Titanic Lakes

Posted by jns on 17 October 2007

This just in from “Science @ NASA”:

Newly assembled radar images from the Cassini spacecraft are giving researchers their best-ever view of hydrocarbon lakes and seas on the north pole of Saturn’s moon Titan, while a new radar image reveals that Titan’s south pole also has lakes.

Approximately 60 percent of Titan’s north polar region (north of 60o latitude) has been mapped by Cassini’s radar. About 14 percent of the mapped region is covered by what scientists believe are lakes filled with liquid methane and ethane:

The mosaic image was created by stitching together radar images from seven Titan flybys over the last year and a half. At least one of the pictured lakes is larger than Lake Superior.

[excerpt from "New Lakes Discovered on Titan", Science @ NASA, 12 October 2007.]

Isn’t that fascinating: “hydrocarbon lakes” filled with “liquid methane and ethane”!

The photograph accompanying the press release is really quite lovely — it’s what attracted my attention in the first place. Follow the link above to see the photomosaic.