Titan Saturn's moon have lakes, rivers and oceans, new study reveals

NASA Cassini mission image of lake in Titan (Image Credit - NASA/JPL/USGS)

According to a new study published in Nature Communications, Titan, the Saturn moon has rivers, lakes, and oceans. This study provides insights into Titan's water bodies.

The research was published on the data collected from the NASA Cassini mission that is orbiting Saturn from 2004 until 2017. Titan is made up of ethane and methane.

Unlike Earth, Titan's liquid bodies are different as they are made up of liquid hydrocarbons, the team at Cornell University, New York, led by Valerio Poggiali has mapped this surface of the Titan.

By using technique that is radar to identify the increase amount of ethane when travelling towards the north pole of the planet. Poggiali said “The more north you go, the cleaner and purer the seas are; they’re more methane-dominated.”

NASA has a future mission planned for observing Titan, this mission will take place in the year 2027, that aim to share more information on the liquid bodies present on Mars.

Titan is the only discovered place having similar to the Earth atmosphere as of Earth composed of 98% nitrogen and 2% methane containing the water bodies, mountains, dunes and valleys.

In the polar region there are large sea that have liquid hydrocarbons, having surface temperature around  290 degrees Fahrenheit (-179 degrees Celsius) and the gravitational pull is only 14% of the Earth garvity.

Titan, Saturn's largest moon, receives only 1% of the sunlight that Earth does. Recent research using radar data from the NASA Cassini spacecraft has provided data on the three of polar seas of this moon that are  Kraken Mare, Ligeia Mare, and Punga Mare revealing details of the unique bodies of liquid.

In the past studies showed that Titan's rivers lack the flow and sediment necessary to form deltas. However, some of Titan's rivers do exhibit characteristics similar to wide, fast-flowing rivers on Earth.

Titan's tiny lakes are also over 300 feet deep and 10 kilometers wide, according to the findings. Greater waves close to coasts and estuaries are indicative of tidal currents, which is an intriguing possibility for learning more about the geology and the presence of life on this moon. This new study expands on our knowledge of Titan, a far-off moon, by highlighting the intricacy of its hydrological processes.