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Liquid flowing on surface of Titan


Researchers have discovered a mirror-smooth lake containing ethane on the surface of Saturn's smoggy moon Titan (Source: NASA/JPL)

Saturn's moon Titan has large lakes of liquid, say scientists, making it only the second body in the solar system after Earth to have fluid on its surface.

Scientists from NASA say the discovery was made after analysis of instruments on the US-European Cassini-Huygens probe, the spacecraft that has been orbiting Saturn since 2004 following a 3.5 billion-kilometre voyage.

Information from Cassini indicates that large lakes on Titan contain liquid hydrocarbons and ethane, says NASA.

"This is the first observation that really pins down that Titan has a surface lake filled with liquid," says University of Arizona scientist Dr Bob Brown, team leader of Cassini's visual and mapping instrument.

NASA says large dark areas on Titan's surface were spotted during numerous close flybys of the moon. But until now it had not been possible to determine whether they were liquid or solids.

It says scientists were able to conclude the areas were liquid after studying data from a Cassini instrument able to distinguish chemically different materials based on the way they absorb and reflect infrared light.

The visual and mapping instrument spotted a lake, Ontario Lacus, in Titan's south polar region during a flyby in December, NASA says. The lake is over 20,000 square kilometres in size.

"Detection of liquid ethane confirms a long-held idea that lakes and seas filled with methane and ethane exist on Titan," says Dr Larry Soderblom, a scientist with the US Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona.




Launched in 1997, the Cassini-Huygens mission is the first devoted to the exploration of Saturn, and is a joint mission by NASA and the European Space Agency.
