Titan 'geologically' alive

The Cassini spacecraft is sending back evidence that Saturn's moon Titan is geologically alive, possibly with liquids moving on its surface.

The Cassini spacecraft is sending back evidence that Saturn's planet-size moon Titan is geologically alive, possibly with liquids moving on its surface, scientists said.

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Images made from radar beams bounced off Titan during Cassini's close flyby this week revealed such surface details as a round basin, narrow miles-long linear "streaks," and a cat-shaped region of what could be the moon's theorised lakes of liquid methane and ethane.

Scientists had been reluctant to draw conclusions about surface features from pictures taken through Titan's hazy atmosphere. But they sounded more confident after radar data arrived late Wednesday and was processed into images depicting terrain in shades of black and white.

"We are seeing much higher resolution here ... And we are seeing detailed features," said Charles Elachi, JPL's director and team leader for Cassini's radar instrument, which imaged a swathe of Titan about 121 kilometres wide and 1,995 kilometres long.

Elachi said there was "high confidence" in the evidence of geologic activity, noting the long linear features as an example.

The possible region of lakes was depicted as very dark, which in radar data is a characteristic of a signal bouncing off a very smooth surface like a liquid. The region was named "Si-Si the Cat," for a scientist's young daughter who noticed the region resembled a "Halloween cat," Elachi said.