This was possible partly because the liquid turned out to be very pure, allowing the radar signal to pass through it easily. This is the first time scientists have been able to plumb the bottom of a lake or sea on Titan. “We think it may be something like the formation of the prehistoric lake called Lake Lahontan near Lake Tahoe in Nevada and California, where deformation of the crust created fissures that could be filled up with liquid.”Ī creative application of a method previously used to analyze data at Mars also revealed that Ligeia Mare is about 560 feet (170 meters) deep. ![]() These images show us that the bedrock and geology must be creating a particularly inviting environment for lakes in this box,” said Randolph Kirk, a Cassini radar team member at the U.S. “Scientists have been wondering why Titan’s lakes are where they are. Only 3 percent of the liquid at Titan falls outside of this area. They also show nearly all of the lakes on Titan fall into an area covering about 600 miles by 1,100 miles (900 kilometers by 1,800 kilometers). ![]() These new images show Kraken Mare is more extensive and complex than previously thought. “While these two worlds aren’t exactly the same, it shows us more and more Earth-like processes as we get new views.” “Learning about surface features like lakes and seas helps us to understand how Titan’s liquids, solids and gases interact to make it so Earth-like,” said Steve Wall, acting radar team lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. Some of the flybys tracked over areas that previously were seen at a different angle, so researchers have been able to create a flyover of the area around Titan’s largest and second largest seas, known as Kraken Mare and Ligeia Mare, and some of the nearby lakes. The image includes all the seas and most of the major lakes. ![]() Scientists working with the spacecraft’s radar instrument have put together the most detailed multi-image mosaic of that region to date. Titan is one of the most Earth-like places in the solar system, and the only place other than our planet that has stable liquid on its surface.Ĭassini’s recent close flybys are bringing into sharper focus a region in Titan’s northern hemisphere that sparkles with almost all of the moon’s seas and lakes. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is providing scientists with key clues about Saturn’s moon Titan, and in particular, its hydrocarbon lakes and seas.
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