Titanic Close-up: Cassini eyes Saturn’s big moon
By Ron Cowen
Using radar to penetrate the thick haze surrounding Saturn’s moon Titan, the Cassini spacecraft has found evidence that the moon’s surface is coated with hydrocarbons. Dark patches in radar images, including a region the size of Lake Tahoe, might be liquid ethane or methane, the Cassini scientists say. These pools might resemble the chemical brew that led to life on Earth billions of years ago.
During press briefings last week from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., the scientists reported these and other findings from Cassini’s first close passage by Titan on Oct. 26.