Titan/tides

Darn good question. I would like to know this also. It would depend on the
rotation time of Titan and the eccentricity of its orbit, and the exact
time. I have no idea.
"Pierre Vandevennne" wrote in message
...


Assuming there are "seas" on Titan, whatever they are made of, does anyone
knows if the tides were high or low at the location Huygens touched down?

I saw some amateur speculation that the altitude pics looked a lot like
the
tide weathered dutch coastal areas, and at the same time ESA mentions the
possibility of erosion at the foot of the stones/ice cubes.

That's fun to imagine that Huygens landed on a beach, at a time where the
tides were low and that the erosion seen at the bottom of the stones/ice
cubes is what we can observe at the base of round stones on a sand beach
here.

Also, a fun site (thanks for the link JMB!)

http://anthony.liekens.net/index.php/Main/Huygens

On 15 Jan 2005 16:31:24 GMT, Pierre Vandevennne
wrote:

Assuming there are "seas" on Titan, whatever they are made of, does anyone
knows if the tides were high or low at the location Huygens touched down?

That's a very good point. Some quick math using mean masses and
distances for Saturn and Titan would suggest the tidal forces are some
50 times stronger than between the Earth and Moon.

That would suggest tidal activity might be significant on Titan.

---
Michael McCulloch

"Pierre Vandevennne" wrote in message
...


Assuming there are "seas" on Titan, whatever they are made of, does
anyone
knows if the tides were high or low at the location Huygens touched
down?

I saw some amateur speculation that the altitude pics looked a lot
like the
tide weathered dutch coastal areas, and at the same time ESA mentions
the
possibility of erosion at the foot of the stones/ice cubes.

That's fun to imagine that Huygens landed on a beach, at a time where
the
tides were low and that the erosion seen at the bottom of the
stones/ice
cubes is what we can observe at the base of round stones on a sand
beach
here.

Also, a fun site (thanks for the link JMB!)

http://anthony.liekens.net/index.php/Main/Huygens

I think I read somewhere that Titan is gravitationally locked to
Saturn - hence no tides; or rather a permanent high tide at
sub-saturnian point and its antipode.

see para 6 in this article
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1212/p25s02-stss.html

Tides of what? Obviously not enough to wipe out all the impact
craters Isee.



Michael McCulloch wrote:

On 15 Jan 2005 16:31:24 GMT, Pierre Vandevennne
wrote:

Assuming there are "seas" on Titan, whatever they are made of, does anyone
knows if the tides were high or low at the location Huygens touched down?

That's a very good point. Some quick math using mean masses and
distances for Saturn and Titan would suggest the tidal forces are some
50 times stronger than between the Earth and Moon.

That would suggest tidal activity might be significant on Titan.

---
Michael McCulloch

Assuming there are "seas" on Titan, whatever they are made of, does anyone
knows if the tides were high or low at the location Huygens touched down?

That's a very good point. Some quick math using mean masses and
distances for Saturn and Titan would suggest the tidal forces are some
50 times stronger than between the Earth and Moon.

That would suggest tidal activity might be significant on Titan.

Actually, from a distance of many km from the surface, they remaind me
of the seas on the Moon. Image 3 on the Cassini site seems to very clearly
show craters throughout. I would have trouble imagining ripples or tides
that large. The image info claims there is a "shoreline", but it looks a
lot more to me like crater boundaries, as would be seen on the Moon.

Dominic

Dominic-Luc Webb wrote in
:

of the seas on the Moon. Image 3 on the Cassini site seems to very
clearly show craters throughout. I would have trouble imagining
ripples or tides that large. The image info claims there is a
"shoreline", but it looks a lot more to me like crater boundaries, as
would be seen on the Moon.

Well, see the other thread he I guess we aren't sure there are small
craters there.

Some probably very dumb questions and possibly dumb answers.

What is the density of liquid or solid ethane at Titan's temperature?
Finding the density at 20C is easy enough, but ethane ice?

Ethane is flammable. I guess that means it can be violently oxydized. I've
read also that there was propane and acetylene. How does one safely
introduce oxygen in such a system?


--
Pierre Vandevenne - DataRescue sa/nv - www.datarescue.com
The IDA Pro Disassembler & Debugger - world leader in hostile code analysis
PhotoRescue - advanced data recovery for digital photographic media
latest review: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1590497,00.asp