One of the most stunning discoveries delivered by NASA's Cassini probe to the Saturn system was that its moon Titan hosts a number of lakes (confirming evidence from the Hubble Space Telescope). Titan is a giant moon with a thick atmosphere, and had long been suspected to offer appropriate conditions for bodies of liquid methane and ethane on its surface. The largest of these, Cassini found, range from hundreds of kilometres to over 1,100km in length, and so are referred to as seas. The probe also spotted hundreds of other smaller lakes, ranging from just a few kilometres to 240km. Some of these bodies exhibit intricate shorelines, and many cluster together near the north pole: a Titanic Lake District.
This story is from the December 2023 edition of BBC Sky at Night Magazine.
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This story is from the December 2023 edition of BBC Sky at Night Magazine.
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