The Universe TV - Chris McKay TV - Inger Anderson - Tony Robinson TV - Prince Charles - Brian Cox TV - Extreme Universe TV - Secrets of the Solar System TV -
Far out past the rings of Saturn lies the second largest moon in the solar system: Titan. The Universe s2e15: Wildest Weather in the Cosmos, 2008
Scientists were excited to discover mountains, washes, even lakes the size of Lake Superior. But the liquid that fills Titan’s lakes and rivers isn’t water, it’s methane. And that means when condensation occurs on this planet it rains methane. ibid.
Titan is wrapped in a thick atmosphere ... lakes glisten ... methane. The Universe s4e9: Liquid Universe, 2009
What Cassini and its lander found was astonishing ... Slow-falling liquid methane. The Universe s5e5: Space Probes, 2010
There may be methane icebergs. There’s certainly methane lakes and rivers, and there’s methane rain and methane clouds, and maybe bugs swimming in methane. Dr Chris McKay, NASA
As highlighted by IPCC, if the world is serious about avoiding the worst effects of climate change, we need to cut methane emissions from the fossil fuel industry. But this is not a get-out-of-jail free card: methane reductions must go hand in hand with actions to decarbonize the energy system to limit warming to 1.5°C, as called for in the Paris Agreement. Inger Andersen, UNEP executive director
Today there is an estimated 30 trillion tons of methane locked away in ice on the sea bed ... Frozen methane is ultra-sensitive to heat. Tony Robinson, Catastrophe III: Planet of Fire, Channel 4 2008
We need to be realistic. There is very little we can do now to stop the ice from disappearing from the North Pole in the summer. And we probably cannot prevent the melting of the permafrost and the resulting release of methane. Prince Charles, lecture November 2008
If these are not lakes of water then what are they? ... Titan’s atmospheric temperature is perfect to allow methane to exist as a solid, as gas, but most importantly a liquid. Professor Brian Cox, Wonders of the Solar System: The Thin Blue Line, BBC 2010
Titan would become almost as important a destination as Saturn itself … ‘The only satellite in the solar system with a dense atmosphere.’ Secrets of the Solar System s1e7: The Celestial Beauty, Yesterday 2020
‘There was methane present in the atmosphere of Titan … The possibility for lakes and oceans on the surface …’ ibid.
Cassini-Huygens: ‘The Huygens’ probe was actually designed to be able to float in liquid as well as land on a solid surface’ … In the summer of 2004 the spacecraft was finally approaching the Saturnian system … ‘Those images I’ll never forget them.’ ibid.