Space
Saturn's Moon, Titan, Said To Have Seas Of Methane
Brooke James
First Posted: Apr 29, 2016 04:11 AM EDT
The Saturn-orbiting Cassini Spacecraft has released new data and it seems that the largest moon, Titan, has a sea that is composed of pure methane. Before this revelation, scientists thought that Titan will be dominated with ethane, as sunlight breaks methane and converts it too a complex ethane hydrocarbon.
This wasn't the case, however, as scientist Alice Le Gall, from France's LATMOS research laboratory, along with her colleagues discovered that Titan's second-largest sea, called the Ligeia Mare, is practically pure methane.
Scientists have a few theories regarding the existence of methane on Titan -- one is that there could be methane rain that is regularly filling the sea. Another is that ethane is located in the sea's crust, flowing into the adjascent sea.
These findings, according to Discovery News, are made by Cassini in 2007 through 2015, and the measurements of heat given off by Ligeia Mare were combined with the results from a 201 experiment that tracked and bounced radar waves off the seafloor, estimating its depth.
Not only is Ligiea Mare full of methane, the European Space Agency noted that its 525-feet deep waters also seems to have a layer of organic-rich sludge on its floor. Cassini scientist Steve Wall, who is working with NASA's Jet Proplusion Laboratory in Pasadena said that the work is a marvelous feat of science -- extraterrestrial oceanography on an alien moon.
Cassini has been studying Saturn for nearly 12 years, revealing that almost 2 percent of titan's 620,000 square miles is covered in liquid. The moon has three large seas, all located in the northern polar region, most of which are surrounded with small lakes. One large lake, however, has been found on the moon's southern hemisphere.
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First Posted: Apr 29, 2016 04:11 AM EDT
The Saturn-orbiting Cassini Spacecraft has released new data and it seems that the largest moon, Titan, has a sea that is composed of pure methane. Before this revelation, scientists thought that Titan will be dominated with ethane, as sunlight breaks methane and converts it too a complex ethane hydrocarbon.
This wasn't the case, however, as scientist Alice Le Gall, from France's LATMOS research laboratory, along with her colleagues discovered that Titan's second-largest sea, called the Ligeia Mare, is practically pure methane.
Scientists have a few theories regarding the existence of methane on Titan -- one is that there could be methane rain that is regularly filling the sea. Another is that ethane is located in the sea's crust, flowing into the adjascent sea.
These findings, according to Discovery News, are made by Cassini in 2007 through 2015, and the measurements of heat given off by Ligeia Mare were combined with the results from a 201 experiment that tracked and bounced radar waves off the seafloor, estimating its depth.
Not only is Ligiea Mare full of methane, the European Space Agency noted that its 525-feet deep waters also seems to have a layer of organic-rich sludge on its floor. Cassini scientist Steve Wall, who is working with NASA's Jet Proplusion Laboratory in Pasadena said that the work is a marvelous feat of science -- extraterrestrial oceanography on an alien moon.
Cassini has been studying Saturn for nearly 12 years, revealing that almost 2 percent of titan's 620,000 square miles is covered in liquid. The moon has three large seas, all located in the northern polar region, most of which are surrounded with small lakes. One large lake, however, has been found on the moon's southern hemisphere.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone