Data collected by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has allowed scientists to estimate the depth of the Great Kraken – the largest methane sea on the moon of Saturn Titanium.
New research published in the Journal of Geophysical Research expands our knowledge of the seas of Titan hydrocarbons, especially the Great Kraken. This sea, about 600 miles (1,000 km) long, is larger than all five large lakes in North America combined and holds about 80% of the moon’s surface fluids. The seas on Titan contain a lot of methane and ethane and are comparable to liquefied natural gas on Earth.
Titan is the only moon in the solar system known to host an atmosphere. The thick, nitrogen-rich blanket that covers the moon hides a complex hydraulic system on the surface, but instead of liquid water, the rivers, lakes and seas on Titan are made of oily black methane. Titan has other curiosities, such as giant dust storms, ice volcanoes, and huge sand dunes.
As the new research shows, the deepest parts of the Great Kraken could be more than 300 meters deep. Tteam, led by Valerio Poggiali, research associate at the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Sciences, I can’t be sure of that figure, because the radar pings used to determine the depth of the sea never reached the bottom of the sea.
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NASA’s Cassini spacecraft orrbited Saturn from 2004 – 2017, and scientists have already done it studied some of the smaller seas on Titan using Cassini’s board altimeter. An August 21, 2014, Cassini flew less than 970 km from Titan’s to the surface and was able to send radar he throws himself into the Great Kraken. Interestingly, this was the same flyby that led to the discovery of the Great League The “magic” island is disappearing on Titan.
Researchers at Cornell and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have devised a careful technique for determining the depth of the Titan Sea, which involves measuring the differences in the time it takes for radar to return from the sea surface, as opposed to the seabed. This technique helps to estimate the depth of the sea, but researchers have to make some assumptions about the density of fluids on Titan and how fast radio waves pass through them.
Using this technique, the team measured the depth of Moray Sinus, a northern estuary on the Great Kraken, which they found at 280 feet. (85 meters) depth. The rate of absorption of radar waves suggests that the liquid in this part of the sea consists of 70% methane, 16% nitrogen and 14% ethane. Scientists expected more methane due to the size and location of the sea, but this finding suggests a more uniform distribution of chemicals across the moon’s various bodies of water.
Altimetric scans performed on the main part of the Great Kraken were less conclusive. According to the authors of the study, the NASA spacecraft found “no evidence of a return of the signal from the seabed, suggesting that the liquid is either too deep or too absorbent for Cassini’s radio waves to penetrate.” from this part of the sea has a composition similar to the liquid found at the Moray sine, then it must be deeper than 100 meters and probably at depths of up to 300 meters, according to the study.
Poggiali hopes a robotic submarine could one day be sent to Titan to explore the Great Kraken or another body of water. And, in fact, he sees the new research as a step in that direction.
“Thanks to our measurements, scientists can now deduce the density of the liquid with greater accuracy and therefore be able to better calibrate the sonar on board. [future robotic submarine] and understand the directional flows of the sea, ”Poggiali explained at Cornell University. statement.
A conceptual plan since 2015 it has shown what such a mission might look like, but nothing has actually been approved in this regard. That being said, NASA will send an air drone called dragon-fly, to Titan, which should reach the moon at some point in the mid-2030s.