Saturn’s moon Titan could have ocean waves
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.027786
Los Angeles Times : For the first time, waves traveling through an ocean may have been detected on a world other than Earth. Saturn’s moon Titan is the only other planetary body in the solar system known to have bodies of liquid on its surface. But rather than being filled with water, its seas and lakes contain liquid methane and ethane. Because methane is viscous, a strong wind would be needed to disturb the surface. Since the arrival in 2004 of NASA’s Cassini–Huygens spacecraft, however, Titan has been experiencing winter, when cold heavy air tends to remain motionless. With the approach of spring, the winds may be picking up, because in 2012 the spacecraft’s Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer managed to capture four distinct pixels of light that, according to best-fit models, probably indicate the presence of waves.
