Friday, September 29, 2006

Are Titan's Methane Lakes Evaporating?

SpaceToys.com Authentic NASA Toys and Replicas
It is probably a good thing Titan does not have a stock market, otherwise its fuel prices would be jumping through the roof at this news.

(New Scientist Space) A dozen more lakes have been discovered near the north pole of Saturn's moon Titan, according to images from the Cassini spacecraft's latest flyby of the moon. The lakes may be a seasonal phenomenon, filling with methane rain in the winter, then evaporating in the summer. [...]

The lakes may accumulate near the north and south pole in alternating periods when each experiences its winter and lower temperatures lead to more methane rain, [Stephen Wall of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, US.] says.


The key words in these paragraphs is "may," as the scientists seem to be unsure. Hopefully in the not so distant future (say 50 years) we will be able to land either a rover on Titan's surface or send humans to the moon before these lakes evaporate completely.




Want more space geek news? Then subscribe below via email, RSS or twitter for free updates!

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Prefer another service? How about via RSS or follow Colony Worlds on Twitter!

No comments:

Post a Comment

You can either visit the stars or watch them from afar.

But if you choose the former, you'll definitely get a better view.

~Darnell Clayton, 2007

Note: You do not need a Blogger account in order to comment, but you do need to solve the universal puzzle below.