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NASA discovery/ Where seas of liquid hydrocarbons were found

2024-07-17 08:42:00, Kuriozitete CNA

NASA discovery/ Where seas of liquid hydrocarbons were found

NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which has been on a mission to explore Saturn, including its largest moon Titan, ended its mission by crashing into the planet's surface in 2017. However, a portion of the database collected during 13 years of Saturn exploration is now being analyzed. 

Cassini has collected new data on the seas of liquid hydrocarbons on the surface of Titan, the place that is being intensively studied in search of extraterrestrial life, reports Reuters.

Titan is shrouded in an orange haze and is the only known celestial body other than Earth to have liquid regions on its surface, although these masses are composed of nitrogen and the organic compounds methane and ethane, components of natural gas.

The NASA study included three areas near Titan's north pole: Kraken Mare, which is the largest and covers an area similar to the Caspian Sea, Ligeia Mare, the second largest, which is similar in surface to The Great Lakes in North America and Punga Mare, which is the size of Lake Victoria in Africa.

The chemical composition of these methane-rich seas varies depending on their latitude.

The study also documented the extent and propagation of waves on the sea surface, which indicates active marine currents, so-called tidal currents that intensify near the mouths of tributary streams similar to the mouths of rivers and seas.

Titan, 5,150 kilometers across, is the second largest satellite of our solar system after Jupiter's Ganymede and is larger than the planet Mercury.

Titan and Earth are the only celestial bodies in the solar system where liquid from clouds falls to the surface, flows as a river, flows into seas and lakes on the surface, and evaporates back into the atmosphere where the hydrological process begins again. /CNA 





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