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Explosions May Have Formed Lakes on Saturn’s Moon Titan

By Erica Naone
Sep 10, 2019 12:00 AMMar 17, 2023 8:54 PM
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This artist’s concept of a lake at the North Pole of Titan shows the raised features that inspired the theory that exploding pockets of liquid nitrogen may be forming craters, which become lake basins. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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Saturn’s moon Titan is a distant and frigid world, but it also carries intriguing similarities to Earth’s own terrain. Liquid lakes and seas dot its landscape, though the methane and ethane that fill them are a far cry from terrestrial water. Now a new theory suggests that some of these bodies of liquid may have literally exploded into existence. If so, Titan may share another similarity with Earth: climate change.

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