Scientists inadvertently found the 4,000-mile icy corridor while searching for methane on the giant moon.
A huge ice corridor has been discovered on Saturn’s biggest moon, Titan. The icy streak was found to stretch approximately 40 percent of the circumference of the moon—making it over 4,000 miles in length.
The source of methane on Titan is unclear, however. It is thought some of it comes from evaporation at the polar lakes, but this does not account for most of what scientists observe. Griffith, from the University of Arizona, and her team, were looking for ‘cryovolcanoes’ by analyzing images from Cassini. Their method allowed them to look at weak surface features that could be caused by ice and organic sediments. This is when they came across the ice corridor—findings of which were published in Nature Astronomy.
A 4,000-mile ice corridor, mapped in blue, stretches around 40 percent of Titan’s circumference. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
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