spacetoday.net: Potential lake seen on Titan

Posted: Wed, Jun 29, 2005, 8:32 AM ET (1232 GMT)
Titan lake seen by Cassini (NASA/JPL)

Scientists studying infrared images of the surface of Titan have discovered what they believe may be a lake of liquid methane near the moon's south pole. Cassini project scientists saw the feature, about the same size as Lake Ontario on Earth, in images taken by the spacecraft early this month. The edges of the region have rounded shapes similar to shorelines, and the region is located near an area of dense clouds that may rain liquid methane onto the surface. Scientists said that the feature may have once been a lake that has since dried up, leaving behind dark deposits seen in the Cassini images. While many planetary scientists expected to find large bodies of liquid on the surface of Saturn's largest moon, to date no liquid features have been seen, although data from both Cassini and the Huygens probe have revealed features like channels and shorelines that suggest that liquid methane or other chemicals could exist on the surface at least temporarily.