Titan's tropical lake hints at hydrocarbon wells

THE Caribbean it ain't, but the "tropical" regions of Saturn's moon Titan seem to harbour lakes of liquid methane. The pools are surprisingly long-lasting, suggesting that they may be replenished by underground wells of hydrocarbons.

The Cassini spacecraft confirmed the presence of liquid-hydrocarbon lakes in Titan's polar regions in 2004, but it was unclear whether similar pools could survive in the moon's marginally warmer lower latitudes - its "tropics" - without evaporating.

Caitlin Griffith and colleagues at the University of Arizona in Tucson analysed the sunlight reflected from Titan's tropical regions, recorded by Cassini. They found a highly reflective oval-shaped black feature, 2400 square kilometres in size. They say the combination of shape and colour is consistent with a liquid methane lake (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature11165). If it is a lake, it is long-lived, persisting since at least 2004, through both rainy and dry seasons. This means it's unlikely to be a big rain puddle and could be fed by hydrocarbon wells, say the researchers.

Jonathan Lunine, a planetary scientist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, says such lakes might be good habitats for simple life, but that Titan's larger polar lakes are better candidates.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

Have your say

Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in.

Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article

Subscribe now to comment.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

cardinals jessica sanchez robert kennedy san diego weather north korea frances bean cobain north korea missile launch