Surface of Titan Sea is mirror smooth, scientists find New radar measurements of an enormous sea on Titan offer insights into the weather patterns and landscape composition of the Saturnian moon. The measurements, made in 2013 by NASAs Cassini spacecraft, reveal that the surface of Ligeia Mare, Titans second largest sea, possesses a mirror-like smoothness, possibly due to a lack of winds. If you could look out on this sea, it would be really still. It would just be a totally glassy surface, said Howard Zebker, professor of geophysics and of electrical engineering at Stanford who is the lead author of a new study detailing the research. The findings, recently published online in Geophysical Research Letters, also indicate that the solid terrain surrounding the sea is likely made of solid organic materials and not frozen water. Saturns second largest moon, Titan has a dense, planet-like atmosphere and large seas made of methane and ethane. Measuring roughly 260 miles (420 km) by 217 miles (350 km), Ligeia Mare is larger than Lake Superior on Earth. Titan is the best analog that we have in the solar system to a body like the Earth because it is the only other body that we know of that has a complex cycle of solid, liquid, and gas constituents, Zebker said. Titans thick cloud cover makes it difficult for Cassini to obtain clear optical images of its surface, so scientists must rely on radar, which can see through the clouds, instead of a camera. Read more at: phys.org/news/2014-03-surface-titan-sea-mirror-smooth.html#jCp
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 18:10:00 +0000
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