The object is logically known
as a "transient feature" but astrophysicists have bouncily called it
the "magic island". This might
be the first time lively geological procedures have been detected in Titan's
northern hemisphere. The study is published in Nature Geoscience. Jason
Hofgartner, from Cornell University in the US and the chief author of the paper,
said in a press release "This discovery tells us that the liquids in
Titan's northern hemisphere are not simply stagnant and unchanging, but rather
that changes do occur," The scientists are now learning about the
"magic island" further. Titan is the main of Saturn's 62 known moons
and is shielded in lakes and seas. Underneath its thick atmosphere, which is deadly
to humans, it thoroughly look like a smaller, watery Earth, with wind and rain generating
familiar lands such as mountains, hills and lakes.
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| Image: JPL-Caltech/ASI/Cornell/NASA/PA |
But as an alternative of
water, icy cold liquid methane and ethane streams over its river-like networks
and into its seas and its dunes are made of hydrocarbon. The second major of
these seas is the 150-metre-deep Ligeia Mare, where astrophysicists observed
the unfamiliar geological feature in a photo taken by the Cassini spacecraft on
10 July 2013. The island seemed around 9.6 km off the sea's southern shore. Images
taken of the same spot before and a few days later displayed no geological
features there. Titan's northern hemisphere is presently
transitioning from spring to summer, seasons which last much more lengthier on
the moon than on Earth, and the researchers consider this change could have generated
this mysterious island to appear momentarily. Hofgartner said "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 occur here on Earth. Ultimately, it
will help us to understand better our own liquid environments here on the
Earth."
Hofgartner and his group have
now pointed down four descriptions for the "magic island":
- Northern hemisphere winds might
be kicking up and creating waves on Ligeia Mare, which the radar might have grasped
as a kind of "ghost island".
- Gases may have climbed from
the sea floor to the surface, generating the "island".
- Frozen solids from winter might
be growing due to warming temperature.
- Ligeia Mare does not have
suspended solids, which are dipped nor moving, but look like silt in a
terrestrial delta.
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