Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/University of Idaho
Joel Kontinen
Saturn’s moon Titan has coastlines matching ones on Earth that
have been carved by waves, hinting that Titan’s hydrocarbon seas and lakes also
has them
Saturn’s moon
Titan is an evolutionary dilemma. It’s age is not what the
big bang scientist say, but it is far younger.
“Craggy coastlines appear to have been carved out by
waves around the methane seas and lakes of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan – and a
NASA mission launching in 2028 could give us a closer look.
Titan is the only
body in the solar system apart from Earth that has liquid on its surface,
in the form of lakes and oceans made up of hydrocarbons like liquid methane,
ethane and other organic molecules. Scientists think that winds in Titan’s
thick nitrogen-rich atmosphere might produce rippling waves on these lakes, but
these have never been directly observed because the moon’s atmosphere
is too hazy to peer throughit
The New Horizons
mission to Pluto, now zooming out of the Kuiper belt, has made a discovery that
could upend what we know about where the solar system ends
Now, Rose
Palermo at the US Geological Survey in Florida and her colleagues have
found that the shape of Titan’s coastlines are best explained by the existence
of waves on the ocean surface that have eroded them over time.”
Source:
Alex Wilkins, 2024. Saturn's moon Titan is experiencing coastal erosion from methane seas (msn.com) 19 June.
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