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.
Despite the tumultuous history of the near-Earth object’s parent body, water may have been preserved in the asteroid for about a billion years.
October 08, 2025 08:50 PM
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Physics Today - The Week in Physics
The Week in Physics" is likely a reference to the regular updates or summaries of new physics research, such as those found in publications like Physics Today from AIP Publishing or on news aggregators like Phys.org.