NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection

Liquid Lakes on Saturn's Titan

Why would some regions on Titan reflect very little radar? The leading explanation is that these regions are lakes, possibly composed of liquid methane. The above image [ http://photojournal…] is a false-color synthetic radar map of a northern region of Titan [ http://saturn.astro…] taken during a flyby of the cloudy moon [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] by the robotic Cassini spacecraft [ http://en.wikipedia…] last July. On this map, which spans about 150 kilometers across, dark regions reflect relatively little of the broadcast radar [ http://earth.rice.e…] signal. Images like this show Titan [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] to be only the second body in the Solar System [ http://space.jpl.na…] to possess liquids on the surface. Future observations from Cassini during Titan flybys [ http://saturn.jpl.n…] will further test the methane [ http://en.wikipedia…] lake hypothesis, as comparative wind effects on the regions are studied.

Cassini Radar Mapper [ http://saturn.jpl.n…], JPL [ http://www.jpl.nasa…], ESA [ http://www.esa.int/], NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/]

Saturn

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Earth

Moon

Saturn

Cassini

Titan

Huygens Probe

Cassini-Huygens

Radar Mapper

http://antwrp.gsfc.…

SPD-APOD-ap070207