Jun. 19, 2015
• Scientists have been puzzled by how the depressions holding ‘lakes’ of liquid hydrocarbons on Titan were hollowed.
• A recent study finds the surface may be dissolved by liquids in a process that’s similar to the creation of caves and sinkholes on Earth.
Saturn's moon Titan is home to seas and lakes filled with liquid hydrocarbons, but what forms the depressions on the surface? A new study using data from the joint NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) Cassini mission suggests the moon's surface dissolves in a process that's similar to the creation of sinkholes on Earth.
Apart from Earth, Titan is the only body in the solar system known to possess surface lakes and seas, which have been observed by the Cassini spacecraft. But at Titan's frigid surface temperatures -- roughly minus 292 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 180 degrees Celsius) -- liquid methane and ethane, rather than water, dominate Titan's hydrocarbon equivalent of Earth’s water.
For more information about Cassini, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/cassini
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov
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NASA spies 3-mile-tall 'pyramid,' more bright spots on Ceres Dwarf planet Ceres gets weirder as NASA's Dawn spacecraft gets closer. Check out the latest shots from the cosmic paparazzi.
by Eric Mack @ericcmack 18 June 2015
Ancient astronaut alert! More weird features have been spotted by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on Ceres, a dwarf planet and the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
As Dawn first made its approach on Ceres earlier this year, it caught sight of large, bright and mysterious reflective spots in a crater on the big rock, which is also believed to contain quite a bit of water, ice and/or mud in its interior.
Now orbiting at a near altitude of just 2,700 miles, those big spots remain a mystery (the leading guess is still reflective patches of ice or salts), but Dawn is also beginning to pick out other bright spots and an odd pyramid-shaped peak that NASA estimates to be three miles tall, which would put it higher than any of the Rocky Mountains. The image with the peak was taken on June 6 and released Wednesday.
Read more http://www.ascensionwithearth.com/2015/06/nasa-spies-3-mile-tall-pyramid-more.html#more