Figuring out why most of Titan's methane lakes have northern exposures [View all]

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By Scott K. Johnson |

Saturn’s moon Titan is one of the most intriguing bodies in our solar system. Its dense atmosphere and lakes of liquid methane make it both beautiful and bizarre, as well as a tantalizing target for those seeking extraterrestrial life. To me, though, the most amazing thing (so far) has been the revelation that is Titan’s meteorology. There’s something extraordinary about imagining liquid methane falling as rain on another world—it’s so similar to our experience, yet so very different. Earth has a familiar hydrologic cycle; Titan has an alien methane cycle.

In a letter published in Nature, researchers describe a model that successfully simulates some key aspects of Titan’s weather. The model offers possible explanations for some of the moon's quirky features that have long been puzzling.

Previous attempts to understand the pattern of methane lakes and cloud systems have invoked both the familiar and the bizarre, including surface topography, cryovolcanism, seasonal patterns in atmospheric circulation, and even an underground "methane table." Researchers have tried to simulate Titan's climate system with simple models, but major differences with observations have resisted explanation.

Although there is evidence of stream erosion near the equator, the moon's methane lakes are located near the poles—primarily the northern pole. Clouds, however, have been observed to be common in the southern hemisphere, but rare north of the equator.

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http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2012/01/titans-methane-lakes-have-northern-bias.ars