The Cassini spacecraft photographed a beach full of fjords and bays on Titan about two weeks ago
The coastline on Titan.
Photo: NASA.
Pay attention to the photo. If we didn't know what it was about, we could easily say that this is a photograph of one of the coastlines on Earth, maybe even an island in the Middle East, or a Norwegian fjord, but no, you are looking at an outside world known by its name - Titan.
The Cassini spacecraft took this image on May 12, 2007 as it orbited and studied Saturn's moons. During the flight, the picture was taken with the help of the radar devices. The liquids appear in the image in black color and the rest of the lighter area appears as dry land.
Although liquid areas such as lakes have been photographed on Titan in the past, no image has yet been recorded that includes: canals, islands, bays and areas that resemble an image of Earth. These liquids are not water, they are a combination of the substances methane and ethane. Since there are no lighter areas in the liquid areas in the picture, scientists believe that the depth of the ocean does not exceed a few tens of meters.
The total area in the picture is 160 kilometers long and 270 kilometers wide.
Translated: Yariv Zerbiv.
Source: NASA.
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To me it is a wonder that they reached Titan.
It's a star (moon to be exact) that appears mainly in science fiction books and here it is... a human-made spacecraft is orbiting Titan and studying it closely.
The temperature on the surface of Titan is too low to allow liquid water on the surface. On top of Titan there is indeed water, but in solid form, i.e. ice.
Identifying the chemical composition of stars and other celestial bodies is done by analyzing their radiation emission spectrum.
How do you know it's not water?