Astronomers did not directly see the ocean but they told that observations done by the Cassini spacecraft suggests the existence of an ocean, maybe 60 miles beneath titan’s surface.

Titan is the 2nd largest moon in the solar system only behind Ganymede, the moon of Jupiter and it is also the largest moon of Saturn. Titan has a diameter of around three thousand two hundred miles, which is greater than that of the dwarf planet Pluto and the planet Mercury.

The Cassini spacecraft, which is on an U.S.-European mission to explore the planet Saturn and its moons, gathered measurements by means of radar that penetrated the thick clouds of Titan during nineteen passes above titan between Oct 2005 and May 2007.

Information from previous observations permitted researchers to determine the positions of fifty landmarks, which includes mountains, canyons and lakes on the surface of Titan. The scientists then examined the data from the later radar and found out that important surface features had moved up to nineteen miles.

Titan’s crust spin is associated to winds that blow through its atmosphere, the researchers said. But it would be difficult to explain the kind of wide displacement of titan’s surface features except for its crust to be separated from its core by an ocean lying below, making the crust to float.

“As Titan’s crust appears to be so mobile, we suppose there is an ocean beneath,” said Ralph Lorenz of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, in a telephone interview.

Lorenz, who directed the research published in the journal Science, said that the internal ocean was perhaps mostly water with a small percent of ammonia.”Titan is without doubt one of the most Earth-like landscapes in the solar system and possibly possesses the most Earth-like climate,” he added.

Its atmosphere is by and large formed of nitrogen; in addition to other hydrocarbon elements that give the Saturn’s moon its color i.e. orange.The atmosphere of Titan contains compounds that might have existed in the Earth’s prehistoric atmosphere. The Saturn’s moon may also possess some chemicals such as ethane and methane in greater quantities.

Researchers have also found proof that suggests such internal oceans on other moons in the solar system, which includes Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa of Jupiter and Enceladus of Saturn.

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The Cassini spacecraft had detected a large debris disk which appeared to be like rings around the 950-mile-wide moon Rhea. Scientists firmly believe that the discs are composed of particles ranging from the size of pebbles to big rocks.

In contrast to the rings around Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, the alleged arcs around Rhea remain invisible and cannot be seen directly. Scientists confirmed the existence of arcs based on the measurements made by Cassini, which detected a fall in electrons on both sides of the moon, indicating that the existence of rings was absorbing the electrons.

This is an artist concept of the ring of debris that may orbit Saturn’s second-largest moon, Rhea. The suggested disk of solid material is exaggerated in density here for clarity.

Credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL

It’s uncertain that when the rings would have originated, one thing is certain that they originated as a result of a collision of an asteroid or comet which took place long ago that disgorged the debris around Rhea.

“There is also possibility that rings might have formed even at the time of Rhea’s formation,” said Geraint Jones, a space physicist from University College of London.

Till now, we were known that only planets have rings, added Jones, who began the research while at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany.

The Cassini mission, which was a joint effort by NASA and the space agencies of Italy and Europe, was launched into space in 1997. The spacecraft reached Saturn in 2004. The mission is controlled by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

“It is the first time to detect a moon having rings around it”, said the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Rhea, which is having a diameter of about 1500 kilometers, is the second-largest moon of Saturn. Cassini detected alleged arcs of debris which stretches several thousand miles from end to end said NASA.

“After excluding many other possibilities, we said these discs have similarities of rings,” said Jones. “No one might have expected rings around a moon.”

Cassini is the first spacecraft to explore the Saturn system of rings and moons from orbit.

‘Until now we believed that Saturn was the only planet having rings,’ said a scientist of Cassini mission. “Now we also have a moon of Saturn which seems to be a miniature version of it even more elaborately decorated parent.”

Relevant Links:

• Saturn’s Moon Rhea Also May Have Rings
• http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/rhea20080306.html

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An artist’s imagination of hydrocarbon pools, icy and rocky terrain on the surface of Saturn’s largest moon Titan.
Credits: Steven Hobbs

The immense reserve is detected at a location which is 1.2 billion kilometers i.e., approximately 750 million miles away from Earth, where average temperature itself will be minus 179 degrees Celsius.

Titan has several hundreds times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the available oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, said the European Space Agency (ESA).

In Titan, the ethane and methane falls from the sky in the form of rain, forming massive lakes and seas. It is believed that complex organic molecules called tholins are responsible for Titan’s oily dunes, said the ESA.

“Titan is just enclosed in a carbon covered material. It is a giant factory of organic chemicals,” said scientist Ralph Lorenz.

Revealing the mystery of Titan’s carbon-chemistry may help to find out the answer for how Earth’s carbon-based life began, said the researchers.

The fall of hydrocarbons from the sky, in the form of rain and get stored in massive deposits that form lakes and dunes. But now scientists are quantifying the material using observations from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.

Titan has long been considered as a place that might be somewhat like Earth. “The inventory of immense oil resource is an important break through into the geology and climate history of Titan.” said scientist Ralph Lorenz.

The 20 percent of Titan’s surface has been mapped by Cassini with the help of its radar. According to the statement of NASA, scientists have observed several hundreds of lakes and seas; each of it is estimated to have more hydrocarbon than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth.

The total availability of natural gas on Earth is 130 billion tons. But the Titan’s lakes and seas individually have the equivalent of at least this much energy in the form of methane and ethane.

“This estimation is made based on the pictures of the lakes located in the North Polar Region,” Lorenz said. “We assumed that the southern polar region might also be similar, but we really don’t yet know how much liquid is there.”

The radar of Cassini has observed the southern polar region only once, and only two small lakes were identified.

Scientists also estimated the depth of Titan’s lakes by making some general assumptions based on the lakes on Earth.

“We know that the depth of some lakes are more than 10 meters or much deeper because they appear factually pitch-black to the radar,” said Ralph.

The volume of liquid present on the Titan’s surface is important because methane is a strong greenhouse gas. Titan will become much colder if the methane present on its surface gets expired. Scientists assume that the presence of methane in the Titan’s atmosphere might be due to the expulsion from volcanic eruptions.

Relevant Links: http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMCSUUHJCF_index_0.html

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