Have you looked at any of the Europlanet #1 abstracts that I mentioned in another thread? Hint: Click here.

THANKS ALEX!!!!!!

These abtracts are a goldmine......

See http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/EPSC2006/00...3f98706a1eb74bb "VIMS cartography of Titan: cleaning out the atmosphere and constraining the surface spectrum"

This should be an extremely interesting conference and I hope some one from this group attends!!!!!!!!

And did any one note this abstract? http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/EPSC2006/00...3f98706a1eb74bb "Regional Reflectance Change on Titan’s Surface: Implications for Atmospheric and Volcanic Activity"

Regional changes in the near-infrared reflectance of a 2800 km2 area on Titan occurred
between July 2004 and early 2006. Cassini VIMS finds that the 2 μm reflectivity
increased by a factor of two between July 2004 and March-April 2005; it then
decreased to the July 2004 reflectance by November 2005. By late December 2005 the
reflectance had surged again, slightly exceeding its earlier maximum. It then decreased
in reflectance in the three following months through mid-March 2006. The character
is inconsistent with tropospheric clouds of the type observed at Titan’s South pole and
high mid-latitudes. Application of a comprehensive radiative transfer model finds that
it is unlikely to be caused by a ground fog and most likely occurred at Titan’s surface.
This is the first direct evidence of short-term surface change on Titan. Inspection of
the spectral differences between the spot and its surrounding terrain rules out changes
in the distribution of the ices of H2O, CO2, and CH4as the cause. Interpretations include
changing surface deposits due to abrupt tectonic or volcanic activity. This is the
first evidence for currently active tectonic processes such as volcanism on Titan."

WOW!!!!!

Looks like we will soon need to open a thread regarding regional changes on Titan ..... once we have more than abtracts to go by!

Craig

This also just came out:

Limits to the abundance of surface CO2 ice on Titan


Hartung, M.; Herbst, T. M.; Dumas, C.; Coustenis, A.
Abstract:
In the context of the Cassini/Huygens mission, we performed supporting ground-based observations to complement the results from the NASA/ESA/ASI space mission to the Saturnian system with particular focus on Titan. On the nights of 18 and 19 December 2004, we conducted adaptive optics observations with VLT/NACO to search for and map the distribution of CO2 ice deposits on the spatially resolved surface of Titan (65 mas resolution). This experiment became possible because (1) solid CO2 possesses two narrow and strong absorption lines at 2012 nm and 2070 nm that fall into the 2.05 μm window of Titan's atmosphere and (2) the width of these bands matches the band pass of the Fabry-Perot instrument installed in NACO. We do not detect this chemical compound, but we can derive firm limits on the abundance of CO2 ice on the surface of Titan at sub-Earth longitudes 284°W and 307°W. With a spatial sampling of 65 mas, we conclude that a partial surface coverage of segregated CO2 ice does not exceed 7% or 14% for bright or dark surface regions, respectively.

Posts on Europlanet 2006 Titan Abstracts moved here.

Good idea to create this thread.......

Many juicy abstracts .............

I sure hope the Planetary Society sends someone to this conference. Any of our European members planning to attend?????? (We are really going to miss you Emily!!!!!!!!!!).

Craig

Thanks remcook!!!!

It just seems to me that the theorectical modeling being done on Titan's surface can be simplistic. What happens to all that water/ammonia/methane/ethane/nitrogen ice as it gets buried in hydrocarbon gook? What is nature cooking up over geologic time here........... under pressure ...... what kinds of strange ice-hydrocarbon metamorphic minerology happens? And when this mixed and blended material gets brought back up to the surface by tectonic or erosional exposure, there must be inclusions of stuff with different solubilities and erosional characteristics....... ripe recipe, again, for karsts and caverns.

Craig

That just goes to show you how impoverished science is as a predictive tool when lab chemistry hits the real world. Another real world, that is. Science is rather awesome at explaining, but then hindsight is better than foresight.