10 June 2015 · draft · Draft

Titan: Where the Atmosphere Begins

WordPress backup · draft

Original wording. Not rewritten as Paper I. Withdrawn claims stay visible so the record is not erased.

FOSSILIZED *TITAN RAINDROPS

The imprints of raindrops preserved in 2.7bn-year-old rock are being used to figure out what the atmosphere was like on the early Earth. Scientists have used the depressions drops left to calculate how fast they were going as they impacted the ground. This has allowed them to determine the density of air in ancient times.

Sanjoy Som, NASA Ames, via BBC: “There was probably quite a bit of nitrogen in the atmosphere, like today, but there was no oxygen. The oxygen was likely replaced by greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.”

ESA: “Similarly to Earth, Titan’s atmosphere is mostly nitrogen but there is also methane and many other organic compounds.”

NASA / Cassini, March 2011: “April showers on the planet’s largest moon, Titan, have brought methane rain to its equatorial deserts… The best explanation is these areas remained wet after methane rainstorms.”

The live site treats the fossils as Earth’s and the rain as Titan’s. The rhyme is nitrogen worlds. The pits stay on Earth.