Cassini spots lakes and seas on Titan

Giant hydrocarbon lakes and seas found on Saturn's moon.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007 12:12

Newly assembled radar images from Cassini show huge hydrocarbon lakes and seas on Saturn's moon, Titan. The lakes are commonly found on the north and south poles, one of them larger than our own Lake Superior.

Scientists say it rains methane and ethane there, filling the lakes and seas. They're still making progress in understanding how the lakes may have formed.

"The lakes we are observing on Titan appear to be in varying states of fullness, suggesting their involvement in a complex hydrologic system akin to Earth's water cycle. This makes Titan unique among the extra-terrestrial bodies in our solar system," said Alex Hayes, a graduate student who studies Cassini radar data at the California Institute of Technology in the USA.

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News from Space is a short factual tidbit dealing with the latest information from space and Earth-based telescopes and satellites, as well as the occasional happening at NASA, the CSA, or some of the world's other space agencies. Check out cool images from the Hubble, the Spitzer, the Chandra, or from the many great observatories around the planet. 
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