Ice cloud over Saturn’s largest moon discovered
Q. NASA’s Cassini probe has found a strange ice cloud over Saturn’s largest moon. What is it called?- Published on 23 Sep 16a. Titan
b. Io
c. Ganymede
d. None of the above
ANSWER: Titan
This ice cloud goes against everything that is known about the way clouds form on Titan.
- Located in Titan's stratosphere, the cloud is made of a compound of carbon and nitrogen known as dicyanoacetylene
- This is an ingredient in the chemical cocktail that colours the giant moon's hazy, brownish-orange atmosphere.
- What has puzzled scientists ever since is that they detected less than one percent of the dicyanoacetylene gas needed for the cloud to condense.
- Researchers found a large, high-altitude cloud made of the same frozen chemical. and when it comes to the vapour form of this chemical, CIRS reported that Titan's stratosphere is as dry as a desert.
- The puzzling appearance of the ice cloud seemingly out of thin air prompted the scientists to suggest that a different process than previously thought -- possibly similar to one seen over Earth's poles could be forming clouds on Saturn's moon Titan.
- Clouds made of chlorine bearing chemicals on earth called polar stratosphere clouds have a similar mechanism by which they work
