14 DAY TRIAL // Experts were recently able to determine that the largest lake in the southern hemisphere of Saturn's largest moon Titan is in fact very shallow, and that its surface is not disturbed by any waves.
Given that the space body has an average temperature of nearly minus 180 degrees Celsius, it stands to reason that water cannot endure there in its liquid farm. Actually, ice there is about as hard as granite.
But the moon's temperature range is optimal for liquefying hydrocarbons, which is why all the lakes at the location, both at the north and south poles, are made up of methane and/or ethane.
In some instances, these bodies of liquid grow to impressive sizes. A good example was Ontario Lacus, the largest in the southern hemisphere. Despite covering a huge surface, it' only as deep as a backyard swimming pool, Space reports.
The recent investigation uncovered that its surface can best be described as mirror-flat. This is very weird, considering that it covers an estimated 6,000 square miles (15,000 square kilometers).
According to predictions, it's physically impossible for the lake's depth to exceed 24 feet (7.4 meters) at any point, without breaking or at least seriously bending some laws of physics.
“The volume of hydrocarbons is actually quite small. The shallowness was a surprise,” said expert Lauren Wye, the lead author of a new study detailing the findings.
Wye, who holds an appointment at the Stanford University, presented the discoveries on December 15 in San Francisco, at the 2010 annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
She believes that this new study, and perhaps others that would follow, could help investigators gain more insight into how the peculiar landscape on Titan and other space bodies formed.
Referring specifically to the Saturnine moon, the physical traits of the hydrocarbon lakes could be used to learn more about the hazy atmosphere Titan is famous for. Most studies of its surface are being conducted using radar.
For the investigation, Wye's team used data collected in July 2009 and January 2010, during two flybys of the moon conducted by the NASA Cassini space probe.
With the passes, the spacecraft was able to fill holes in planetary scientists' knowledge about the depth of the lake at other locations except the shorelines.
The probe has been sending back viable data about Saturn, its atmosphere, rings and its moons since July 2004, when it achieved orbital insertion around the gas giant.
This mission is managed for the NASA Science Mission Directorate in Washington DC by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), in Pasadena.