A sea of liquid methane laps a shore of solid ice as the biggest rainstorm ever falls from an orange sky. Welcome to Saturn's largest moon
THE sky is a baleful orange, but then it's always like that. The roar of the approaching maelstrom is new though, and disturbing. As are the gathering clouds, which threaten to loose a deluge more violent than anything ever seen on Earth. A sailor on an alien sea may hesitate: is it wise to venture into the Throat of Kraken?
One day this could be a real scene on Saturn's giant moon, Titan. Apart from Earth, Titan is the only world known to have liquid on its surface (see diagram). We first glimpsed its alien lakes and seas through the eyes of the Cassini spacecraft in 2006. Now, after eight years of slow exploration, Cassini has suddenly unleashed a flood of ...
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