Titan’s dissolving surface created its mysterious lakes

London: The surface of Saturn's moon Titan dissolves in a similar process that creates sinkholes on Earth and could be the origin of its mysterious lakes, a new study suggests. Apart from Earth, Titan is the only body in the Solar System known to possess surface lakes and seas, as seen by the international Cassini mission.

But at roughly minus 180 degrees Celsius, the surface of Titan is very cold and liquid methane and ethane, rather than water, dominates the 'hydrological' cycle. There are vast seas several hundred kilometres across and up to several hundred metres deep, fed by river-like dendritic channels, researchers said.

Then there are numerous smaller, shallower lakes, with rounded edges and steep walls, and generally found in flat areas. Many empty depressions are also observed.The lakes are generally not associated with rivers, and are thought to fill up by rainfall and liquids flooding up from underneath.

Some of the lakes fill and dry out again during the 30-year seasonal cycle on Saturn and Titan.But quite how the depressions hosting the lakes came about in the first place is poorly understood.