We know that delaying this show one more week would be too dangerous, so here you go: Saturn's moons. These are some of the most interesting objects in the Solar System, from the spongy Hyperion, to the geysers on Enceladus, to the rainy, misty, oceany Titan. They've kept Cassini busy for years, and scientists will likely be pondering them for decades.


<strong><a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomycast/AstroCast-071105.mp3">Episode 61: Saturn's Moons (17.4MB)</a></strong><br />&nbsp;<br />


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I'm trying to download the MP3, but it's size is only 145KB!

And when I'm trying to play through the flash player the sound is sped up (and 13 (short) seconds long)

I'm using iTunes, and the episode downloaded normally. If I click the link to the MP3, that works properly. You're right, though, the flash player sounds messed up.

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Fraser Cain
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Ah, ok... I see the mp3 on the website is correct now... maybe I was too quick downloading it

Thanks for another episode! Can't wait to listen ^_^

Great show, very interesting, but you missed something I have always wondered about; how come Titan, of all places, has such a very substantial atmosphere? Sure its big, but so's Callisto. Is this one down to chemistry or something else?

Cold, so very cold. Saturn is twice as far from the sun as Jupiter. Hydrocarbons would not exist as liquids on Callisto. I don't think it could even retain it in a gas form.

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Keeper of the Jabberwock

Ah... yes... but the atmosphere is >90% nitrogen apparently. Which manages to stick around as a gas at Earth temperatures. Perhaps the question isn't "why is it there" but "where did it come from" because if Callisto had acquired a similar atmosphere I can't see what would stop it staying there.

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"Reason is a tool. Try to remember where you left it."

Um... Where're the show notes?

By the way, there are lot's of pronunciation guides if you lookup these moons in Wikipedia.

Two thoughts on this episode,

1) I know O2 is required for combustion, but if tried to have a return mission from titan could it burn up? If we used rockets to launch back up. Maybe thats what happened to the moon Iapetus with all the black spots. Maybe that is just soot from the Combustion of the atmosphere after some sort of impact with something that did contain O2. And the ridge of mountains formed from the heat melting the rock allowing the equatorial ridge to form because of the centripetal forces over time.

2) Could we somehow drop a hose into a moon that has hydrocarbons and use it as fuel stop to extrasolar missions?

Hey, now we're talking, I had the exact same thought!!!
Practical uses for space exploration.

I was already thinking that my sci-fi-twisted mind was the only one to wonder about these things on this forum

All those water-ice moons could also come in handy as 'filling stations' for future explorers.