Their scarcity attests to Titan’s active geology – erosion of high ground, burial under sediments, and possibly erasure by volcanism (spewing out ice instead of molten rock). So Titan's weather is expected to feature downpours of several meters (15-20') causing flash floods, interspersed by decades or centuries of drought (whereas typical weather on Earth includes a little rain most weeks). The moon was officially named Titan by John Herschel in 1847. [46] The model also predicts energy from the Sun will evaporate liquid methane from Titan's surface except at the poles, where the relative absence of sunlight makes it easier for liquid methane to accumulate into permanent lakes. [7] Channels in some regions have created surprisingly little erosion, suggesting erosion on Titan is extremely slow, or some other recent phenomena may have wiped out older riverbeds and landforms. The ice is predicted to rise to the surface again at the onset of spring before melting. The moon’s second most abundant gas is methane, which makes Titan Earth-like in a different but very remarkable way. This is because sunlight causes the molecules of methane high in Titan’s atmosphere to link into larger molecules, making a high-altitude smog that the Voyager cameras could not see through. In contrast, the northern hemisphere's Ligeia Mare has depths of 170 m (557'9"). Titan’s surface averages -178°C, a temperature where water is always ice and methane is liquid. [23] However, the chemical composition and physical properties of the lakes probably varies from one lake to another (Cassini observations in 2013 indicate Ligeia Mare is filled with a ternary mixture of methane, ethane, and nitrogen and consequently the probe's radar signals were able to detect the sea floor 170 m (557'9") below the liquid surface).[24].
He is Educator on the Open University's free learning Badged Open Course (BOC) on Moons and its equivalent FutureLearn Moons MOOC, and chair of the Open University's level 2 course on Planetary Science and the Search for Life. If it did exist, it would be adapted to much lower temperatures and a radically different biochemistry than life on Earth. How geological maps made the Apollo moon landings worthwhile, Digital Communication and Work Stress in Australian Universities Survey (supported by the Australian Research Council) Ligeia Mare is at top; Punga Mare is below it and Kraken Mare is to its lower right. The lakes of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, are bodies of liquid ethane and methane that have been detected by the Cassini–Huygens space probe, and had been suspected long before. [10] Based on the observations, scientists announced "definitive evidence of lakes filled with methane on Saturn's moon Titan" in January 2007. A vortex has been seen over Titan’s north pole and south pole. When the probe arrived in the Saturnian system in 2004, it was hoped that hydrocarbon lakes or oceans might be detectable by reflected sunlight from the surface of any liquid bodies, but no specular reflections were initially observed. This may be either due to low seasonal winds or solidification of hydrocarbons. Titan's atmosphere is full of methane, which according to calculations should react with ultraviolet radiation from the sun to produce liquid ethane. Privacy Policy | Because of the polar location of the reflecting liquid body, the observation required a phase angle close to 180°. Titan's atmosphere is roughly 90% Nitrogen, and 10% other complex molecules such as methane. According to a computer model, 3/4 of an average polar lake is ethane, with 10 percent methane, 7 percent propane and smaller amounts of hydrogen cyanide, butane, nitrogen and argon. It arrived in 2004. This is important because it shows how Titan’s various kinds of terrain relate to each other. However, the Huygens probe has found wet mush as it has explored the surface of Titan. [41] Thermometers indicated that heat was wicked away from Huygens so quickly that the ground must have been damp, and one image shows light reflected by a dewdrop as it falls across the camera's field of view. The gaseous methane can condense to form clouds from which droplets of liquid methane can fall like rain. The Cassini probe has proven that the lakes remain present through Saturn’s year and do not evaporate during Saturn’s summer. Radar measurements made in July 2009 and January 2010 indicate that Ontario Lacus is extremely shallow, with an average depth of 0.4–3.2 m (1'4"-10.5'), and a maximum depth of 2.9–7.4 m (9.5'-24'4").
Hosted by University of Newcastle, City of Newcastle and Ars Electonica, fully online due to covid-19;, New South Wales, Copyright © 2010–2020, The Conversation Media Group Ltd, NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/University of Idaho. Cassini also found a glow at about 190 miles above the surface, though the cause of this deeper glow is not known. The European Space Agency supplied the Huygens probe that landed on Titan’s surface. There are several mountains on Titan suspected of being cryovolancoes.