The link about Titan having oil. Go and read about the observations of oil being more prevalent on Titan (a moon of Saturn) than on Earth. This is knowledge, but how can this be useful, or is this just a discovery that benefits no one on Earth and is just great information for a scientific journal or news article. What could this information lead to for our future. Can you think of how this could benefit us, or hinder us. Comment and research before commenting. I am looking for good ideas and research here for full credit this time.
Oil on other planetary bodies
February 20, 2008 · 11 Comments
Categories: AP Chem 2008 · Chemistry 3rd · Chemistry 4th · Discussion
11 responses so far ↓
italianoozy // February 20, 2008 at 5:18 pm
I have read a post by nasa about the oil on Titan. They first thought that there were seas of hydrocarbons on Titan. Earlier this year, Huygen, a spacecraft landed on the moon and found no images of giant lakes. However, using infrared rays we have detected a kidney shaped dark blob near the south pole of Titan. This is why Nasa believes there is oil. Many critics think that this is a false idea. For now there isnt much more information, but we are sending multiple fly-by spacecrafts to Titan in the near future.
italianoozy // February 20, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Since oil is decomposed organic matter, it is believable that there was life on Titan. judging by the large amount of hydro-carbon levels on Titan (hundreds of times greater than Earth) Titan has a huge supply of oil. if we can tap the oil on titan there would be so much of it that we wouldn’t have to worry about oil.
hazeleyedniki // February 20, 2008 at 6:03 pm
to possibly benefit the earth, would it be possible to transport the oil from Titan to earth??, since oil is valuable and resourceful on earth, is it the same oil we have here that we could use and benefit from?? or is a different kind of oil then what we have on earth?
madsc1ent1st // February 20, 2008 at 11:10 pm
We would have to figure out how to go to the moon and get the oil and then get back because if you ignore gravitational pull, then hey that information is useful and we could do something with it, but in the real world, who cares. I mean, it’s useless info, the drilling rig would weigh too much, and then you have to figure out how to get it back to earth, and it would just cost too much and use up more of our precious commodities. ie: oil, fuel, oxygen. Go to http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2000-10/973014746.Es.r.html for more info.
oopplesnvronos // February 21, 2008 at 3:40 am
Is it right, though, to just take the oil from somewhere else, if it was possible?
The article mentions that Titan has been compared to Earth before “biology got going”.
So what if they gave Titan a chance to possibly go through what Earth did. We may not see it in our lifetime, but maybe something could come of it.
However, if they do start looking into it, and if they did decided to take this oil from Titan, that could mess up the chance to see what happens. Who knows, this could clear up theories about the Earth’s past and how it evolved.
steph1031 // February 24, 2008 at 8:33 pm
I think that Titan can be a great help in the future. One of these days space travel will be incredibly fast and we will be able to zip between planets in the blink of an eye. Titan could be a great source of oil that we could export back to earth. Maybe then we wouldn’t have to deal with the Middle East.
Btw Harris- it was so much easier last semester when we didn’t have to do this!
cooliopher // February 25, 2008 at 4:00 pm
I read the nasa article and it is amazing. Why would we not go to titan and get the oil. We would never have to worry about the earth running out of oil and gas would actually be cheap. We have lots of technology and it would defineltly be possible to extract some oil from titan. This would also allow for the development of ways to extract things from other planets that we are running low on. They are not 100% sure that it is oil but they are pretty sure and it would be worth it to at least go check it out!
antichrist1 // February 28, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Ipersonaly believe that even if we could reasonably retrieve the oil from titan that we need to decrease our dependancy on oil and attempt to use alternate fuels for more and more processes… therefore i do not believe that information such as the discovery of oil on a distant moon to be important
boner9 // February 28, 2008 at 4:49 pm
i believe that mining for oil on other planets would be very beneficial to the united states so that we would not have to rely on other countries for our oil. Even though we would not be able to do this for many years.
xstephi92x // March 5, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I think that this is a wonderful find on Titan. But this information in my opion wont help us at this time. In the future i believe this information will be help. Maybe when space travel become part of life. But for now i believe it wont help us.
andrewsmith11 // March 10, 2008 at 1:22 pm
personally i think that we cant keep just “finding” new sources of oil. no matter how much oil is on titan, eventually it will run out too. i think that we need to pick up the rate of change from oil to another source. nobody even knows if we are able to get to the oil on titan, therefore the information that we are recovering is overall uneffective.