I can see Earth's curve from here! --and the dark seas of Titan

[asakiyume]

There were two space-related news stories I loved this week. One was the story of the M.I.T. students who sent a point-and-click digital camera into space and got photos of the curvature of the earth, for total cost of just under $150 dollars, and the other was the story of the proposal to explore the oceanic surface of Titan by ship. Not sailing ship, of course (though who doesn't have that image at first?), seeing as the temperature on Titan is almost three hundred degrees below zero Fahrenheit, but some kind of Major-Tom-esque tin can, floating on it.

The liquid on Titan is methane, not water, but the news story talked about how liquid methane behaves like water, raining down from the sky, forming rivers, filling up the seas.

Titan's much farther away from the sun than Earth is, so it must be rather dark there, though. If you could get out of the capsule (if you could stand on the deck of the weatherized sailing ship), would the light from the distant sun be enough to let you see the waves? Would they shine by the light of the stars, or by Saturn?

Comments

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

You should write a poem about the methane seas on Titan, shining blue by starlight. :)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking of it!

[seajules]

I triple-dog dare ya!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Well I can't let THAT challenge go unanswered!

(but my snail's speed may mean it takes a while...)

"Blue Planet"

[ri-whittlesey.livejournal.com]

This brought to mind my late friend Anne Shelley's poem, on the occasion of Voyager 2's sending back pictures from Neptune:

Blue Planet
           To John Berryman

Bless true and foolish, pointless things.
I'd brood a breed
of ships for you
                    paper planes with hieroglyphs --
John, Neptune is blue!


This galaxy
took out a new cerulean crayon
hurled and flung. Keats true, and beautiful.

   Toast the silver light
               of celebration.
                  All I can do is write
                      toward you, a fool for words' small order,
                         a boarder in a
                             windowed room,
                                dreaming you.

Re: "Blue Planet"

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

:) That is just beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

Re: "Blue Planet"

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Oh the *sound* of that poem is beautiful. It asks to be read out loud.

I loved "I'd brood a breed of ships for you"--how gorgeous. Also, "a fool for words' small order"

Thanks so much for this.

Re: "Blue Planet"

[ri-whittlesey.livejournal.com]

Oh the *sound* of that poem is beautiful. It asks to be read out loud.

It reads well out loud. I'm remembering, now, reading it at her funeral.

I loved "I'd brood a breed of ships for you"--how gorgeous. Also, "a fool for words' small order"

I haven't read it aloud for years, but now I feel again that line's roundness in my mouth.

"farmer in the sky"

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

Farmer in the sky by robert a heinlein
is set on ganymede which is not as far
out as titan but far enough out to be
different than around here.

Re: "farmer in the sky"

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

How is it, as a story?

Re: "farmer in the sky"

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

well I think it is a good story
a juvenile ,read half a lifetime
ago perhaps most recently.

it might have some good science as to
how the earth would be perceived etc
and as to living at such a remove
it is this I thought of in relation to yours.

it does,refreshing my memory from wikipedia,
retall stories of old american pioneer days
in this new setting and that is perhaps in
a sense anachronistic although of course
not perhaps entirely as pioneering may
have certain constants...

heinlein is a story teller and also in a way
a relentless moralist and usually there are
points where that annoys me a little... patently
they are usually more annoying still to liberals
but I have not achieved that level and yet still
find him off and on grating.

[jmeadows.livejournal.com]

Oooh, so cool.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I know! The second one just screams "Steampunk!"

[desert-sparrow.livejournal.com]

The M.I.T. experiment is cool. According to formulas I found on the Web, with or without correcting for atmospheric refraction, the estimated distance from the camera to the horizon at 93000 feet ranges from 370 to 411 miles. In a jet at 36000 feet, the horizon is approximately 255 miles away.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Interesting, so even though they were more than twice as far up (but not quite three times as far up) as a jet, the horizon is not even twice as far away.

I just looked at the video--it was neat to see it come back down to earth. They plan to post step-by-step directions so anyone can try it.

[scbutler.livejournal.com]

Major awesome! Did you click through to MIT students website where they have a time lapse video of the entire trip?

I'm going to link this too. Thanks!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I hadn't, but I did just now, and wow! Amazing--I think I was as much impressed by the landing as by the rest--because not only did they get the camera up there, they brought it back down successful. Fantastic.

[scbutler.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they brought it down - and found it! Very cool.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

(and what's with my grammar up there--I meant "they brought it down successful-ly")

Seeing by the light - with calculations

[ri-whittlesey.livejournal.com]

Titan's much farther away from the sun than Earth is. If you could stand on the deck of the weatherized sailing ship, would the light from the distant sun be enough to let you see the waves? Would they shine by the light of the stars, or by Saturn?

Do calculations spoil poetry? Saturn's about 10 times as far from the sun as Earth is; so light is dimmer by two orders of magnitude, or 6.6 stops. But our eyes' dynamic range is six orders of magnitude, or 20 stops. We should see handily on Titan, even if clouds cost another four stops or so (would that be about right?). And surely Saturn-light would help.

Why not sail? It would be wonderful to explore that sea. You'd need lightweight hull and rigging; methane's about 40% as dense as water. I wonder what waves in methane would look like?
...............................
Using Wikipedia articles "Saturn", "Human eye", "Methane"

Re: Seeing by the light - with calculations

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Calculations do not in the least spoil poetry--at least, not as far as I'm concerned, in this case. I knew there'd be a way of discovering how dim or bright things looked on Saturn, but in my supreme laziness, I didn't try investigating. Thank you for taking the time!

I knew that our eyes can perceive very minute amounts of light, but I wasn't sure how that stacked up against the distances involved. Though, as you suggest, Saturn would be quite a brilliant counterbalance.

If the protective suits were good enough, then I'd totally opt for sailing!