

Cosmos is a highly recommended book. It contains large, full-page pictures of the asteroids and writing on the subject by the highly competent author, Giles Sparrow.

Amazon.co.uk

For people living in Ireland or the United Kingdom, you can access: Cosmos from here.

Amazon.ca

For those who live in Canada, you can obtain: Cosmos here.

Amazon.de

For Germany: Cosmos.

Amazon.fr

For France: Cosmos.

No related posts.

Uranus: The Coldest Ice Giant

Yellow Magpie — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 06:18:32 +0000

Uranus has become the butt of many jokes mainly due to its oft-mispronounced name. However, this iced giant offers far more than one-dimensional scatological humour. Uranus has a unique place in astronomy. The first of the planets to be discovered using a telescope by William Hershel it also possesses one of the most unique and oddest magnetic fields in the Solar System.

Uranus, at 51,000 kilometres in width, is four times the diameter of our own Earth and has 14.5 times the mass of our planet. Which means it is not very dense, in fact it has the second lowest densities of all the planets in the Solar System after Saturn. The Earth is the most dense planet.

Uranus orbits the Sun at a distance of 19 astronomical units (AU) or 2.8 billion kilometres (1.8 billion miles) taking 84 Earth-years to complete just one trip. While one day on the Icy Giant takes just over 17 hours.

Composition

Uranus is classed as an ice giant which means it is composed mostly of materials that are frozen. This also means that its bulk composition is not hydrogen and helium, the two lightest elements.

The outermost layer of the planet consists of cloud that is methane-rich. Below that it has an inner atmosphere of helium, methane and hydrogen which becomes liquid as the pressure increase farther in.

Uranus has a frozen mantle with a mixture of frozen chemicals which include methane, ammonia and water. Deep at its heart is a core of a mixture of rock and ice.

Atypical Tilt

One of the most singular aspects of Uranus’s rotation is the angle at which it tilts. The planet is effectively spinning on its side with its polar regions laying at the equators. This gives rise to a curious phenomenon when it comes to seasonal variations on the planet. During its 84 year trek around the Sun one of its hemispheres is plunged into darkness while the other experiences daylight.

The Cold Planet

Uranus, despite not being as far away from the Sun as Neptune, is the coldest planet in the Solar System. It’s atmosphere is minus 224 degrees Celsius (minus 371 degrees Fahrenheit).

The actuality of Uranus being colder than Neptune has created a puzzle. The planet that is the furthest away from the Sun should be the coldest. Somehow Uranus had less internal heat than astronomers anticipated.

Two of the most credible hypotheses state that either this peculiarity was a result of a massive impact in which much of its core heat was lost to Space while some scientists believe that there is some insulating barrier that is preventing the heat of the core from reaching the surface. The impact hypothesis could also account for Uranus’s strange tilt.

Magnetic Mystery

The magnetic field of Uranus is in a league of its own when its comes to strangeness. Unlike the magnetic fields of either the terrestrial planets or the Gas Giants, Uranus magnetic field does not originate in the polar regions. The strength of the magnetic field also varies according to the hemisphere with the northern being much weaker than the southern.

A hypothesis has been formulated to explain this phenomena as a product of magnetic fields being created through motion quite close to the surface of the planet. It is thought that if this is the case the magnetic fields are likely formed in oceans of water-ammonia mixtures.

Clear Climate

The wind on Uranus is unlike anything the Earth experiences with speeds of 900 kilometres per hour (560 miles) caused by the planet’s rapid rotation.

Unusually Uranus has very few clouds. In fact, in any given time there would be only a handful of clouds on the surface of the entire planet.

The Ring System

Uranus has a comprehensive ring system with 13 distinctly segregated rings. They consist of dust particles in micron scale right up to larger boulders of 20 metres (65 feet) or more.

These particles and objects orbit Uranus at a distance of between 38,000 and 98,000 kilometres (23,600 to 60,800 miles).

The Moons Of Uranus

As of today, astronomers have identified 27 moons orbiting Uranus. All of these satellites are either based on the characters of William Shakespeare of Alexander Pope. There are a five large moons with the largest being over 1,500 kilometres in width (900 miles). All the satellites are composed of a mixture of rock and ice.

Yellow Magpie will delve into more detail on Uranus’s moons soon.

Uranus is a strange planet with many of its secrets yet to be revealed. Perhaps in time we may find out for certain why it is so cold and why it has such a funny tilt. Until now we will have to be content with educated and reasoned guesses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ElXNcGxNMo

Highly Recommended Reading

Check out Yellow Magpie’s The Planet Saturn: The Ringed Wonder Of The Solar System for more insight into the largest planet in the Solar System.

Cosmos is a highly recommended book. It contains large, full-page pictures of the asteroids and writing on the subject by the highly competent author, Giles Sparrow.

Amazon.co.uk
For people living in Ireland or the United Kingdom, you can access: Cosmos from here.

Amazon.ca
For those who live in Canada, you can obtain: Cosmos here.

Amazon.de
For Germany: Cosmos.

Amazon.fr
For France: Cosmos.

Titan: Saturn’s Atmospheric Moon

Yellow Magpie — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 19:18:28 +0000

It stands out. Alone, a one-of-a-kind, unique. The only moon in the Solar System, the only one to have an atmosphere. A colossal satellite compared to our own Moon, Titan has for decades defied revealing its true identity. It resides under a haze of orange-tinged cloud. A thick, noxious layer that refuses to let us get even a brief glimpse of what lies underneath.

Until recently we knew virtually nothing about it. A lot can change in a few short years however and Titan has finally given up some of its mysteries.

Second only in size to Jupiter’s Ganymede, Titan is twice the size of the Moon. The satellite measures 5,100 kilometres (3,200 miles in width) and orbits Saturn from a distance of 1,200,000 kilometres (760,000 miles) taking just under 16 days to complete a trip around the ringed planet.

Titan’s surface is a slightly chilly minus 179 degrees Celsuis (minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit). Although this is almost incomprehensibly cold Titan in fact should be much colder. It is its methane that keeps the temperature of its surface warmer than it otherwise would be.

Titan was previously considered to be the largest satellite in the Solar System. Its very thick atmosphere makes it appear larger than it is. Even though it is just over 100 kilometres (65 miles) shorter than Ganymede it is still larger than the planet Mercury.

A Strange Kind Of Familiarity

In many ways, Titan is much closer to a planet than a typical moon. Of course its most startling aspect is its atmosphere.
Like the Earth, Titan also is geologically active. It is believed that radioactive decay deep beneath the surface is responsible for such geological processes.

Titan closely resembles early Earth. Full of methane and organic molecules many scientists believe that the moon is a lot like a lifeless version of our planet with elemental organic building blocks present.

Lakes Of Methane

After the Cassini mission a long held hypothesis that Titan contained seas and lakes of methane was confirmed.

The Kraken Mare is the largest of these bodies with a width of 1,170 kilometres (730 miles). This is roughly the same as the Caspian Sea.

Volcanoes Of Ice

Titan is thought to be filled with cryovolcanoes. Instead of lava these volcanoes spew out water and ammonia.

Nevertheless, as of yet there is no conclusive evidence to prove that the cryovolcanoes exist on the satellite.

Two unusual bright spots were discovered by astronomers in Titan’s atmophere in December 2008.

Perhaps the strongest evidence for these types of volcanoes comes from Titan’s geology. Despite the assumption that much of the moon’s surface was formed by impacts, this was dispelled when a large mountain range 150 kilometres by 30 kilometres (94 miles by 19 miles) was found.

The Thick Earth-Like Atmosphere

The atmosphere of Titan is dense, nearly 1.5 times denser than that of the Earth. It’s atomsphere is also slightly larger than the Earth, despite the fact that Titan is only half as wide as our home planet.

The reason why the atmosphere is so large is due to the low gravity of the moon’s surface allowing it to extend quite a distance.

Apart from the Earth, Titan’s atomsphere is the only one to be nitrogen-rich. It is comprised of 98 per cent nitrogen, 1.4 per cent methane and the rest hydrogen.There are also plenty of trace amounts of other compounds. It is thought that one of these compounds, hydrocarbons are thought to be created when the methane gets broken down by the Sun’s ultraviolet rays. It is this process which creates the distinct orange haze.

One of the most intriqing aspects of Titan’s atmoshere is its methane. By scietist’s estimation Titan should have had all its methane converted into hydrocarbons by the Sun in just 50 million years. This has led to the belief that somhow the moon is replenishing its supply of methane.

Two hypotheses have been proposed to explain this phenomenon The first is that there is a huge store of methane somewhere witin Titan itself. The second is that the methane is created by biological organisms.

Organic Matter And Potential Life

Through the Cassini-Huygen’s probe complex organic molecules were discovered on Titan’s surface.

Five nucleotide bases, the foundations of DNA and RNA, were produced in an experiment by using the same chemical ingrediants as found on Titan.

If Titan contains sub-terrean oceans of water and ammonia it could be possible that microbial life exists on the moon.

Currently, there are plenty of circumstantial indications of potential sources of primitive lifeforms on Titan. The apparent disappearance of hydrogen near the surface has led to speculation that methanogenic (organisms that produce methane) microbes consume the hydrogen. Although such speculations must be taken with a healthy degree of scepticism as possibilities other than life may account for this anomaly.

What Will Happen Titan?

When the Sun eventually starts to near the end of its lifecycle and enters its red giant phase it will expand greatly. This expansion will cause Titan to become much warmer than it is is today. Six or more billion years from now – Titan may indeed heat up to above zero temperatures. Furthermore under such conditions complex life could emerge.

Whether or not Titan currently harbours primitive microbial life is a question that will probably only be answered when humans set foot on the moon’s surface. Until then we can only speculate. Whatever happens it appears that Titan will always have a special place in the human imagination.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ0hwTzOMPE

Highly Recommended Reading

Check out Yellow Magpie’s The Planet Saturn: The Ringed Wonder Of The Solar System for more insight into the largest planet in the Solar System.

Cosmos is a highly recommended book. It contains large, full-page pictures of the asteroids and writing on the subject by the highly competent author, Giles Sparrow.

Amazon.co.uk
For people living in Ireland or the United Kingdom, you can access: Cosmos from here.

Amazon.ca
For those who live in Canada, you can obtain: Cosmos here.

Amazon.de
For Germany: Cosmos.

Amazon.fr
For France: Cosmos.

Hyperion: Saturn’s Irregular Moon

Yellow Magpie — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:55:13 +0000

Sometimes words fail us in describing panoramas. Odd, weird, bizarre, strange, these words just seem incapable of doing justice to the vista of Hyperion. The physical appearance of the moon just defies easy classification. A unique place in a Solar System filled with singular objects, there are occasions when the phrase a picture speaks a thousand words is highly apt.

The Frozen Sponge

Hyperion is a frozen place with a mean temperature of minus 180 degrees Celsius (minus 292 degrees Fahrenheit). The satellite is 370 kilometres (230 miles) in length taking just over 21 days to complete an orbit of Saturn at a distance of 1,480,000 kilometres (919,000 miles).

The Chaotic Satellite

To describe the rotation of Hyperion as irregular would only half hint at its true nature. The moon is so chaotic that so far it is impossible for scientists to predict its rotation. As you would probably imagine this means that its orbit is also very difficult to predict with any of the sort of fine precision usually associated with astronomy.

Odd-Shaped Wonder

Hyperion’s weird shape is all the more bizarre given its size. For its dimensions, this world should never have been the shape that it is. A colossal explosion of energy must have occurred. Many believe that Hyperion was once a much larger body that was fragmented in a massive impact with a huge object.

Like many of the satellites of the gas and ice giants, Hyperion is largely composed of ice-water. Though it may have a small interior rocky core. Strangely, despite being composed mainly of ice, Hyperion is not the most reflective object in the Solar System. This may be due to the moon’s deep pockmarked appearance.

Another factor is the dark layer of material which was deposited on the surface. The colour of this dark layer suggests that its sister moon, Iapetus, may have had something to do with this.

The surface of Hyperion is stunning. Its sponge-like appearance was first observed by the Cassini spacecraft in 2005. The darker areas of the satellite that gives rise to its low albedo are red in colour.

Tidally Free

Hyperion is the only moon in the entire Solar System that is not tidally locked. This means that unlike our own Moon, where only one side is visible from the Earth with the other remaining permanently hidden, all sides of Hyperion are visible from the surface of Saturn.

We may never know what caused the massive impact that resulted in Hyperion’s stunning shape. Likewise, we may never fully understand the specifics of its chaotic rotation. In time though a select few may get the opportunity to see its wonderful surface for themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk8r85lM3SY

Highly Recommended Reading

Check out Yellow Magpie’s The Planet Saturn: The Ringed Wonder Of The Solar System and The Minor Moons Of Saturn: The Smaller Saturnine Satellites for more insight into the largest planet in the Solar System and its moon.

Cosmos is a highly recommended book. It contains large, full-page pictures of the asteroids and writing on the subject by the highly competent author, Giles Sparrow.

Amazon.co.uk
For people living in Ireland or the United Kingdom, you can access: Cosmos from here.

Amazon.ca
For those who live in Canada, you can obtain: Cosmos here.

Amazon.de
For Germany: Cosmos.

Amazon.fr
For France: Cosmos.

Iapetus: The Two-Faced Ridged Moon Of Saturn

Yellow Magpie — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 21:29:15 +0000

Iapetus is a dazzling sight. Possessing some of the largest mountains in the Solar System it is full of strange features. One of the most recognisable is its two-coloured appearance as well as an enormous ridge running along its equator. It also has a huge 580 kilometre (360 miles) wide crater called Turgis.

Not A Sphere

A sphere with a ridge, Iapetus is 1,470 kilometres in width (913 miles). It takes 79 days for the moon to complete a trip around Saturn, orbiting at a distance of 3.5 million kilometres (2.1 million miles).

Iapetus is an ice world with an average temperature of minus 190 degrees Celsius (minus 310 degrees Fahrenheit) and the satellite is mainly made up of water-ice with a substantial portion comprised of rocky materials.

Although on first viewing the moon appears to be spherical this is not quite the case. The two poles are compressed and along the equator a large ridge is present.

Light And Dark

Iapetus is a two-coloured satellite. The poles and the trailing hemisphere (the side facing away from Saturn) are brightly coloured wheras the leading hemisphere (the side facing the ringed-planet) is a dark red colour. The same red colour is also found on Iapetus’s sister moon, Hyperion. The dark side of the planet is named the Cassini Regio. Together these two colours create one of the most striking features of the Solar System.

Scientists believe that the difference in temperature between the distinct regions caused the formation of the bright and dark sides.

They maintain that the slow, 79-day rotation of the satellite means that much of the surface ice would have been sublimated leaving a dark residue in its stead.

However, it is important to emphase that this was not a fast process by any means and took hundreds of millions of years. According to scientists at NASA, it would have taken over one billion years for 20 metres of ice to have been sublimated in the dark region. While over the same period of time only ten centimetres would have been lost in the bright region.

The Ridge

One of the most impressive features of Iapetus is its equatorial ridge which is a huge structure at 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) in length, 20 kilometres (12 miles) in width and 13 kilometres (eight miles) in height. The ridges have peakes that are more than 20 kilometres in height (12 miles).

Although there are several ideas that have been put forward by theorists none explain why this ridge is confined to Cassini Regio so at best the thoughts are incomplete.

Breaking The Orbital Pattern

As one of the Saturn’s biggest moons (the third largest), Iapetus should have an orbit much closer to the ringed-planet. However, it doesn’t. The satellite’s orbit is very far out. As of yet, no one knows why this is the case.

Like all of the objects in the Solar System, mysteries still remain about Iapetus. We still do not know how one of the most striking features, its equatorial ridge was formed. Nor do we know why it orbits so far away from Saturn. Perhaps, like all great mysteries the answers will come in good time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQgUndcvTGQ

Highly Recommended Reading

Check out Yellow Magpie’s The Planet Saturn: The Ringed Wonder Of The Solar System for more insight into the largest planet in the Solar System.

Cosmos is a highly recommended book. It contains large, full-page pictures of the asteroids and writing on the subject by the highly competent author, Giles Sparrow.

Amazon.co.uk
For people living in Ireland or the United Kingdom, you can access: Cosmos from here.

Amazon.ca
For those who live in Canada, you can obtain: Cosmos here.

Amazon.de
For Germany: Cosmos.

Amazon.fr
For France: Cosmos.

Rhea: Saturn’s Mysterious Ringed Moon

Yellow Magpie — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 20:02:27 +0000

A moon that raises more questions than anything else, Rhea is a world that does not give up its mysteries easily. Does it have a rocky core? Does it have a ring system? Is there a liquid ocean underneath its icy crust? The se are all questions that scientists desperately want to answer.

Core Or No Core?

Rhea is a relatively large moon. At 1,500 kilometres (937 miles) in width, the satellite is the ninth largest in the Solar System. 527,000 kilometres (335,000 miles) out from Saturn, it takes Rhea just over four and a half Earth-days to complete an orbit.

It is still unclear as to whether or not Rhea has a rocky core. There have been several attempts to verify this but each time the data produced a different result. Like other moons, it is thought that Rhea may possess a liquid water ocean. If this is true the heat source is likely to be radioactive decay.

With an average surface temperature of minus 197 degrees Celsius (minus 322 degrees Fahrenheit) Rhea is a cold world.

The moon is heavily pockmarked. Two massive collisions resulted in the formation of impact basins between 400 and 500 kilometres (250 to 310 miles) in width.

The Exosphere

According to Wikipedia, Rhea has a partial atmosphere called an exosphere. This atmosphere, which contains oxygen and carbon dioxide, is very different from that of the Earth. On our own planet the exosphere is found at a distance of 600 kilometres above the surface. At this height molecules escape gravity quite easily.

A Ring System?

One of oddities of Rhea is its possible ring system. Although there is yet to be any conclusive proof as to the existence of tenuous rings, in 2008 NASA announced that they believed a ring system existed. This still has to be confirmed.

Someday, hopefully in the not-too-distant-future, we will have answers to the mysterious Rhea. Undoubtedly, there will be more puzzles to solve.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_fT_A03XwA

Highly Recommended Reading

Check out Yellow Magpie’s The Planet Saturn: The Ringed Wonder Of The Solar System for more insight into the largest planet in the Solar System.

Cosmos is a highly recommended book. It contains large, full-page pictures of the asteroids and writing on the subject by the highly competent author, Giles Sparrow.

Amazon.co.uk
For people living in Ireland or the United Kingdom, you can access: Cosmos from here.

Amazon.ca
For those who live in Canada, you can obtain: Cosmos here.

Amazon.de
For Germany: Cosmos.

Amazon.fr
For France: Cosmos.

Saturn’s Moon Dione: The Ice-Cliffed Satellite

Yellow Magpie — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 20:28:14 +0000

A spherical ball with numerous scars, we are only beginning to understand the frozen world of Dione. As of yet we do not know what it is made from, what structures lay beneath its surface or what other secrets its harbours. But we are beginning to get there…

Just over 60 kilometres (38 miles) less in width than Tethy’s, Dione is a substantial satellite of Saturn. A world of water-ice, at minus 186 degrees Celsius (minus 302 degrees Fahrenheit), to say that Dione is chilly is an understatement.

1,120 kilometres (700 miles) in width, Dione orbits Saturn every 65 and a half hours from a distance of 377,000 kilometres (235,000 miles).

Although the bulk of Dione’s mass can be attributed to frozen water its high density indicates that it must have a rocky core. Dione has two features that particularly stand out. These are its ice cliffs and craters.

Cliffs Of Ice

A strange, odd-looking characteristic of the moon is its ‘wispy terrain’. Originally thought to be snow caused by volcanoes spewing out ice, this highly reflective material, much brighter than the surrounding surface, was worth further examination.

It wasn’t until the Cassini mission that things became a lot clearer. The Cassini probe photographed enormous vertical cliffs of ice. A new theory had to be formulated to explain their creation and scientists now believe that in the past great tidal forces caused the formation of tectonic fractures.

A Place Of Craters

Dione is pock-marked by impacts with extra-terrestrial bodies. Many of these objects were quite large, going by the size of some of the craters which often exceed 100 kilometres (60 miles) in width.

At this point in time very little is known about Dione apart from superficial details. We still do not know what its core is comprised of and the moon may be holding many more secrets.

The same Cassini probe which photographed the Ice Cliffs is due for another photographing fly-by in December of 2011. Who knows, it may reveal a lot more this time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnyJi5suOJU

Highly Recommended Reading

Check out Yellow Magpie’s The Planet Saturn: The Ringed Wonder Of The Solar System for more insight into the largest planet in the Solar System.

Cosmos is a highly recommended book. It contains large, full-page pictures of the asteroids and writing on the subject by the highly competent author, Giles Sparrow.

Amazon.co.uk
For people living in Ireland or the United Kingdom, you can access: Cosmos from here.

Amazon.ca
For those who live in Canada, you can obtain: Cosmos here.

Amazon.de
For Germany: Cosmos.

Amazon.fr
For France: Cosmos.

3-D Printing: A Glimpse Into The Future

Yellow Magpie — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 19:03:25 +0000

We are living in a century of great changes. Our technology has never been as advanced. We finally have a practical replacement for the wasteful burning of petrochemicals in our vehicles. This alternative will only become better and more affordable as battery chemistries become refined. In the area of medicine, researchers are working on new treatments that will forever change modern medicine.

In terms of services and the world of information, we have never been better connected with one another. Ideas are being shared like never before. The costly expense of producing paper for our newspapers and books will be greatly reduced as all types of information is read on digital formats.

These developments are all wonderful but one area has seen less progress than others until recently. That is the area of manufacturing and the food industry. While the face of our service industry has forever changed, the manufacturing and transportation of goods is still incredibly expensive and inefficient. Huge amounts of resources and equipment are needed to bring goods to consumers – journeys of tens of thousands of miles are now routine and commonplace.

A Star Trek Solution To A Modern Problem

However, with the advent of something more akin to Star Trek than real life, all this is about to change with a new invention that promises a radically different business world. Since 2003 scientists and engineers have been working on 3-D printing.

Unlike normal, two-dimensional printing, 3-D printing creates proper functional objects. It works by putting down layer upon layer of different substances, depending on the application. Each layer can be as thinner than one hundred microns (one-tenth of a millimetre). Gradually, all the layers add up to create the three-dimensional object.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GcC2vcFiQw

Limitless Uses

As of yet the technology is still in its infancy but already it is being used by many business sectors including the aerospace and automobile industries. There are currently open source projects working on better ways to create a wider range of different products and applications that are free to the general public.

The costs of constructing 3-D printers are roughly the same as what the prices of 2-D printers were originally. You can construct your own 3-D printer with free plans from as little as €1,200 and the cost will only go down as they become more common. The applications for such printers are really limitless. Already people have built car panels, batteries, biscuits, bicycles, and specialised fabricating parts.

What does the future have in store for 3-D printing? In the future, people will be able to recreate many types of food. They will choose from pre-programmed recipes and select which meal they would like to eat today. Virtually anything of object will be able to be produced at home. People will not need to go to hardware shops. Instead they will have the ability to create anything from the comfort of their own home.

The Dawn Of A New Reality

All of these changes will result in a cataclysmic shift in economics. Whole manufacturing industries will be reduced to highly specialised sectors. The real demand will be for the raw materials required for 3-D printing. This will be one of the last frontiers of global commerce.

Like all technologies, 3-D printing will become more advanced in time. As it becomes more and more refined. a wider array of products, each more sophisticated than the last, will be added to home manufacturing.

3-D printing promises to herald one of the most interesting ages in human history.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmxjLpu2BvY

Tethys: Saturn’s Moon Of Mystery

Yellow Magpie — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:51:09 +0000

Tethys is a mid-sized frozen world that is deeply cratered. Yet not much is know about this icy world or how it comes to have such a large amount of water.

At just over 1,000 kilometres (650 miles) across, Tethys is the 16th largest moon in the Solar System. It takes the moon just under two days to make the journey around Saturn at a distance of 294,000 km (184,000 miles).

Core Or No Core?

The exact composition of Tethys remains a mystery although the vast majority of its mass is at least composed of frozen water. Unlike some of the other moons of Saturn and Jupiter, Tethys is considered an unlikely candidate to have a liquid ocean underneath its crust. If it does have a rocky core, given its known density, it cannot be larger than six per cent of the satellites total mass.

Brightly Cratered World

Apart from the Sun, Tethys is one of the brightest objects in the Solar System. Its high albedo is due to the icy crust being continuously sanded by the fine grit of Saturn’s E-Ring.

The moon’s surface is greatly pockmarked by tens of thousands of craters. Many of the craters are quite large, in excess of 40 kilometres (25 miles across).

Most scientists believe that Tethys was formed by the coalescence of ice particles orbiting Saturn. However, this has yet to be proved and it is still a mystery why the moon has such large amounts of water.

Tethys may not be on NASA’s top five places to visit right now. Nonetheless, if the patterns of history are anything to go by sometimes the most surprising things are found in the unlikeliest of places.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MsVGqgpjSc

Highly Recommended Reading

Check out Yellow Magpie’s The Planet Saturn: The Ringed Wonder Of The Solar System for more insight into the largest planet in the Solar System.

Cosmos is a highly recommended book. It contains large, full-page pictures of the asteroids and writing on the subject by the highly competent author, Giles Sparrow.

Amazon.co.uk
For people living in Ireland or the United Kingdom, you can access: Cosmos from here.

Amazon.ca
For those who live in Canada, you can obtain: Cosmos here.

Amazon.de
For Germany: Cosmos.

Amazon.fr
For France: Cosmos.

Saturn’s Moon Enceladus: Contender For Life?

Yellow Magpie — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 21:11:39 +0000

An ice encrusted world beyond the rocky planets, nestled in the heart of the gas giants, is perplexing scientists.

A relatively small moon, Enceladus is just over 500 kilometres in width (310 miles). Orbiting Saturn at a distance of 237,000 kilometres (147,000 miles), it takes the satellite just under 33 hours to complete one journey around the planet.

The Ice Coated World

One of the most prominent features of Enceladus is its white appearance. The moon is the most reflective satellite in the Solar System and has the highest albedo value. If one were to design the perfect snowball world, Enceladus would surely spring to mind.

On the surface Enceladus is insufferably cold with a mean temperature of minus 198 degree Celsius (minus 324 degrees Fahrenheit).

The pristine nature of Enceladus’s surface and the fact that the entire moon was relatively unblemished by craters suggests that something powerful had or still was reshaping the satellite’s surface. Upon closer examination it was discovered that Enceladus had many craters but all of them were in various states of deformation or degradation.

The Mystery Of The Tiger Stripes

Something that also grabbed astronomers’ attention were thin stripes that contained a bluish hue scouring parts of the moon. The most prominent of these were the so-called ‘tiger stripes’ in Enceladus’s southern hemisphere.

The mystery was further deepened when the Cassini probe discovered that the moon was venting plumes of water and trace amounts of ammonia, carbon dioxide and nitrogen.

Thermal scans of the tiger stripes have revealed that these areas are up to 20 degrees Celsius (36 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer that the surrounding surface. In other words, Enceladus was being heated somehow and this heat source was responsible for the plumes that were being ejected into space..

How Is Enceladus Heated?

Scientists immediately began to ask the quesiton as to how Enceladus, a small moon, was being heated. The heating was too intense to be tidal heating alone, like what occurs in other moons such as Europa and Ganymeade. Tidal heating was undoubtedly occurring but this was only part of the story.

It is now believed the heat produced by the radioactive decay of elements within Enceladus’s core, together with tidal heating, is responsible for this phenomenon.

The Strong Possibility Of Life

Despite earlier scepticism about an underground ocean residing beneath the crust of Enceladus, it is now believed that the moon does indeed harbour a salty ocean. The salty composition of the plumes being vented by the moon has strengthened further this belief.

Where there is a liquid water ocean and salt, there is a strong possibility for life. Like Europa, and other strong contenders for life in the Solar System, it is unlikely that we will actually find the answer until we send people there to look for themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBhAPz5pqYg

Highly Recommended Reading

Check out Yellow Magpie’s The Planet Saturn: The Ringed Wonder Of The Solar System for more insight into the largest planet in the Solar System.

Cosmos is a highly recommended book. It contains large, full-page pictures of the asteroids and writing on the subject by the highly competent author, Giles Sparrow.

Amazon.co.uk
For people living in Ireland or the United Kingdom, you can access: Cosmos from here.

Amazon.ca
For those who live in Canada, you can obtain: Cosmos here.

Amazon.de
For Germany: Cosmos.

Amazon.fr
For France: Cosmos.

Why Animal Extinction Is Costing Us Dearly

Yellow Magpie — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 20:08:39 +0000

We are in an age of unprecedented technology. We may be even entering a phase in computer history when Moore’s famous law of computer processing power doubling every 18 months is blown out of the water by a new type of processing substrate.

Despite all of these advances we are losing many invaluable animals. Finally, people are beginning to understand why it is so important that we try to preserve as many creatures as possible. If we don’t, we may be losing out on something that could potentially change the future history of humanity.

Many of the exciting discoveries in medicine are coming from unusual sources, creatures that are generally associated with pain and death, the world of the venomous.

The animal kingdom contains fatal organisms that can kill several people with a tiny amount of venom. Creatures such as spiders, snakes and box jellyfish can kill their prey within minutes. These living things have evolved deadly biological weapons to gain advantage over other species. Thus preserving their kind in the ultimate battle of survival.

The Vehement Nature Of Venom

The effects of venom are highly varied. They can affect the nervous system, vital organs, cause muscle paralysis, red blood cells to explode, severe neurological trauma and the heart to stop beating.

Two characteristics of venom make it lethal, the first is how quickly it acts and the second is how it works. Once injected with venom the effects of the toxin on the victim can be almost instantaneous. Venom is really a collection of proteins which are a vital component of biological systems. Proteins dictate how cells function and can control entire body systems. Venom proteins immediately interfere in the body’s natural processes and essentially reprogramme cells.

Venom A Game-Changer For Humanity

Venomous creatures may have thousands of different toxic strains delivering all of them in one bite or sting. Some of these strains may be highly beneficial and it is more than likely that some contain cures to many of the problems that plague human beings. Already snake bite venom from a South American rattle snake has proved invaluable for treating patients with heart conditions.

However, we have not even begun to tap into the vast potential of venom. Scientists have realistic expectations that venom will contain the cure for cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, diabetes and Parkinson’s syndrome.

Stretching out into the future, there may be more revolutions in health care and human development with venom at the core. Some strains of venom may be able to limit human ageing and prolong our lifespan.

All of these developments seemed so far away but the emergence of two things have meant that we are now on the cusp of solving such previously overwhelming problems. These are our increased computer processing power and a better scientific understanding of biological systems. Without either, this leap in human health would not have been possible.

Losing Potential Miracles Through Extinction

There is one major concern that may jeopardise all of these potential breakthroughs and that is the fact that we are losing many of these species to extinction. Unless we protect these creatures and do everything in our power to prevent their demise – some strains of beneficial venom may be lost forever.

For every species of insect, snake or other animal that dies off, potential benefits to humanity die with them. It is finally starting to dawn on people that they we are losing much more than creatures that, on first glance, appear to be irrelevant to us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBWiy7-gRL8

Highly Recommended

Venom: Nature’s Killer is a highly interesting voyage into the world of the toxic. Well-made the documentary explores the tremendous potential venom can provide mankind.

You can obtain Nova: Venom: Nature’s Killer from Amazon here.

The Minor Moons Of Saturn: The Smaller Saturnine Satellites

Yellow Magpie — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 16:59:23 +0000

Saturn contains more moons than any other planet with over fifty been given official names. Yellow Magpie takes a look at some of these smaller moons. Over the coming weeks we shall be examining some of the larger moons in more detail.

Pandora

Pandora is a moon that orbits Saturn at a distance of just under 140,000 kilometres (90,000 miles) in the A Ring of Saturn. At just 86 kilometres in diameter (53 miles), Pandora is a very small world that takes just over 15 hours to complete a circuit around Saturn. Despite, its irregular shape, the surface of Pandora is quite smooth as it is constantly sandblasted by tiny ring particles that crash into it as it orbits around the planet.

Epimetheus

At just over 122 kilometres, Epimetheus, like Pandora, is not large enough to form a spherical shape. It orbits Saturn at a distance of 150,000 kilometres (90,000 miles) taking just under 17 hours to complete a journey around the planet.

One of the strangest sights in the Solar System is that of Hyperion, a visual sponge-like oddity. At 370 kilometres (230 miles) it is too large to be the shape it is. Instead it should be a sphere. Scientists believe that it is the remains of a much larger satellite which was destroyed by a massive impact. Hyperion orbits Saturn at a distance of 1,300,000 kilometres (810,000 miles).

Phoebe

Another of Saturn’s irregular-shaped satellites, Phoebe’s unusual pock-marked shape, and the fact that it orbits Saturn in the opposite direction of everything else, suggests that the body is a captured asteroid. Phoebe is 220 kilometres in diameter and orbits the planet at a distance of 15,000 kilometres (9,000 miles). Due to its close proximity to Saturn it takes quite a while for Phoebe to complete an orbit, 550 Earth days in fact.

Mimas

Mimas gets perhaps the most attention for its unusual shape and the fact that it closely resembles the Death Star out of the Star Wars franchise. The depression that creates this effect is the rather large Herschel Crater which is 140 kilometres (80 miles) in diameter.

The moon itself is just over 416 kilometres (260 miles) across and takes over 22 hours to make the trip around Saturn, orbiting at a distance of 185,000 kilometres (115 miles).

All of these moons are stunningly cold places to be in with temperatures between minus 200 and minus 190 degrees Celsius (minus 310 and 328 degrees Fahrenheit).

In the coming weeks we shall take a more detailed look at Saturn’s larger satellites.

Highly Recommended Reading

Check out Yellow Magpie’s Jupiter: The Local Gas Giant Of The Solar System for more insight into the largest planet in the Solar System.

Cosmos is a highly recommended book. It contains large, full-page pictures of the asteroids and writing on the subject by the highly competent author, Giles Sparrow.

Amazon.co.uk
For people living in Ireland or the United Kingdom, you can access: Cosmos from here.

Amazon.ca
For those who live in Canada, you can obtain: Cosmos here.

Amazon.de
For Germany: Cosmos.

Amazon.fr
For France: Cosmos.

Soap And Water: The Best Way To Build Infrastructure

Yellow Magpie — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 01:22:26 +0000

Have you ever marvelled at the inefficiencies of the planning system? Stood in horror at the state of some of our roads? Pondered at the lack of transport in between cities and towns?

Well there is a solution to reducing the cost of all of these problems and it doesn’t come from where you would expect.

Does the picture above look like it offers the best design and planning? Here is a guy that has something better in mind.

Cambridge University mathematician, James Grime, demonstrates nature’s ability to minimise effort and find the most efficient route between different points.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAyDi1aa40E

You can look at more of James’s work by visiting his website Singing Banana and choosing your medium of choice.

Perhaps if our own local planners used these methods to construct more cost-effective roads, better railways and infrastructure networks a lot of money and needless expenditure could be saved.

Why not leave a comment and tell us what you think?

The Planet Saturn: The Ringed Wonder Of The Solar System

Yellow Magpie — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:37:14 +0000

One of the most stunning sites in the Solar System, its bright rings command our attention and demand we stop to acknowledge its beauty. Saturn, the gas giant, has the the most visibly eye-pleasing rings of all the giants, but there is much more to it than just a collection of particles rotating around its substantial gravitational field.

Scales Of The Gigantic

At 120,000 kilometres (75,000 miles) in diameter, Saturn may not be as large as Jupiter but the planet is massive in comparison to the Earth. Orbiting at a distance of just over ten astronomical units (the distance between the Sun and the Earth is one AU), it takes Saturn nearly 30 Earth years to complete one trip around the Sun.

Despite its year taking so long, one day lasts just over ten and a half hours. Therefore, one Saturn year is an incredible 10,760 Saturn-days long.

A Layered Giant

The planet’s composition is not dissimilar to Jupiter. With many layers of different chemicals with a solid core in the centre. The outermost layer is composed of clouds, below this lies a hydrogen and helium atmosphere. This transitions from a gaseous to a liquid state under pressure farther in. Beneath this gaseous/liquid layer, the pressure forces the liquid hydrogen to form liquid metallic hydrogen. The metallic hydrogen is mixed with hydrogen. It is metallic hydrogen which powers Saturn’s magnetic field.

Finally, at the heart of the planet is a compressed rock and ice core.

Although we may think of Saturn as being a perfect sphere, this is far from the truth. The planet has an enormous bulge of several thousand kilometres around its equator. This is due to the relationship between Saturn’s relatively weak gravitational field which allows its atmosphere to extend farther than other planet and its fast-paced rotation.

A Many Mooned World

Saturn has the greatest number of satellites of all the planets in the Solar System. It also is orbited by the appropriately named Titan, a planet-sized moon that is the second-largest satellite orbiting any of the worlds. As of today, there are 53 moons that have been given names. Yellow Magpie will take a closer look at these moons over the course of the coming weeks. Some of these satellites are enormous and fully spherical while others are irregular and little more than a few kilometres across.

The Ring World

The most famous aspect of Saturn is undoubtedly its rings. From a distance of just over 6,000 kilometres (3,750 miles) all the way to over 120,000 kilometres (75,000 miles), Saturn’s rings are a colossal feature of the Solar System. Astronomers have grouped different areas of the rings, which vary in structure and composition.

The faint ring closest to the planet is known as the D Ring. This ring contains very fine particles. Next out is the C, or Crepe, Ring which is a five metre thick layer of larger particles which contain lumps of ice. The B ring is the brightest area of Saturn’s rings. This brightness is created by large particles of ice.

As you head out farther from the planet the particles in the rings get larger and denser. One of the most interesting visual aspects of the ring system is the Cassini Division, an area that was previously thought to be empty of particles but we now known contains many other rings. Beyond Cassini resides the A Ring which contains large ice boulders which have been rendered smooth from constantly smashing into each other.

There are several other rings and divisions or gaps but the outermost ring of Saturn is known as the F Ring, this ring is very thin and, at only one or two hundred kilometres in width, is one of the smaller rings of the planet.

Stunning Auroras

One of the great sights in our small part of the Milky Way Galaxy is the visually alluring auroras of Saturn. Created by the interaction between the Sun’s plasma bursts and the planet’s magnetic field, the auroras on Saturn are very much visible from the Earth with the aid of powerful telescopes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL__UbPsPDg

Highly Recommended Reading

Check out Yellow Magpie’s Jupiter: The Local Gas Giant Of The Solar System for more insight into the largest planet in the Solar System.

Cosmos is a highly recommended book. It contains large, full-page pictures of the asteroids and writing on the subject by the highly competent author, Giles Sparrow.

Amazon.co.uk
For people living in Ireland or the United Kingdom, you can access: Cosmos from here.

Amazon.ca
For those who live in Canada, you can obtain: Cosmos here.

Amazon.de
For Germany: Cosmos.

Amazon.fr
For France: Cosmos.

Jupiter’s Moon Callisto: Gateway To The Stars?

Yellow Magpie — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:38:44 +0000

Callisto is the farthest of Jupiter’s giant moons. This heavily pock-marked satellite is one of the darkest worlds in the Solar System peppered by brighter craters – which reveal an icy underbelly.

A Non-Layered World

At 9,600 kilometres (6,000 miles), Callisto is a formidable size for a moon. It orbits Jupiter at a distance of 1,800,000 kilometres (1,125,000 miles) taking just under 17 Earth-days to do so.

One of the most interesting things, something that we will get back to soon, is its composition. Composed mainly of rock and ice, Callisto has no differentiating layers below what is thought to be a salt-water ocean.

A Strange Phenomenon

Strangely, when the Galileo probe passed by it detected a magnetic field. As Callisto’s interior does not have a core and is too far away from Jupiter to be affected by tidal heating, this left scientists slightly perplexed.

Further studies of this phenomenon have indicated that the moon is likely shielded from Jupiter’s powerful magnetic core by something beneath its crust, a substance that has the ability to conduct Jupiter’s magnetic field. Some have theorised that this is in fact a subterranean ocean of saltwater that could contain a type of anti-freeze such as ammonia.

If this ocean exists it could be as great as 300 kilometres (186 miles) deep. To put this in context, on Earth it is thought that roughly half of our oceans are 3,000 metres deep. This would mean that Callisto could support an ocean that is on average 100 times deeper than that of our home planet.

An Older World

One of the most heavily cratered of any body in the Solar System, Callisto is very different from the other moons of Jupiter. Its surface is much older and it is believed that the crust has never been resurfaced unlike the other Galilean moons.

Callisto is thought to be almost saturated by craters which means that new impacts have a high probability of wiping out existing craters.

The Moon’s Prospects

One of the most intriguing questions that is currently being asked about Callisto is, does it support life? At present, because of its cold temperature and the fact that the moon is not heated by tidal forces means that it is implausible that it could support life unlike Europa which is a prime candidate.

The moon’s position in the Solar System could play a very important part in the future of humanity. Due to its distance from Jupiter, Callisto does not experience the high levels of radiation that the other Galilean moons have. This could see the satellite becoming a gateway to greater things. NASA has already drawn up tentative plans to send a manned mission as near as 2040 into the future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGjK_UQbkLI

Highly Recommended Reading

Check out Yellow Magpie’s Jupiter: The Local Gas Giant Of The Solar System for more insight into the largest planet in the Solar System.

Cosmos is a highly recommended book. It contains large, full-page pictures of the asteroids and writing on the subject by the highly competent author, Giles Sparrow.

Amazon.co.uk
For people living in Ireland or the United Kingdom, you can access: Cosmos from here.

Amazon.ca
For those who live in Canada, you can obtain: Cosmos here.

Amazon.de
For Germany: Cosmos.

Amazon.fr
For France: Cosmos.