Cassini Sheds New Light On Size, Composition Of Titan’s Lakes

December 13, 2013

Image Caption: This colorized mosaic from NASA's Cassini mission shows the most complete view yet of Titan's northern land of lakes and seas. Saturn's moon Titan is the only world in our solar system other than Earth that has stable liquid on its surface. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/USGS

[ Watch the Video: Soaring Over Titan: Extraterrestrial Land of Lakes ]

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports Your Universe Online

Thanks to NASAs Cassini spacecraft, astronomers are gaining new insights into Saturns moon Titan, particularly when it comes to its hydrocarbon lakes and seas.

According to the US space agency, Titan is one of the most Earth-like entities in the entire solar system. Besides our planet, the moon is the only other place in the Milky Way that has stable liquid on its surface.

Cassinis recent close flybys are bringing into sharper focus a region in Titans northern hemisphere that sparkles with almost all of the moons seas and lakes, NASA said. Scientists working with the spacecrafts radar instrument have put together the most detailed multi-image mosaic of that region to date.

The image includes all the seas and most of the major lakes. Some of the flybys tracked over areas that previously were seen at a different angle, so researchers have been able to create a flyover of the area around Titans largest and second largest seas, known as Kraken Mare and Ligeia Mare, and some of the nearby lakes, the agency noted, adding that the majority of the liquid in the moons seas and lakes is methane and ethane.

A colorized movie produced using data obtained by the probes radar instrument from 2004 through 2013 shows Titans north pole at the center, and extends down to 50 degrees northern latitude. In the video, liquids are either black or blue, based on the way the radar bounced off the surface, while land appears yellow to white.

The largest sea, Kraken Mare, is the black-and-blue area sprawling from below and to the right of the north pole down to the bottom right, the agency said. The second largest sea, Ligeia mare, is a roughly heart-shaped entity located to the left of and just above the north pole. Punga Mare is located just below the north pole.

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Cassini Sheds New Light On Size, Composition Of Titan’s Lakes