New Hubble Pictures of Planets


The precise chemical composition of these very alien lakes and seas remained unknown until 2014, when Cassini's radar instrument detected Ligeia Mare, now known to be Titan's second-largest hydrocarbon-filled lake. Ligeia Mare is brimming with an abundance of sloshing methane, and this enormous liquid reservoir is approximately the same size as two of Earth's Great Lakes combined--Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Many planetary scientists think that the seabed of Ligeia Mare may be blanketed with a thick layer of sludge that is composed of organic-rich compounds. Discovering the little moon also reinforces the theory that most dwarf planets have moons. Titan is certainly an exotic, fascinating, frigid oddball, that bears an eerie resemblance to the primordial Earth before life emerged and evolved on our planet (prebiotic). In fact, Titan is the only moon in our entire Solar System with a substantial atmosphere. It is also the only known world--other than Earth--where stable bodies of surface liquid exist.