Huge seas spotted on Saturn's moon Titan (bigger than the Great Lakes - very cool pictures)

Reuters ^ | Tue Mar 13, 7:05 PM ET

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - NASA's Cassini spacecraft has found evidence of huge seas -- one of them bigger than any of North America's Great Lakes -- on Saturn's largest moon, scientists said on Tuesday.

Scientists studying the images taken by the probe, which blasted off a decade ago, said the seas on Titan were likely filled with liquid methane or ethane and that the discovery reinforced previous theories.

"We've long hypothesized about oceans on Titan, and now with multiple instruments we have a first indication of seas that dwarf the lakes seen previously," said Jonathan Lunine, a University of Arizona scientist who works on Cassini data.

This composite image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft released by NASA on March 13,
2007, shows evidence of seas, likely filled with liquid methane or ethane, in the high
northern latitudes of Saturn's moon Titan. One such feature is larger than any of the
Great Lakes of North America and is about the same size as several seas on Earth.
(NASA/JPL/Handout./Reuters)

Scientists at the U.S. space agency said Cassini's radar instruments captured several very dark features near Titan's north pole. The largest measures at least 100,000 square km (39,000 square miles).

Titan is the second-largest moon in the solar system, after Jupiter's Ganymede, and is about 50 percent larger than the Earth's moon.

NASA said although there was no proof the seas contain liquid, their shape and dark appearance on radar indicates smoothness.

The liquid is probably methane or ethane because those compounds are abundant in clouds in Titan's atmosphere.

This radar image released by NASA Tuesday, March 13, 2007, shows what scientists
believe to be sea-size bodies of liquid, shown in blue, on the surface of Saturn's
largest moon Titan. The discovery by the international Cassini spacecraft was
welcomed by researchers, who have long theorized that Titan possessed
hydrocarbon seas because of methane and other organic compounds in its thick,
largely nitrogen atmosphere. (AP Photo/NASA)

The scientists said the presence of the seas reinforced current thinking that Titan's surface must be resupplying methane to its atmosphere.

Because of the new images, the Cassini mission team is repositioning the spacecraft's radar instruments during a May fly-by so it can pass directly over the dark areas seen by the cameras.

Cassini was launched in October 1997 and entered into orbit around Saturn in July 2004. The mission is a project between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.

[RightWhale]

Yes, it will do science. Several kinds actually. Too bad the ISS crew is limited to three, which is maybe 1/2 a tech, because they could use three full-time techs up there once the science modules are up and running.

[Repeal The 17th]

But Righty,
(you don't mind if I call you "Righty", do you?)
tell me, please, what does all that really mean?
What will we r-e-a-l-l-y learn from spending all those space $$$?
After all, "my" science involves a muffle furnace and my daughter-in-law's bitch-from-hell-she-cat ... and that's all I'm willing to say about it at the present time.

[RightWhale]

It is enough to know science is being done. Science should not be in the newspapers where just anybody can read about it. It should be reserved to trained professionals. :)