Lost Cause
It's a wrap!
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2001
- Posts
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FYI----
HONOLULU - Telescopes atop Mauna Kea have recorded for the first time clouds floating over Saturn's biggest moon — considered by some astronomers to be the most earth-like body in the solar system, scientists reported Wednesday.
Peering across 808 million miles, scientists from the California Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley, used telescopes at the Keck and Gemini observatories atop the dormant volcano on the Big Island to photograph methane clouds near the south pole of the moon Titan.
Although some planets, most notably Jupiter, are covered in clouds, it's the first time the process of evaporation and cloud formation has been spotted in space, said Caltech scientist Michael Brown.
Any precipitation falling on Titan would be methane rain or hail, rather than water, he added.
The cloud observations are based on views from atop Mauna Kea in late 2001 and earlier this year. Titan, one of 30 moons orbiting Saturn, is a little less than half the size of Earth, and much larger than Earth's moon.
A haze has hindered past attempts to more clearly view the surface of Titan. Previous observations of the body had indicated an unchanging surface and no clouds.
*Be sure to bring an umbrella!
HONOLULU - Telescopes atop Mauna Kea have recorded for the first time clouds floating over Saturn's biggest moon — considered by some astronomers to be the most earth-like body in the solar system, scientists reported Wednesday.
Peering across 808 million miles, scientists from the California Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley, used telescopes at the Keck and Gemini observatories atop the dormant volcano on the Big Island to photograph methane clouds near the south pole of the moon Titan.
Although some planets, most notably Jupiter, are covered in clouds, it's the first time the process of evaporation and cloud formation has been spotted in space, said Caltech scientist Michael Brown.
Any precipitation falling on Titan would be methane rain or hail, rather than water, he added.
The cloud observations are based on views from atop Mauna Kea in late 2001 and earlier this year. Titan, one of 30 moons orbiting Saturn, is a little less than half the size of Earth, and much larger than Earth's moon.
A haze has hindered past attempts to more clearly view the surface of Titan. Previous observations of the body had indicated an unchanging surface and no clouds.
*Be sure to bring an umbrella!
