The reason for the Titanian season

[Swede]

Last year, the Cassini spacecraft found solid (haha) evidence for the existence of lakes of liquid methane and ethane on the giant moon Titan. Of course, Titan is barely a moon at all — bigger than Mercury, it would be a planet in its own right if it weren’t orbiting Saturn. It has an atmosphere with almost twice the surface pressure as Earth’s, which is mostly nitrogen and a trace of hydrocarbons.

But that trace is important: because Titan is so cold, methane and ethane can rain from the Titanian sky, forming river systems and lakes. But there’s a problem: the north pole of the moon has far more lakes than the south pole. Seven times as many!

Why?

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/11/30/the-reason-for-the-titanian-season/

[stevedeshazer]

1. Great stuff.

Thanks!

Titan is fascinating.