Can anyone give details on the 'possible lakes on Saturn moon'?

Question

Recently read about giant lakes on surface of Titan. Any further info would be handy. Thanks.

Answer 1

Yes, the scientists have found the first widespread evidence of giant hydrocarbon lakes on the surface of Saturn's planet-sized moon Titan. The cluster of hydrocarbon lakes was spotted near Titan's frigid north pole during a flyby by the international Cassini spacecraft.

Researchers counted about a dozen lakes ranging from 10 km to 100 km wide. Some lakes, which appeared as dark patches in radar images, were connected by channels while others had tributaries flowing into them. Several were dried up, but the ones that contained liquid were most likely a mix of methane & ethane. Titan is one of the two moons in the solar system known to possess a significant atmosphere similar to primordial earth. but scientists have long been puzzled over the source of its hazy atmosphere righ in nitrogen & methane.

Scientists believe methane gas breaks up in Titan's atmosphere & forms smog clouds that then rain methane down to the surface. But the source of methane inside the moon is still a mystery.

Cassini was launched in 1997 & took 7 years to reach Saturn to explore the ringed planet & its moons.

Answer 2

Liquids on Titan

It has long been believed that Titanian lakes or even seas of methane might exist on the surface. However, while many of the surface features could be explained as the products of flowing liquids, and while features that look like lakes have been discovered at the poles, conclusive evidence for the presence of liquids on Titan's surface at the present time remains absent.

The photographs taken during the January 14 2005 landing on Titan by the Huygens probe do not show any open areas of liquid, but they strongly indicate the presence of liquids in the recent past, showing pale hills crisscrossed with dark drainage channels that lead into a wide, flat, darker region. It was initially thought that the dark region might be a lake of a fluid or at least tarry substance. However, it is now clear that Huygens landed on the dark region, and that it is solid.

The existence of lakes on Titan thus remains unconfirmed, and some scientists now believe that many of the moon's features are caused by cryovolcanism rather than running liquids. However, it has been hypothesized that Huygens landed during a dry season on Titan, and that periods of heavy methane rain in the recent past could form lakes that subsequently evaporate. The length of the intervals between rainy periods on Titan are unknown, and scientists stress that Huygens sampled only one tiny site on this planet-sized moon, which is insufficient for evaluating the entire body.

Two recent developments have kept the possibility of Titanian lakes alive at Titan's south pole, where clouds have been observed to cluster. An enigmatic dark feature at the pole, named Ontario Lacus has been identified as a possible lake created by precipitation from the clouds that cluster at the pole. A possible shoreline has also been identified at the pole via radar imagery.

Answer 3

Los Angeles, July 25 (Xinhua) The Cassini spacecraft discovered very strong evidence of lakes on Saturn's moon Titan, said scientists with the US space agency NASA.

These lakes appear to be filled with hydrocarbon liquids, possibly making Titan the only place other than Earth known to contain lakes, said scientists Monday at NASA's jet propulsion laboratory based in Pasadena, California.


Dark patches, which resemble terrestrial lakes, seem to be sprinkled all over the high latitudes surrounding Titan's north pole. Scientists speculate that liquid methane or ethane might form lakes on Titan, particularly near the colder polar regions.


During its latest flyby July 21, 2006, the Cassini radar instrument acquired two images in synthetic aperture mode. The images, each covering about 60,000 square km, have shown details of a dozen lakes, some up to 100 km wide.


In the images, the lakes appear to be a variety of dark patches, some with channels leading in or out of them. The channels have a shape that strongly implies they were carved by liquid.


Some of the dark patches and connecting channels are completely black, that is, they reflect back essentially no radar signal, and hence must be extremely smooth. In some cases, rims can be seen around the dark patches, suggesting deposits that might form as liquid evaporates.


The abundant methane in Titan's atmosphere is stable as a liquid under Titan conditions, as is its abundant chemical product ethane, but liquid water is not.


'For all these reasons, scientists interpret the dark areas as lakes of liquid methane or ethane, making Titan the only body in the solar system besides Earth known to possess lakes,' the laboratory said.

Answer 4

Titan or Saturn VI is the largest moon of Saturn and the second largest moon in the solar system, after Jupiter's moon Ganymede. It is roughly 50% larger than Earth's moon by diameter, and is larger by diameter and mass than all known dwarf planets. It is also larger by diameter than the planet Mercury, though Mercury is more than twice as massive.
Titan is the only moon in our solar system to have a dense atmosphere. Until very recently, this atmosphere inhibited understanding of Titan's surface, but the moon is currently undergoing study by the Cassini-Huygens mission, and new information about it is accumulating, such as the discovery of liquid hydrocarbon lakes near its north pole.
It has long been believed that lakes or even seas of methane might exist on Titan's surface but until recently conclusive evidence has proven elusive. When the Cassini probe arrived in the Saturnian system, it was hoped that hydrocarbon lakes or oceans might be detectable by reflected sunlight from the surface of any liquid bodies, but no specular reflections were initially observed. Cassini observed surface features that could be explained as the products of flowing liquids, but again direct evidence was lacking. However, according to the Cassini team, data from July 2006 observations of the northern polar region now have provided "definitive evidence for the presence of lakes on the surface of Titan."
For pictures and more info....look out source.

The first indication of the presence of a lake was observed at Titan's south pole, where clouds have been observed to cluster, and where an enigmatic dark feature at the pole, named Ontario Lacus was identified as a possible lake created by precipitation from them. A possible shoreline has also been identified at the pole via radar imagery.Then, on January 3, 2007, it was announced that scientists have "definitive evidence of lakes filled with methane on Saturn's moon Titan."