Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Radar Evidence for Methane Lakes On Titan

Posted by michael on from the getting-our-feet-wet dept.

DrMorpheus writes "A series of 25 radar observations, taken when Saturn made close approaches to Earth in 2001 and 2002, have provided by far the best evidence yet of methane lakes. Astronomers have suspected since the Voyager fly-bys of the 1980s that liquid hydrocarbons were present on Titan's surface."

1 of 24 comments (clear)

  1. More Info about the ESA Huygens mission by OneOver137 · · Score: 5, Informative
    http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm? fobjectid=31826

    But don't get too excited...
    "Titan is not a pleasant place for life. It is far too cold for liquid water to exist, and all known forms of life need liquid water. Titan's surface is -180?C. According to one exotic theory, long ago, the impact of a meteorite, for example, might have provided enough heat to liquify water for perhaps a few hundred or thousand years."