First outside of Earth: NASA finds liquid lake on Titan

William Atkins
Thursday, 31 July 2008 22:11

Science - Space

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a hugely successful joint effort of Italy (Italian Space Agency, ASI), the United States (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA), and the European Union (European Space Agency, ESA).

Additional information on the wealth of information learned from the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn is found on the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory website “Cassini-Huygens: Mission to Saturn and Titan.”

The conclusion of the study of Titan is published as a July 31, 2008 article in the journal Nature. Its title is “The identification of liquid ethane in Titan’s Ontario Lacus.”

The abstract to their paper states, “Titan was once thought to have global oceans of light hydrocarbons on its surface, but after 40 close flybys of Titan by the Cassini spacecraft, it has become clear that no such oceans exist. There are, however, features similar to terrestrial lakes and seas, and widespread evidence for fluvial erosion, presumably driven by precipitation of liquid methane from Titan's dense, nitrogen-dominated atmosphere."

It concludes, "Here we report infrared spectroscopic data, obtained by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on board the Cassini spacecraft, that strongly indicate that ethane, probably in liquid solution with methane, nitrogen and other low-molecular-mass hydrocarbons, is contained within Titan's Ontario Lacus.”