Abstract
Saturn was the furthest planet from Earth in the known Solar System in 1655, and the crude telescopes available at the time revealed an enigma. At times, the planet looked like it had "handles" on either side, but at other times the handlelike bulges disappeared. Christiaan Huygens, born into a wealthy Dutch family of high status, was given an allowance by his father to do nothing but pursue his interest is mathematics, mechanics, optics, and astronomy (What a dad!). With a telescope much improved over earlier versions, he deciphered enough detail about far away Saturn to propose that the handles were actually rings encircling the planet, seen sometimes at an angle facing Earth, and at other times viewed edge-on from Earth to the point of becoming invisible.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Jenkins, L. 2008. Saturn, Dione, Rhea, and Titan. http://eltiriel.wordpress.-com
Lunine, J. I., Yung, Y. L. and Lorenz, R. D. 1999. On the volatile inventory of Titan from isotopic abundances in nitrogen and methane. Planetary Space Sei 47: 1291-1303.
Waite, J. H., Jr., Young, D. T., Cravens, T. E., et al. 2007. The process of tholin formation in Titan's upper atmosphere. Science 316: 870-5.
Grasset, O., Sotin, C. and Deschamps, F. 2000. On the internal structure and dynamics of Titan. Planetary Space Sei 48: 617-636.
Niemann, H. B., Atreya, S. K., Bauer, S. J., et al. 2005. The abundances of constituents of Titan's atmosphere from the GCMS instrument on the Huygens probe. Nature 438: 779-84.
Tobie, G., Grasset, O., Lunine, J. L, et al. 2005. Titan's internal structure inferred from a coupled thermal-orbital model. Icarus 175: 496-502.
Shaw, A. M. 2006. Astrochemistry: From Astronomy to Astrobiology. West Sussex: John Wiley.
Hörst, S. M., Vuitton, V. and Yelle, R. V. 2008. Origin of oxygen species in Titan's atmosphere, ƒ. Geophys. Res. 113: E10006.
McKay, C. P. and Smith, H. D. 2005. Possibilities for methanogenic life in liquid methane on the surface of Titan. Icarus 178: 274-276.
Schulze-Makuch, D. and Grinspoon, D. H. 2005. Biologically enhanced energy and carbon cycling on Titan? Astrobiology 5: 560-567.
O'Brien, D. P., Lorenz, R. D. and Lunine, J. I. 2005. Numerical calculations of the longevity of impact oases on Titan. Icarus 173: 243-253.
Marcano, V., Benitez, P. and Palacios-Pru, E. 2002. Growth of a lower eukaryote in non-aromatic hydrocarbon media >= C-12 and its exobiological significance. Planet. Space Sei. 50: 693-709.
Schulze-Makuch, D., Haque, S, Resendes de Sousa Antonio, M., Ali, D., et al. 2010. Microbial life in a liquid asphalt desert. Astrobiology, in review.
Wang, H.-Q., Chen, Y.-J. and Qin, B.-Y. 2009. Degradability of n-hexadecane by Bacillus cereus DQ01 isolated from oil contaminated soil from Daqing oil field, China. Int. J. Environ. Pollution 38: 100-115.
Raulin, F. and Owen, T. 2002. Organic chemistry and exobiology on Titan. Space Sei Rev 104: 377-394.
Baross, J. A., Benner, S. A., Cody, G. D., et al. 2007. The limits of organic life in planetary systems. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Irwin, L.N., Schulze-Makuch, D. (2011). Petrolakes. In: Cosmic Biology. Springer Praxis Books(). Praxis, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1647-1_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1647-1_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Praxis, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-1646-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-1647-1
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)