a titanic discovery

Saturn’s moon, Titan, has always been rather mysterious: Its thick nitrogen atmosphere and methane clouds have made observations of its surface difficult. But now Donald Campbell of Cornell University and his colleagues report in the Oct. 2 Science online that they have used radar to cut through the haze. Analyzing radar observations from radio telescopes, they have found areas on the moon’s surface that have properties consistent with those of liquid hydrocarbons. They speculate that up to three-quarters of Titan may be covered by hydrocarbon seas and lakes. But they can’t be completely sure until the Cassini Mission makes its rendezvous with the Saturn system next year. If the researchers are right, when Cassini drops the Huygens probe down on Titan’s surface, it may end up making quite a splash.

This news brief appeared in the Random Data column of the Boston Globe’s Health/Science section on 10/07/2003.