Have you ever thought about surfing on an alien world? We can now expand the search for the perfect wave from Earth to the rest of the Solar System, and beyond. Scientists have developed a new model for simulating waves on other planets. Titan is one of the 274 confirmed moons of Saturn to date, and the only object in the solar system (besides Earth) known to have liquid lakes and seas on its surface. The featured video shows a simulation of waves on Earth (right) and on Titan (left), under the same conditions (the scale marker is in meters). A light breeze would create taller, slower-moving waves on Titan than on Earth, because the lakes there are filled with light liquid hydrocarbons, and because of Titan’s low gravity and higher atmospheric pressure. In a couple of years, NASA expects to launch the Dragonfly mission, which will travel for 6 years and send a rotorcraft to explore Titan and study its microbial habitability.
I really hope i get to witness not only the launch, but also the results from dragonfly. Unfortunatlly this is quite some time down the road and between staying alive and civillization not collapsing beyond the point where such a mission will be carried out i am not overly optimistic.
Le username checks out
the lakes there are filled with light liquid hydrocarbons
Oh yeah, surfing at the edge of an ocean of gasoline!
Next on the bucket list is floating down a lazy river of mercury.
