Saturn’s largest moon (and second in the Solar System, after Ganymede, on Jupiter) has always intrigued astronomers with its thick and complex atmosphere, its traces of river courses, and the huge lakes of liquid methane that dot it. Some compare this scenario to Earth before life emerged. And the ideal way to unravel Titan’s secrets would be to send a mission to its surface , a long-cherished project that seems slightly more plausible after learning the results of a study led by the University of Texas at Austin.
The new research, published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters , was focused on closely examining the characteristics of its lakes with radar records from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft . Thus they have been able to verify that they are like oil rafts, with waves of just one centimeter in height and 20 cm in length. This probably implies a calm environment and very light winds , which would facilitate the landing of a future probe on Saturn’s moon.
Specifically, the scientists measured the swell of Titan’s three largest liquid methane surfaces : lakes Kraken (larger than the land-based Caspian Sea), Ligeia and Punga. The same method had already been used to examine the roughness and density of snow on Earth’s polar caps and to choose the point where NASA’s InSight mission to Mars , scheduled for next year, will descend.
If a spacecraft were eventually sent to Titan, scientists could find out, for example, if there really is an ocean of liquid water underneath the icy layer that covers the Saturnian moon, as is suspected, and if any form has developed. of life.
Photo: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory / Cassini Orbiter.
