If it makes you feel better, call it a "weather crisis". Tomeeto, tomaato.

What matters is that the whole shit is getting out of hand as we're watching.

Titan's atmosphere is rather calm; not an issue. At the surface, the winds measured by Huygens were 0,3 m/s.

You actually can use solar power in extreme environments - even Venus's surface has been shown to be compatible with certain types solar, though you certainly get very poor power density. Dragonfly, as noted above, uses an RTG.

Planetary scientists frequently refer to moons that are large enough to be in hydrostatic equilibrium as planets in the literature. Examples, just from a quick search:

"Locally enhanced precipitation organized by planetary-scale waves on Titan"

"3.3. Relevance to Other Planets" (section on Titan)

"Superrotation in Planetary Atmospheres" (article covers Titan alongside three other planets)

"All planets with substantial atmospheres (e.g., Earth, Venus, Mars, and Titan) have ionospheres which expand above the exobase"

"Clouds on Titan result from the condensation of methane and ethane and, as on other planets, are primarily structured by circulation of the atmosphere"

"... of the planet. However, rather than being scarred by volcanic features, Titan's surface is largely shaped..."

"Spectrophotometry of the Jovian Planets and Titan at 300- to 1000-nm Wavelength: The Methane Spectrum" (okay, it's mainly referring to the Jovian satellites as planets, but same point)

"Superrotation indices for Solar System and extrasolar atmospheres" - contains a table whose first column is "Planet", and has Titan in the list, alongside other planets

Etc. This is not to be confused with the phrase "minor planet", which is used for asteroids, etc. In general there's a big distinction in how commonly you see the large moons in hydrostatic equilibrium referred to as "planets" and with "planetary" adjectives, vs. smaller bodies not in hydrostatic equilibrium.

Why?

NASA's obsession with Mars is weird, and it consumes the lion's share of their planetary exploration budget. We know vastly more about Mars than we know of everywhere else except Earth.

This news here is bittersweet for me. I *love* Titan - it and Venus are my two favourite worlds for further exploration, and dragonfly is a superb way to explore Titan. But there's some sadness in the fact that they're launching it to an equatorial site, so we don't get to see the fascinating hydrocarbon seas and the terrain sculpted by them near the poles. I REALLY wish they were going to the north pole instead :( In theory they could eventually get there, but the craft would have to survive far beyond design limits and get a lot of mission extensions. At a max pace of travel it might cover 600 meters or so per Earth day on average. So we're talking like 12 years to get to the first small hydrocarbon lakes and ~18 years to get to Ligeia Mare or Punga Mare (a bit further to Kraken Mare), *assuming* no detours, vs. a 2 1/2 year mission design. And that ignores the fact that they'll be going slower in the start - the nominal mission is only supposed to cover 175km, just a few percent of the way, under 200 metres per day. Sigh... Maybe it'll be possible to squeeze more range out of it once they're comfortable with its performance and reliability, but... it's a LONG way to the poles.

At least if it lasts for that long it'll have done a full transition between wet and dry cycles, which should last ~15 years. So maybe surface liquids will be common at certain points, rare in others.

Aren't the people who poop on climate science the same who usually lament that people care way, way too much about the fee-fees of people today and that they should just grow a pair and toughen up.

So toughen up, morons!

A month ago it was freezing. 2 weeks ago, we hit the 30s (Celsius, that's like the 90s in backwards units). We're now back to freezing temperatures. But don't you worry, we should be back in the 30s come May.

You want to call that normal?

Talking to yourself again, I see?

Melodrama much?

We have the technology to wane us from the habit of fossils now. Yes, it is indeed possible to have civilization AND a habitable planet.

Actually, considering how humans react when resources (especially stuff like food and water) get scarce, I dare say having a habitable planet is a prerequisite for retaining civilization.

It's like playing hide and seek with a three year old that covers his eyes and thinks if he can't see you, you can't see him.

I can see the appeal of apping appz.

It's nice to know that 3 years from now, your code will be considered hopelessly outdated and obsolete and you'll never have to maintain it...

As I've been one of those software engineers that got thrown into the slings and arrows of old, badly written, worse documented and worst supported code, I admire the coding (and working) standards of the NASA engineers of the 70s.

They still have people at hand who can make sense of that code. Even the junior programmers of the original crew are by now retired or dead.