Wave activity on Titan strong enough to erode the coastlines of lakes and seas
Researchers from MIT suggest wave activity on Titan, Saturn's moon, could erode coastlines of lakes and seas. Simulations based on Cassini images challenge previous beliefs, emphasizing the need for direct observations. Published in Science Advances, the study sheds light on erosion processes shaping Titan's coastlines.
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Researchers from MIT have conducted a study suggesting that wave activity on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, could be strong enough to erode the coastlines of its lakes and seas. Using simulations based on Cassini spacecraft images, the team found that waves are the most likely cause of shaping Titan's large seas. This finding challenges previous beliefs and indirect signs of wave activity on Titan's surface. The researchers emphasize the need for direct observations to confirm the presence of waves on Titan. Understanding wave activity on Titan could provide insights into the moon's climate and help predict the evolution of its seas over time. The study, published in Science Advances, sheds light on the unique erosion processes shaping Titan's coastlines and highlights the potential for learning fundamental principles of coastal erosion that could benefit Earth's coastal management in the future.
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5 commentsI’m not talking about subsurface water though that’s possible. I mean chemically alien life.
The reason I suspect this is a phenomenon understood in theory of complexity and evolutionary informatics circles called the “edge of chaos.” Oversimplifying a bit you get universal computation in the vicinity of a phase boundary.
Titan is loaded with phase boundaries: solid, liquid, gas, dynamic changes between them, rain, dissolving and crystallizing solids, etc. The solvent is just light hydrocarbons not water.
Life on Titan would be slow and low metabolism compared to us (probably). We should be aware of this likely difference when looking. What looks like minerals, rocks, weird films of chemicals, etc may be alive. We should look for structure, metabolism, isomer preferences, etc.
Of course life on Titan is convinced there could never be life here. The third planet is a literal hell where it rains molten dihydrogen monoxide in an atmosphere of corrosive oxygen. Any life there would vaporize and oxidize instantly.
Rumors of a strange disc shaped object being recovered with material and isotope ratios pointing to the third planet are entirely unfounded, as are rumors of amateur radio enthusiasts picking up signals from there.
> The team mapped the shorelines of each Titan sea using Cassini's radar images, and then applied their modeling to each of the sea's shorelines to see which erosion mechanism best explained their shape.
(I feel like phys.org is repeatedly disappointing in reward-to-time relative to their headlines.)
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