Scientists have been left stunned after they found a diverse seascape on Saturn’s moon Titan appearing eerily similar to Earth.
Just like freshwater rivers and salty oceans flowing on Earth, scientists have now found strange lakes, rivers and oceans flowing on Titan.
Unlike the water oceans present on Earth, the lakes of Titan are filled with ethane and methane which are in liquid form at the average surface temperature of the planet which is about -179°C (-290°F).
The surface and composition of Titan’s seas were mapped by Valerio Poggiali at Cornell University, New York and his colleagues using a different radar technique in which an increased amount of ethane was revealed.
“The more north you go, the cleaner and purer the seas are; they’re more methane-dominated,” Poggiali said.
In the new study, the signals from Cassini’s radar were analysed which reflected off the surface of the lakes and eventually received with the help of radio antennae on Earth operated by NASA, known as the Deep Space Network.
Wind-whipped waves emerging from Titan’s rivers: Study
Poggiali said that many of the rivers and estuaries, which fed the lakes, had rough surfaces beneath them which was a result of wind-whipped waves.
He added that this hints at active tides or currents which feed into the lakes.
“Activity on the surface of the seas is super important if you want to plan a future mission, like a Titan submarine, but also to be able to better understand Titan’s environments in terms of wind and its atmospheric characteristics,” Poggiali said.
Poggiali and his colleagues also discovered that there was higher composition of methane in the rivers before they reached the lakes.
Ingo Mueller-Wodarg at Imperial College London said that it will help them in tracking the ethane and methane cycle on Titan.
“When a river enters a large, salty ocean on Earth, then you would see that, near where the river enters, you have a lower salinity of the water,” he said.
“It’s kind of a similar thing happening here, only that it’s not about the content of salt, but the relative proportion of methane and ethane,” he added.
(With inputs from agencies)
