Titan Through Time Boulder, Colorado August 10-12, 2021 Scientific Program
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Cassini Update
Cassini Update Dr. Linda Spilker Cassini Project Scientist Outer Planets Assessment Group 22 February 2017 Sols%ce Mission Inclina%on Profile equator Saturn wrt Inclination 22 February 2017 LJS-3 Year 3 Key Flybys Since Aug. 2016 OPAG T124 – Titan flyby (1584 km) • November 13, 2016 • LAST Radio Science flyby • One of only two (cf. T106) ideal bistatic observations capturing Titan’s Northern Seas • First and only bistatic observation of Punga Mare • Western Kraken Mare not explored by RSS before T125 – Titan flyby (3158 km) • November 29, 2016 • LAST Optical Remote Sensing targeted flyby • VIMS high-resolution map of the North Pole looking for variations at and around the seas and lakes. • CIRS last opportunity for vertical profile determination of gases (e.g. water, aerosols) • UVIS limb viewing opportunity at the highest spatial resolution available outside of occultations 22 February 2017 4 Interior of Hexagon Turning “Less Blue” • Bluish to golden haze results from increased production of photochemical hazes as north pole approaches summer solstice. • Hexagon acts as a barrier that prevents haze particles outside hexagon from migrating inward. • 5 Refracting Atmosphere Saturn's• 22unlit February rings appear 2017 to bend as they pass behind the planet’s darkened limb due• 6 to refraction by Saturn's upper atmosphere. (Resolution 5 km/pixel) Dione Harbors A Subsurface Ocean Researchers at the Royal Observatory of Belgium reanalyzed Cassini RSS gravity data• 7 of Dione and predict a crust 100 km thick with a global ocean 10’s of km deep. Titan’s Summer Clouds Pose a Mystery Why would clouds on Titan be visible in VIMS images, but not in ISS images? ISS ISS VIMS High, thin cirrus clouds that are optically thicker than Titan’s atmospheric haze at longer VIMS wavelengths,• 22 February but optically 2017 thinner than the haze at shorter ISS wavelengths, could be• 8 detected by VIMS while simultaneously lost in the haze to ISS. -
Transient Broad Specular Reflections from Titan's North Pole
Lunar and Planetary Science XLVIII (2017) 1519.pdf TRANSIENT BROAD SPECULAR REFLECTIONS FROM TITAN’S NORTH POLE Rajani Dhingra1, J. W. Barnes1, R. H. Brown2, B J. Buratti3, C. Sotin3, P. D. Nicholson4, K. H. Baines5, R. N. Clark6, J. M. Soderblom7, Ralph Jaumann8, Sebastien Rodriguez9 and Stéphane Le Mouélic10 1Dept. of Physics, University of Idaho, ID,USA, [email protected], 2Dept. of Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona, AZ, USA, 3JPL, Caltech, CA, USA, 4Cornell University, Astronomy Dept., NY, USA, 5Space Science & Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin- Madison, 1225 West Dayton St., WI, USA, 6Planetary Science Institute, Arizona, USA, 7Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, USA, 8Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, 12489, Germany, 9Laboratoire AIM, Centre d’etude de Saclay, DAPNIA/Sap, Centre de lorme des Merisiers, 91191 Gif/Yvette, France, 10Laboratoire de Planetologie et Geodynamique, CNRS UMR6112, Universite de Nantes, France. Introduction: The recent Cassini VIMS (Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer) T120 observation of Titan show extensive north polar surface features which might correspond to a broad, off-specular reflec- tion from a wet, rough, solid surface. The observation appears similar in spectral nature to previous specular reflection observations and also has the appropriate geometry. Figure 1 illustrates the geometry of specular reflection from Jingpo Lacus [1], waves from Punga Mare [2] and T120 observation of broad off-specular reflection from land surfaces. We observe specular reflections apart from the observation of broad specular reflection and extensive clouds in the T120 flyby. Our initial mapping shows that the off-specular re- flections occur only over land surfaces. -
The Science Case for a Titan Flagship-Class Orbiter with Probes (White Paper for the NRC Decadal Survey for Planetary Science and Astrobiology) Conor A
The Science Case for a Titan Flagship-class Orbiter with Probes (White paper for the NRC Decadal Survey for Planetary Science and Astrobiology) Conor A. Nixon, James Abshire, Andrew Ashton, Jason W. Barnes, Nathalie Carrasco, Mathieu Choukroun, Athena Coustenis, Louis-Alexandre Couston, Niklas Edberg, Alexander Gagnon, et al. To cite this version: Conor A. Nixon, James Abshire, Andrew Ashton, Jason W. Barnes, Nathalie Carrasco, et al.. The Science Case for a Titan Flagship-class Orbiter with Probes (White paper for the NRC Decadal Survey for Planetary Science and Astrobiology). 2020. hal-03085250 HAL Id: hal-03085250 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03085250 Preprint submitted on 21 Dec 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. The Science Case for a Titan Flagship-class Orbiter with Probes Authors: Conor A. Nixon, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA Planetary Systems Laboratory, 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (301) 286-6757 [email protected] James Abshire, University oF Maryland, USA Andrew Ashton, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA Jason W. Barnes, University oF Idaho, USA Nathalie Carrasco, Université Paris-Saclay, France, Mathieu Choukroun, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, USA Athena Coustenis, Paris Observatory, CNRS, PSL, France Louis-Alexandre Couston, British Antarctic Survey, UK Niklas Edberg, Swedish Institute oF Space Physics, Sweden Alexander Gagnon, University oF Washington, USA Jason D. -
Strategies for Detecting Biological Molecules on Titan
ASTROBIOLOGY Volume 18, Number 5, 2018 ª Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. DOI: 10.1089/ast.2017.1758 Strategies for Detecting Biological Molecules on Titan Catherine D. Neish,1 Ralph D. Lorenz,2 Elizabeth P. Turtle,2 Jason W. Barnes,3 Melissa G. Trainer,4 Bryan Stiles,5 Randolph Kirk,6 Charles A. Hibbitts,2 and Michael J. Malaska5 Abstract Saturn’s moon Titan has all the ingredients needed to produce ‘‘life as we know it.’’ When exposed to liquid water, organic molecules analogous to those found on Titan produce a range of biomolecules such as amino acids. Titan thus provides a natural laboratory for studying the products of prebiotic chemistry. In this work, we examine the ideal locales to search for evidence of, or progression toward, life on Titan. We determine that the best sites to identify biological molecules are deposits of impact melt on the floors of large, fresh impact craters, specifically Sinlap, Selk, and Menrva craters. We find that it is not possible to identify biomolecules on Titan through remote sensing, but rather through in situ measurements capable of identifying a wide range of biological molecules. Given the nonuniformity of impact melt exposures on the floor of a weathered impact crater, the ideal lander would be capable of precision targeting. This would allow it to identify the locations of fresh impact melt deposits, and/or sites where the melt deposits have been exposed through erosion or mass wasting. Determining the extent of prebiotic chemistry within these melt deposits would help us to understand how life could originate on a world very different from Earth. -
The Lakes and Seas of Titan • Explore Related Articles • Search Keywords Alexander G
EA44CH04-Hayes ARI 17 May 2016 14:59 ANNUAL REVIEWS Further Click here to view this article's online features: • Download figures as PPT slides • Navigate linked references • Download citations The Lakes and Seas of Titan • Explore related articles • Search keywords Alexander G. Hayes Department of Astronomy and Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853; email: [email protected] Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 2016. 44:57–83 Keywords First published online as a Review in Advance on Cassini, Saturn, icy satellites, hydrology, hydrocarbons, climate April 27, 2016 The Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences is Abstract online at earth.annualreviews.org Analogous to Earth’s water cycle, Titan’s methane-based hydrologic cycle This article’s doi: supports standing bodies of liquid and drives processes that result in common 10.1146/annurev-earth-060115-012247 Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 2016.44:57-83. Downloaded from annualreviews.org morphologic features including dunes, channels, lakes, and seas. Like lakes Access provided by University of Chicago Libraries on 03/07/17. For personal use only. Copyright c 2016 by Annual Reviews. on Earth and early Mars, Titan’s lakes and seas preserve a record of its All rights reserved climate and surface evolution. Unlike on Earth, the volume of liquid exposed on Titan’s surface is only a small fraction of the atmospheric reservoir. The volume and bulk composition of the seas can constrain the age and nature of atmospheric methane, as well as its interaction with surface reservoirs. Similarly, the morphology of lacustrine basins chronicles the history of the polar landscape over multiple temporal and spatial scales. -
Titan's Cold Case Files
Titan’s cold case files - Outstanding questions after Cassini-Huygens C.A. Nixon, R.D. Lorenz, R.K. Achterberg, A. Buch, P. Coll, R.N. Clark, R. Courtin, A. Hayes, L. Iess, R.E. Johnson, et al. To cite this version: C.A. Nixon, R.D. Lorenz, R.K. Achterberg, A. Buch, P. Coll, et al.. Titan’s cold case files - Out- standing questions after Cassini-Huygens. Planetary and Space Science, Elsevier, 2018, 155, pp.50-72. 10.1016/j.pss.2018.02.009. insu-03318440 HAL Id: insu-03318440 https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03318440 Submitted on 10 Aug 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution| 4.0 International License Planetary and Space Science 155 (2018) 50–72 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Planetary and Space Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pss Titan's cold case files - Outstanding questions after Cassini-Huygens C.A. Nixon a,*, R.D. Lorenz b, R.K. Achterberg c, A. Buch d, P. Coll e, R.N. Clark f, R. Courtin g, A. Hayes h, L. Iess i, R.E. -
The Exploration of Titan with an Orbiter and a Lake Probe
Planetary and Space Science ∎ (∎∎∎∎) ∎∎∎–∎∎∎ Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Planetary and Space Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pss The exploration of Titan with an orbiter and a lake probe Giuseppe Mitri a,n, Athena Coustenis b, Gilbert Fanchini c, Alex G. Hayes d, Luciano Iess e, Krishan Khurana f, Jean-Pierre Lebreton g, Rosaly M. Lopes h, Ralph D. Lorenz i, Rachele Meriggiola e, Maria Luisa Moriconi j, Roberto Orosei k, Christophe Sotin h, Ellen Stofan l, Gabriel Tobie a,m, Tetsuya Tokano n, Federico Tosi o a Université de Nantes, LPGNantes, UMR 6112, 2 rue de la Houssinière, F-44322 Nantes, France b Laboratoire d’Etudes Spatiales et d’Instrumentation en Astrophysique (LESIA), Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, UPMC University Paris 06, University Paris-Diderot, Meudon, France c Smart Structures Solutions S.r.l., Rome, Italy d Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, United States e Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica e Aerospaziale, Università La Sapienza, 00184 Rome, Italy f Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Los Angeles, CA, United States g LPC2E-CNRS & LESIA-Obs., Paris, France h Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States i Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, United States j Istituto di Scienze dell‘Atmosfera e del Clima (ISAC), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Rome, Italy k Istituto di Radioastronomia (IRA), Istituto Nazionale -
Secrets from Titan's Seas
Land O’Lakes Secrets from Titan’s seas By probing “magic islands” These images show Titan, from left to right, in October and December 2005 and January and seafloors, astronomers are 2006. The view from December is roughly the opposite side learning more than ever about of the moon from the October and January flybys, but careful inspection of Titan’s polar regions the lakes and seas on Saturn’s shows how dynamic and variable the polar weather can be. NASA/JPL/ largest moon. by Alexander G. Hayes UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA IMAGINE YOURSELF standing at the shoreline and organic material like plastic shavings or Styrofoam beads. On of a picturesque freshwater lake, surrounded by soft grass and leafy closer inspection, the lake holds not water, but a liquid not unlike trees. Perhaps you are enjoying a peaceful lakefront vacation. In the natural gas. And you’d better be holding your breath because the calm water, you see the mirror-like reflection of a cloudy sky just surrounding air has no oxygen. before it begins to rain. Now, let the surrounding vegetation disap- If you can picture all of this, welcome to the surface of Saturn’s pear, leaving behind a landscape you might more reasonably expect largest moon, Titan. to see in the rocky deserts of the southwestern United States. The Titan is the only extraterrestrial body known to support standing temperature is dropping too, all the way down to a bone-chilling bodies of liquid on its surface and the only moon with a dense atmo- –295° F (92 kelvins). -
Titan Submarine
NASA/TM—2015-218831 Phase I Final Report: Titan Submarine Steven R. Oleson Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio Ralph D. Lorenz Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland Michael V. Paul The Pennsylvania State University, Applied Research Laboratory, State College, Pennsylvania July 2015 NASA STI Program . in Profile Since its founding, NASA has been dedicated • CONTRACTOR REPORT. Scientific and to the advancement of aeronautics and space science. technical findings by NASA-sponsored The NASA Scientific and Technical Information (STI) contractors and grantees. Program plays a key part in helping NASA maintain this important role. • CONFERENCE PUBLICATION. Collected papers from scientific and technical conferences, symposia, seminars, or other The NASA STI Program operates under the auspices meetings sponsored or co-sponsored by NASA. of the Agency Chief Information Officer. It collects, organizes, provides for archiving, and disseminates • SPECIAL PUBLICATION. Scientific, NASA’s STI. The NASA STI Program provides access technical, or historical information from to the NASA Technical Report Server—Registered NASA programs, projects, and missions, often (NTRS Reg) and NASA Technical Report Server— concerned with subjects having substantial Public (NTRS) thus providing one of the largest public interest. collections of aeronautical and space science STI in the world. Results are published in both non-NASA • TECHNICAL TRANSLATION. English- channels and by NASA in the NASA STI Report language translations of foreign scientific and Series, which includes the following report types: technical material pertinent to NASA’s mission. • TECHNICAL PUBLICATION. Reports of For more information about the NASA STI completed research or a major significant phase program, see the following: of research that present the results of NASA programs and include extensive data or theoretical • Access the NASA STI program home page at analysis. -
Formation Et Développement Des Lacs De Titan : Interprétation Géomorphologique D’Ontario Lacus Et Analogues Terrestres Thomas Cornet
Formation et Développement des Lacs de Titan : Interprétation Géomorphologique d’Ontario Lacus et Analogues Terrestres Thomas Cornet To cite this version: Thomas Cornet. Formation et Développement des Lacs de Titan : Interprétation Géomorphologique d’Ontario Lacus et Analogues Terrestres. Planétologie. Ecole Centrale de Nantes (ECN), 2012. Français. NNT : 498 - 254. tel-00807255v2 HAL Id: tel-00807255 https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00807255v2 Submitted on 28 Nov 2013 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Ecole Centrale de Nantes ÉCOLE DOCTORALE SCIENCES POUR L’INGENIEUR, GEOSCIENCES, ARCHITECTURE Année 2012 N° B.U. : Thèse de DOCTORAT Spécialité : ASTRONOMIE - ASTROPHYSIQUE Présentée et soutenue publiquement par : THOMAS CORNET le mardi 11 Décembre 2012 à l’Université de Nantes, UFR Sciences et Techniques TITRE FORMATION ET DEVELOPPEMENT DES LACS DE TITAN : INTERPRETATION GEOMORPHOLOGIQUE D’ONTARIO LACUS ET ANALOGUES TERRESTRES JURY Président : M. MANGOLD Nicolas Directeur de Recherche CNRS au LPGNantes Rapporteurs : M. COSTARD François Directeur de Recherche CNRS à l’IDES M. DELACOURT Christophe Professeur des Universités à l’Université de Bretagne Occidentale Examinateurs : M. BOURGEOIS Olivier Maître de Conférences HDR à l’Université de Nantes M. GUILLOCHEAU François Professeur des Universités à l’Université de Rennes I M. -
Titan Submarine: Exploring the Depths of Kraken Mare
Titan Submarine: Exploring The Depths of Kraken Mare Steven R. Oleson1 NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio 44135 Ralph D. Lorenz2 Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland 20723 Michael V. Paul3 The Pennsylvania State University, Applied Research Laboratory, State College, Pennsylvania 16804 The conceptual design of a submarine for Saturn’s moon Titan was a funded NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I for 2014. The effort investigated what science a submarine for Titan’s liquid hydrocarbon ~93 K (–180 °C) seas might accomplish and what that submarine might look like. Focusing on a flagship class science system (~100 kg) it was found that a submersible platform can accomplish extensive and exciting science both above and below the surface of the Kraken Mare The submerged science includes mapping using side looking sonar, imaging and spectroscopy of the sea at all depths, as well as sampling of the sea’s bottom and shallow shoreline. While surfaced the submarine will not only sense weather conditions (including the interaction between the liquid and atmosphere) but also image the shoreline, as much as 2 km inland. This imaging requirement pushed the landing date to Titan’s next summer period (~2047) to allow for continuous lighted conditions, as well as direct-to-Earth (DTE) communication, avoiding the need for a separate relay orbiter spacecraft. Submerged and surfaced investigation are key to understanding both the hydrological cycle of Titan as well as gather hints to how life may have begun on Earth using liquid/sediment/chemical interactions. An estimated 25 Mb of data per day would be generated by the various science packages. -
The Chemical Composition of Impact Craters on Titan. A
52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 2021 (LPI Contrib. No. 2548) 2633.pdf THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF IMPACT CRATERS ON TITAN. A. Solomonidou1,2*, C. Neish3, A. Coustenis2, M. Malaska4, A. Le Gall5, R. M.C. Lopes4, A. Werynski3, K. Lawren- ce4, N. Atlobelli1, O. Witasse6, A. Shoenfeld4, C. Matsoukas7, I. Baziotis8, and P. Drossart2 1European Space Agency (ESA), European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), Villanueva de la Canada, Madrid, Spain; 2LESIA - Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, Univ. Paris-Diderot, Meudon, France; 3Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada; 4Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA; 5Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), CNRS-UMR 7154, Université Paris-Diderot, USPC, Paris, France; 6European Space Agency (ESA), European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Noordwijk, Netherlands; 7KTH-Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden; 8Agricultural University of Athens, Mineral Resources and Agricultural Engineering, Iera Odos str. 75, 11855 Athens, Greece. Introduction: After 13 years of Cassini-Huygens ters” (Afekan, Soi, and Forseti – along with Menrva exploration, Titan was shown to possess unique prop- and Sinlap) [3]. We study two impact crater subunits, erties, such as its Earth-like atmospheric structure and the ‘crater floor’ (which refers to the bottom of a crater composition, in addition to its surface geology. Geo- depression) and the ‘ejecta blanket’ (which is the mate- morphological features commonly found on Earth, rial ejected from the transient crater during an impact such as mountains, drainage networks, dunes, and event) [e.g. 8]. lakes, were observed on Titan by the Cassini spacecraft Figure 1 includes maps of the different views of Ti- and the Huygens probe [e.g.