uranologist scouring through images withdraw by NASA ’s Cassini spacecraft last year have discovered a momentaneous bright blot in one of the seas of Saturn ’s lunar month , Titan . The intriguing characteristic , which has been coined " Magic Island , " had never watch observed in this sea before and it vanished again some days later . Although the scientists are incertain of its identity at the second , they speculate that it could be a glance ofdynamic geological processesoccurring in the northern cerebral hemisphere . The study has been published inNature Geoscience .
Titan , the large ofSaturn ’s 62 synodic month , is an intriguing and strangely ground - like domain that has sparked great interest from scientist in late old age . It is shrouded in a stocky , favorable atmosphere of mostly nitrogen that is reminiscent of an early Earth and it has an extensive organization of lake , seas and rivers filled with liquid ethane and methane .
Almost a year ago , Cassini snapped a serial of paradigm of Titan include some its secondly - largest ocean , Ligeia Mare , which were institutionalise to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech for processing and analysis . Whilst flicking through the mental image and comparing them to elder information to look for any changes , researchers pick up a curiousbright spotin Ligeia Mare that was not present in images take before the July 2013 observation .
Thebright featurewas around 12 international nautical mile long and 6 miles wide and was locate about 6 geographical mile off the southerly shoring . It was present in one image taken on 10 July but it had disappear in a subsequent data set guide on 26 July . Furthermore , prior to the 10 July observation , Ligeia Mare was as still as a statue and was completely devoid of wavelet or waves .
The scientist ruled out that the blob could be due to mistake in the tomography equipment and have been rack their mentality to come in up with thought for what it could be . Titan ’s northern hemisphere is presently undergoing a transition from spring to summer , which could be creditworthy for the bright feature . In light of this , the team has proposedfour hypothesesthat they believe could excuse the phenomenon .
The first idea is thatwavesmay be picking up due to the seasonal transition ; if this is the case then the persona would be the first reflexion of recondite - sea waves on this moon . Warmer weather condition brings with it potent winds , therefore it is possible that as the northerly hemisphere starts to inflame up the idle words are kicking up waves in the sea .
“ The sunlight is shining brighter , and that muscularity can be powering the farting , ” direct author Jason Hofgartner toldThe Guardian . “ All you would require is a light breeze , around half a meter per second gear . ” However , he also doubts that the winds could ever be potent enough to raise substantial wave .
instead it is possible that it is some of thesolid materialthat is in pause in the sea , or frozen stuff that has started to rise to the surface as the northerly hemisphere warms . Lastly , it is also feasible that it could be a surge of gas released from the sea storey which would ascend to the surface as bubbles .
“ Likely , several different processes- such as wind , rain and tides- might affect the methane and ethane lakes on Titan . We want to see the similarities and differences from geological processes that pass here on Earth , ” Hofgartner allege in anews - dismissal . “ Ultimately , it will help us to understand better our own fluid environments here on Earth . ”
[ ViaCornell University , Nature GeoscienceandThe Guardian ]
