QJ.NET | Videos | Forums | iPhone | MMORPG | Nintendo DS | Wii | PlayStation 3 | PSP | Xbox 360 | PC | Downloads | Contact Us

NASA's Cassini finds gigantic seas on Titan's surface

Posted Mar 14, 2007 at 01:31PM by Tim Y. Listed in: Astronomy Tags: NASA, Saturn, methane, University of Arizona, Cassini
Ó

Titan Sea/Lake Superior comparison - Image 1To-be-verified Titan sea - Image 1


New radar images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which is currently orbiting the Saturn moon Titan, provide new evidence of seas that could be the largest liquid formations reported on the planet's surface. Cassini's instruments have picked up these dark features near Titan's north pole, and one amazing feature is that one of the larger dark areas have been measured to be approximately 100,000 square kilometers (39,000 square miles) - out-sizing America's Lake Superior, which stands at 82,414 square kilometers (31,820 square miles). The image on the left shows this comparison.

"We've long hypothesized about oceans on Titan and now with multiple instruments we have a first indication of seas that dwarf the lakes seen previously," said Dr. Jonathan Lunine, Cassini interdisciplinary scientist at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

It is hypothesized that these seas are composed of methane and ethane - the most abundant gas in Titan's clouds and atmosphere - which have been condensed into liquid form due the much colder polar temperatures on Saturn. At the moment, however, these formations are yet to be verified as liquid-filled by the Cassini-Hyugens team.

Meanwhile, the image on the right shows a similar and much larger dark feature that was captured by Cassini's imaging cameras. According to NASA's reports, this dark area stretches for more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles). If verified to be liquid-filled, this other sea will stand to be almost as large as the Earth's Caspian Sea which measures 3,626,000 square kilometers (1,400,000 square miles).

Further Cassini flybys are being planned for the dark areas in May to verify if these formations are indeed liquid-filled.

Permalink  |   Email this  |   Linking Blogs   |   Digg It!

Bookmark / Find this article on:

0 Comments


Sort by:


Contact

The QJ.net Network

RSS Feeds
Site Feed
QJ.NET RSS
Nintendo DS RSS
PlayStation 3 RSS
PSP Updates RSS
Wii RSS
Xbox 360 RSS
MMORPG RSS
Personal Computer Games RSS
iPhone - iPod Touch RSS
QJ.NET Forums RSS
Add QJ.NET
Add to My Yahoo!
Google Reader Subscribe with Bloglines
Add to your Kinja digest Subscribe in NewsGator Online
Subscribe with Pluck RSS reader Add 'www.qj.net' to Newsburst from CNET News.com
Subscribe with SearchFox RSS del.icio.us www.qj.net
Add to Technorati Favorite! Add to My AOL
furl! it Stumble for Treehugger!
User Favorites - November
Most Commented
No commented articles
User Favorites - November
Top Jumps
No available articles using criteria

 Username: 
 Password:
Forgot password
New user registration



Poll
Are unidentified flying objects (UFOs) really alien spaceships?
Earth Science
General Science
Health Science
Space
Archives



Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of the TERMS & CONDITIONS and PRIVACY POLICY
Copyright © 2009, QJ.NET. All Rights Reserved.
Contact Us