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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday March 28 2017, @02:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the at-least-the-ice-cream-won't-melt dept.

As you probably know, NASA recently announced plans to send a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa. If all goes well, the Europa Clipper will blast off for the world in the 2020s, and orbit the icy moon to discover all its secrets.

And that's great and all, I like Europa just fine. But you know where I'd really like us to go next? Titan.

Titan, as you probably know, is the largest moon orbiting Saturn. In fact, it's the second largest moon in the solar system after Jupiter's Ganymede. It measures 5,190 kilometers across, almost half the diameter of the Earth. This place is big.

It orbits Saturn every 15 hours and 22 days, and like many large moons in the solar system, it's tidally locked to its planet, always showing Saturn one side.

Before NASA's Voyager spacecraft arrived in 1980, astronomers actually thought that Titan was the biggest moon in the solar system. But Voyager showed that it actually has a thick atmosphere, that extends well into space, making the true size of the moon hard to judge.

This atmosphere is one of the most interesting features of Titan. In fact, it's the only moon in the entire solar system with a significant atmosphere. If you could stand on the surface, you would experience about 1.45 times the atmospheric pressure on Earth. In other words, you wouldn't need a pressure suit to wander around the surface of Titan.

That's great news. No pressure suit needed to walk on the surface of Titan, only a rebreather and a wool sweater.


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  • (Score: 2) by turgid on Tuesday March 28 2017, @08:28PM (5 children)

    by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 28 2017, @08:28PM (#485453) Journal

    Sorry, I couldn't resist.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2, Funny) by WalksOnDirt on Wednesday March 29 2017, @02:48AM (1 child)

    by WalksOnDirt (5854) on Wednesday March 29 2017, @02:48AM (#485624) Journal

    I don't know what a ponted stick is. A bridge? A ferry?

  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2017, @01:35PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2017, @01:35PM (#485873)

    Relase the tiger!

    • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:12AM (1 child)

      by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:12AM (#486338) Journal

      Or the 20-ton weight. For those of you scratching your head (hopefully not other miscellaneous body parts), turgid is referring to one of the canonical Monty Python's Flying Circus skits, "Self-defense"? Or was it "Skittles"? A maniac armed with a George Zimmerman? This is why I will not visit Florida. Alligators that can stand their ground. No, just watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U90dnUbZMmM [youtube.com] "Self-defence Against Fresh Fruit" One redeeming quality of English culture, humor.

      • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:19AM

        by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:19AM (#486341) Journal

        Errata: 16-ton weight. But that is just one, just one! of many ways of stopping the raspberry fiend! Then comes the "release the Tiger. Followed by Gellinite?