the-star-stuff:

NASA finds hidden ocean on Saturn’s moon Titan

Using incredibly precise measurements from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, researchers have concluded that Saturn’s biggest moon is likely hiding a global, sub-surface water ocean, 100 km beneath its surface.

Cassini has flown by Titan more than 80 times since entering Saturn’s orbit in 2004, and its observations have confirmed that, as moons go, Titan is a weird one. It’s bigger than the planet Mercury. It’s the only moon with a real atmosphere (an atmosphere denser than Earth’s, in fact). It experiences Earthlike weather, such as rain and snow. It’s home to familiar geological features like valleys, plains and deserts — and it’s the only known object besides Earth with standing bodies of liquid.

The researchers’ findings are published in the latest issue of Science