Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is a giant nightmare beach. While its electrically charged sand wouldn’t make for a relaxing vacation, new research suggests the planet might not be as hostile to robotic visitors as we think. Although its lakes are full of ultra-cold liquid methane and ethane, they could be placid enough for future space probe to land on. Still not great for swimming, though.
In a new study, published on June 29th in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, researchers used radar data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft to measure the roughness of three lakes located in near Saturnian moon’s north pole—Kraken Mare, Ligeia Mare and Punga Mare. Ligeia Mare, the second biggest of the bunch, is larger than Lake Superior and could hold more than 50 times Earth’s oil reserves, according to Science News. Read more...
In a new study, published on June 29th in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, researchers used radar data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft to measure the roughness of three lakes located in near Saturnian moon’s north pole—Kraken Mare, Ligeia Mare and Punga Mare. Ligeia Mare, the second biggest of the bunch, is larger than Lake Superior and could hold more than 50 times Earth’s oil reserves, according to Science News. Read more...