Jul 27 2006
From The Space Library
Scientists announced that images from the ESA spacecraft had revealed the presence of lakes on Saturn’s moon Titan, the first time that astronomers had located lakes anywhere other than Earth. ESA, a joint mission of NASA and ESA, had captured the images during a 22 July flyby of a region of Titan called Xanadu. The pictures indicated that Titan might have topographic features similar to those found on Earth, such as hills, valleys, and rivers emptying into lakes. NASA scientists theorized that, because temperatures on Titan are approximately - 180ºC (-292ºF), the liquid in the lakes is likely either methane or a combination of ethane and methane. Scientists speculated that the lakes could be the source of the hydrocarbon smog found in Titan’s frigid and thick atmosphere. NASA and ESA had created ESA to explore Saturn and its system of moons, and Titan’s atmosphere was one of the mission’s major research topics.
Caitlin A. Griffith, “Planetary Science: Titan’s Exotic Weather,” Nature (London) 362, no. 1 (27 July 2006): 362– 363, http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v442/n7101/full/442362a.html (DOI 10.1038/442362a; accessed 15 March 2010); NASA, “ESA Finds Lakes on Titan’s Arctic Region,” news release 06-274, 28 July 2006, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/jul/HQ_06274_cassini_lakes_itan_prt.htm (accessed 15 March 2010).
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