Massive Cloud covers Titan’s Pole!
posted in Amazing Facts, Dark Secrets, Outer Space |
An image released shows a huge moving cloud almost half the size of United States over Titan’s northern pole. This cloud is made up of ethane, methane, and other organic material which could be a source of methane lakes spotted near the pole last summer.
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured this image of the 1,490-mile-diameter (2,400-kilometer-diameter) cloud on December 29, 2006. The cloud’s presence fits predictions that the Titan has a “methane cycle” which is similar to Earth’s water cycle, with bodies of liquid methane evaporating and forming clouds that causes rain.
The cloud system changes position according to the moon’s seasons, experts predict, and it will eventually migrate from the north pole to the south pole.
Ground-based observations suggest that the total cloud activity on Titan will last for about 25 years, then vanishes for a 4- to 5-year period. The massive cloud over the pole should be around for some more years before it disappears.