| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
News: Saturn’s Moon Titan has River Networks and Lakes of Liquid Methane
In 2004, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft — a probe that flies by Titan as it orbits Saturn — penetrated Titan’s haze, providing scientists with their first detailed images of the surface. Radar images revealed an icy terrain carved out over millions of years by rivers of liquid methane, similar to how rivers of water have etched into Earth’s rocky continents.
While images of Titan have revealed its present landscape, very little is known about its geologic past. Now researchers at MIT and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville have analyzed images of Titan’s river networks and determined that in some regions, rivers have created surprisingly little erosion. The researchers say there are two possible explanations: either erosion on Titan is extremely slow, or some other recent phenomena may have wiped out older riverbeds and landforms.
Read more at MIT News: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/river-networks-on-titan-0720.html
Video, animations, and images courtesy Taylor Perron/Ben Black; ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona; NASA/JPL.
**************************************************
Read more at UFOs- Lights In The Texas Sky
Source:
