NASA’s Cassini-Huygens spacecraft gathered radar data revealing that the small liquid lakes in Titan’s northern hemisphere are surprisingly deep, set atop hills and filled with methane, during its final flyby of Saturn’s largest moon in 2017. These lakes are more than 300 feet and provide new information about the way liquid methane rains on, evaporates from and seeps into Titan, the only other planetary body in our solar system known to have stable liquid on its surface. Titan’s hydrologic cycle is similar Earth’s, but rather than water evaporating from seas, forming clouds and rain, Saturn’s moon does it all with methane / ethane. Read more for another video and additional information.
“Scientists have known that the much larger northern seas are filled with methane, but finding the smaller northern lakes filled mostly with methane was a surprise. Previously, Cassini data measured Ontario Lacus, the only major lake in Titan’s southern hemisphere. There they found a roughly equal mix of methane and ethane. Ethane is slightly heavier than methane, with more carbon and hydrogen atoms in its makeup,” said NASA.