Titan Images Fascinate Scientists |
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Written by spacetravel.org
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Sunday, 04 September 2005 22:45 |
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The latest images of Titan, Saturns largest moon, from the Cassini-Huygens mission show a 20-mile-wide ice volcano, an odd bright red spot approximately the size of Ireland and a dark feature, 145 miles by 45 miles, that is possibly a lake.
The volcano might be spewing methane. If so, this means that Titan has a way of rebuilding its surface, because the constant methane rain would otherwise flatten it.
Scientists currently do not know what the red spot is. It could be a cloud or surface hydrocarbons.
The dark feature has a smooth edge that resembles a shoreline. Scientists will use further passes of Cassini to measure the reflectivity of the dark area to see if it really is liquid. If it is, it is probably a sea of tar-like hydrocarbons.
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