Re Titan is alive and kicking
Let's hope Titan (aka LV-426) never starts its own space programme...
Astroboffins monitoring Titan have spotted something new that hints at how the moon's weather works. The folks behind the discovery have named the new feature a “magic island”, because nobody knows what it is or why it appeared. The discovery is detailed in a Nature Geoscience letter titled “Transient features in a Titan sea …
"Feels like" means "I don't understand it".
Charles Fort: "a performance that may some day be considered understandable, but that, in these primitive times, so transcends what is said to be the known; that it is what I mean by magic."
Leigh Brackett: "Witchcraft to the ignorant, .... Simple science to the learned".
A. C. Clarke: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Rumour has it that some of the creatures are so (ahem) titanic, that they are often mistaken for islands by visiting sailors and indeed scientific parties, who may land on them for research or indeed barbecues. Their mistake is oft-times fatal when the creature once again descends to the depths.
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How? By magic, apparently. :-)
And before all you nay-sayers start off, it is well known that any sufficiently primitive magic is indistinguishable from technology (or, possibly, just indistinguishable from some not especially obvious physical process or other).
Why? A huge bloated atmosphere and the liquid on the ground is confined to a few relatively small areas. Now if I was a betting man I'd lay a few quid on the fact that Titan is undergoing a very slow runaway greenhouse style effect and that in a few thousand/million years (take your pick), Titan will be completely dry of liquid hydrocarbons with them all having evaporated into its atmosphere swelling it even more. Whereas in the past - looking at the landscape - its fairly obvious there was oceans worth of liquid on the surface , far more than today.
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Yes, that shows something shiny where it was black before. But if you compare the lighter area it the before and after shots it has definately fattened up. So, for example, it seems unlikely to be winds action on waves generating higher albedo, because if so how has it done it consistently in all the little bay areas too?
It does havethe look of land and sea about it, so possible the sea has dropped a bit. Perhaps it tends to freeze when in contact with the land?
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The possibility of methane instead of water based bacteria isn't completely deranged.
They might grow incredibly slowly, in cell divisions per week but still be alive.
Of course, if so then that "transient island" might be an algal bloom using radiant energy from Saturn and the tiny amount of sunlight filtering through to grow, maybe.
It is clear that in the later shot there is a much higher aspect to the light source - note the increased albedo on 'west' facing slopes and peaks. Also there appears to be a 'terminator' line about 30% from the 'east' edge. The 'new' features are not limited to the magic island, but are limited to the area to the 'west' of the terminator line. There is not cloud in the area.
This all suggests increased liquid temperatures and lower density. Sunk 'icebergs' will float; evaporation will pick up dramatically and gas will push into cold 'east' area and contract creating hell of a west wind keeping the air clear and possible contributing to a tidal surge 'eastward' also exposing more 'land' in the west.
The higher light aspect has also highlighted many previously shadowy images in the 'west' revealing previously indistinct surface features which are also now "thickened" by surge=induced local drop in 'sea-level'. ... or too could be eating mushrooms.:-)