Login With Google
Lakes of liquid methane on Saturn’s moon-Titan
Why is it in news?
Recently, Scientists provided the most comprehensive look of lakes of liquid methane on Saturn’s moon-Titan.
More in news
- Cassini spacecraft: This data was obtained by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft before that mission ended in 2017 with a deliberate plunge into Saturn.
- Places with standing bodies of liquid: Titan and Earth are the solar system’s two places with standing bodies of liquid on the surface.
- Lakes, rivers and seas of hydrocarbons: Titan boasts lakes, rivers and seas of hydrocarbons: compounds of hydrogen and carbon like those that are the main components of petroleum and natural gas.
- Titan’s hydrological cycle:(1) The findings represented further evidence about Titan’s hydrological cycle, with liquid hydrocarbons raining down from clouds, flowing across its surface and evaporating back into the sky.(2) This is comparable to Earth’s water cycle.
- Less possibility of life: Because of Titan’s complex chemistry and distinctive environments, scientists suspect it potentially could harbor life.
- Titan:(1) Diameter: 5,150 km.(2) It is the solar system’s second largest moon, behind only Jupiter’s Ganymede.(3) It is bigger than the planet Mercury.(4) Titan is the most Earth-like body in the solar system.(5) It has lakes, canyons, rivers, dune fields of organic sand particles about the same size as silica sand grains on Earth.
Source
The Hindu