Mystery object in lake on Saturn's moon Titan intrigues scientists
Mystery object in lake on Saturn's moon Titan intrigues scientists
Nasa's Cassini probe took image last year as it passed by planet's largest moon – nothing seen when other images taken
Ian Sample, science editor
The Guardian, Sunday 22 June 2014 13.00 EDT
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The mystery object, described as a 'magic island' appeared out of nowhere in radar
images of a hydrocarbon sea on Saturn's giant moon, Titan.
Photograph: JPL-Caltech/ASI/Cornell/NASA/PA[/font]
Scientists are investigating a mystery object that appeared and then vanished again from a giant lake on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn.
They spotted the object in an image taken by Nasa's Cassini probe last year as it swung around the alien moon, more than a billion kilometres from Earth. Pictures of the same spot captured nothing before or some days later.
Little more than a white blob on a grainy image of Titan's northern hemisphere, the sighting could be an iceberg that broke free of the shoreline, an effect of rising bubbles, or waves rolling across the normally placid lake's surface, scientists say.
Astronomers have named the blob the "magic island" until they have a better idea what they are looking at. "We can't be sure what it is yet because we only have the one image, but it's not something you would normally see on Titan," said Jason Hofgartner, a planetary scientist at Cornell University in New York. "It is not something that has been there permanently."
More:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jun/22/mystery-object-lake-saturn-titan-scientists-nasa
= new reply since forum marked as read
22 June 2014 Last updated at 13:00 ET
Titan: Clue to 'Magic Island' mystery on Saturn moon
By Paul Rincon
Science editor, BBC News website
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The bright feature was spotted in images from July last year, but a few days later it had vanished[/font]
Scientists have outlined their best explanations for a mysterious feature dubbed the "magic island", which has been spotted on Saturn's moon Titan.
The Cassini spacecraft captured the "island" during a flyby, but it had vanished by the time of the next pass.
The bright splodge is seen in Ligeia Mare, one of the seas of methane and ethane found at Titan's north pole.
Icebergs, waves and gas bubbling up from the sea bed are all possibilities, the scientists say.
The study by an international team has been published in the journal Nature Geoscience
Saturn's largest moon shares much in common with Earth, such as a substantial atmosphere and a seasonal cycle. Wind and rain shape the surface to form river channels, seas, dunes and shorelines.
Titan's mountains and dune fields are made of ice, rather than rock or sand, and liquid hydrocarbons take many of the roles played by water on Earth.
More:
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27957274
That was my first thought, too! 
