Washington, Oct 31 (IANS) NASA’s Cassini spacecraft caught a glimpse of bright sunlight reflecting from hydrocarbon seas as the spacecraft soared past Saturn’s moon Titan recently.
Earlier, Cassini had separately captured views of the polar seas and the sun glinting off them, but this is the first time both have been seen together in the same view, the US space agency said in a statement.
Titan’s seas are mostly liquid methane and ethane.
Before Cassini’s arrival at Saturn, scientists suspected that Titan might have bodies of open liquid on its surface.
Cassini found only great fields of sand dunes near its equator and lower latitudes, but located lakes and seas near the poles, particularly in the north.
Cassini made the 105th flyby of Titan Sep 22 to probe the moon’s atmosphere, seas and even a crater.
The spacecraft intended to examine “the seas and lakes of the northern polar area, including Kraken and Ligeia at resolution better than three miles (five km) per pixel”, said the Cassini website.