Courtesy Of Our Anon. Commenter, Some New Puzzlements -- From Saturn's Moon Titan (NASA's Dragonfly Mission Will Reach It Again In 2030)

This is a heady time -- as we aim, in about six years, to go back to Titan (after Huygens, a decade ago) -- and see what these "structures in the lakes" are. [Some of our prior coverage of it all is here.]

To be clear, they are likely just non-living plumes of liquid ethane and methane -- but we need to go, and make sure -- that they are NOT something like algae blooms, here atop Earth's lakes and oceans. That is, we need to rule out a biological process (life).

Here's the latest, from CNN -- via NASA:

. . .“I wanted to investigate whether the magic islands could actually be organics floating on the surface, like pumice that can float on water here on Earth before finally sinking,” said Yu, lead author of a study published January 4 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

A diverse range of organic molecules exist in Titan’s upper atmosphere, including nitriles, hydrocarbons and benzene. The surface temperature is so cold at minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 179 degrees Celsius) that the rivers and lakes were carved out by liquid methane — the way rocks and lava helped to form features and channels on Earth.

The organic molecules in Titan’s atmosphere bind together in clumps before freezing and falling onto the moon’s surface. Plains and dark dunes of organic material have been spotted across Titan, and scientists think the features were largely created by Titan’s “snow.”

But what happens when the hydrocarbon snow falls on the eerily smooth surfaces of Titan’s liquid gas lakes and rivers? Yu and her colleagues investigated the different scenarios that might occur.

Yu’s team determined that the solid organic material falling from the upper atmosphere wouldn’t dissolve when it landed on Titan’s liquid bodies because those are already saturated with organic particles. . . .

So -- as we watch a wet snow fall here, tonight. . . we wonder. By 2030 or so. . . will we know what is going on, over ~880 million miles off, around Saturn? Bigger than the planet Mercury, and larger than our Moon, Titan has a thick, dense atmosphere. . . where the atmospheric pressure would feel (to us) like swimming about 50 feet underwater here on Earth, without a helmet or other gear. Your ears would be popping -- wildly. Truly. . . wild. Onward.

Be excellent to one another, on this -- and every -- weekend.

नमस्ते