Saturn's Titan -A Giant Organics Factory

[n2doc]

"Titan is just covered in carbon-bearing material -- it's a giant factory of organic chemicals."

"We are carbon-based life, and understanding how far along the chain of complexity towards life that chemistry can go in an environment like Titan will be important in understanding the origins of life throughout the universe."
~Ralph Lorenz -Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

Saturn's orange moon Titan has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, according to new data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The hydrocarbons rain from the sky, collecting in vast deposits that form lakes and dunes.

At an eye popping minus 179 degrees Celsius (minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit), Titan has a surface of liquid hydrocarbons in the form of methane and ethane with tholins believed to make up its dunes. The term "tholins," coined by Carl Sagan in 1979, describe the complex organic molecules at the heart of prebiotic chemistry.

Cassini has mapped about 20 percent of Titan's surface with radar. Several hundred lakes and seas have been observed, with each of several dozen estimated to contain more hydrocarbon liquid than Earth's oil and gas reserves. Dark dunes that run along the equator contain a volume of organics several hundred times larger than Earth's coal reserves.

more:

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/01/saturns-titan-.html

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

1. Great!

Let's leave it alone.

[leftofthedial]

2. don't tell cheney.

he'll try to build a pipeline.

[Cirque du So-What]

3. If there's any cosmic justice

that's where The Dick of Death and the rest of his oily ilk will go when they finally croak. Like the old admonition tells us, 'be careful what you wish for, lest you actually get it.'

[PerfectSage]

4. LOL

He'll claim Saturn has weapons of mass destruction and ties to Al Qaeda.

[icnorth]

5. Too late. According to reliable resources

reporting from an undisclosed location its already in the works when he starts a new job in his afterlife.