Radar reveals signs of seas on Titan
By Ron Cowen
Newly discovered features that appear to be hydrocarbon seas on Saturn’s moon Titan are at least 10 times as large as any such features previously imaged there. Recent radar observations of Titan’s north pole taken with the Cassini spacecraft show that one of the putative oceans is larger than any of North America’s Great Lakes.
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The features’ darkness in radar images indicates smooth surfaces, and their outlines resemble shorelines. Scientists contend that the bodies are probably made of liquid ethane or methane. Methane is abundant in Titan’s thick atmosphere and cycles between the moon’s atmosphere and rigid surface, much as water cycles on Earth.