Sunday, April 12, 2009

Hydrocarbon lake on Titan


A much better picture of the giant methane-ethane lake discovered by the University of Arizona camera aboard the Cassini spacecraft at the south pole of Saturn's moon Titan is now available at The Daily Galaxy.

The UA released a picture last July of the 20,000 square km lake (larger than Lake Ontario- correction- Lake Superior, shown at right for comparison) but it was blurry and black and white. The new photo (at least new to me) shows beaches and exposed lake margins that suggest the lake is evaporating.

The Daily Galaxy story offers a good overview and update.