(ORDO NEWS) — On September 11, 2017, NASA‘s Cassini spacecraft made its last close approach to Titan, Saturn ‘s largest moon, collecting radar data that revealed relatively small lakes in the northern hemisphere were strikingly deep.
In addition, it was found that these extraterrestrial “reservoirs” are located on the tops of hills and are filled with liquid methane.
Some of the methane lakes/seas are over 100 meters deep, which is impressive considering most of Titan’s water bodies are less than ten meters deep.
For example, the huge Lake Ontario, located in the southern hemisphere of Saturn’s moon, is 235 kilometers long and 50 to 100 kilometers wide, but its average depth is a miserable 3.2 meters.
If on Earth there is a water cycle in nature, then on Titan there is a cycle of liquid hydrocarbons. For example, the lakes of the northern hemisphere that Cassini observed were filled with heavy methane rains.
With the change of season (each season lasts about 7.5 Earth years), methane partially evaporates and seeps into the surface, and then returns to water bodies with heavy rains.
Titan is the only planetary body in the Solar System , other than Earth , that is known to have stable liquid on its surface.
In the near-infrared color image shown at the beginning of the article, the sun’s rays reflect off the smooth surface of Titan’s northern polar pools.
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