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Liquid Lakes On Saturn's Moon Confirmed

Scientists have been using the robotic spacecraft Cassini to explore what looked to be large lakes of hydrocarbons on the surface of Saturn's planet-sized moon Titan. But they couldn't be entirely sure that the features were actually liquid lakes, and not simply very smooth, solid material. Now, new findings seem to confirm that the observations really do show extensive seas of liquid ethane and other hydrocarbons. In fact, Titan seems to have an entire 'water' cycle of ethane evaporation, rain and rivers.

Lakes Found on Saturn's Moon Titan

These are not bodies of water like those on Earth, but rather dark lakes of methane and possibly ethane. They are likely the source of the hydrocarbon smog in the moon's atmosphere that has long made it impossible to even see the surface. "This is a big deal," said Steve Wall, deputy radar team leader at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We've now seen a place other than Earth where lakes are present."

Patch of Saturn's Moon Resembles Earth

New radar images of Saturn's moon Titan reveal dunes, hills, valleys and rivers that scientist say look a lot like home. But on Titan, which is frigid and shrouded in smog, the features are likely carved in ice rather than solid ground. The detailed view is of a bright area on Titan called Xanadu. It's about the size of Australia and has been studied from afar for years.

Saturn's Enceladus ripe for astrobiology exploration

"We would aim to fly very close over the south pole [of the moon] and through the jets and plume," Carolyn Porco, the Cassini imaging team leader said, "in order to make more accurate measurements of the composition of the vapor and ice particles." "It's not clear that Cassini has the means to determine if the ice crystals themselves contain microbes. It may require a device with much greater compositional precision than we have, so that may have to be left for a future mission."

Water on Saturn moon could support life

Saturnstone... geysers on Saturn. Water. Cool.

Titan's atmosphere revealed as multilayered mystery

Titan's atmosphere is remarkably like Earth's, but even more complex and multilayered.

Cassini snapshot reveals Saturn's volcanic moon

Enceladus is only the third body in the solar system to show signs of active volcanism, besides Earth and Io, Jupiter's moon.