Saturn’s Moon Titan Has Volcanic Craters, Astronomers Confirm!

Astronomers have found evidence of volcanic-like craters seen in Polar Regions of Saturn’s moon Titan by NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft that could be evidence of explosive eruptions that may continue today according to a newspaper by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Charles A. Wood.

Planet Researchers have found morphological features like nested collapses, elevated ramparts, halos, and islands in the north polar region of Titan. These are indicative that the small depressions in the region are volcanic collapse craters, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

In Addition, such depressions were also found in the south polar region of Titan. They write in their paper, “The restriction of this volcanism to polar regions is possibly related to predicted warmer and thinner-than-normal ice crust at the low-elevation poles.”

The Cassini mission revealed many landforms on Saturn’s Moon Titan that are like those found on Earth. The data in previous studies revealed a lot about the landforms like the sand dunes, lakes, and river valleys that are all result of actions by the atmosphere on the surface, driven by solar heating.

Also, Charles Wood explained, “these features are roughly round, with raised rims, and they sometimes overlap each other. They are consistent with the shapes of other volcanic landforms on Earth and Mars formed by the explosion, excavation, and collapse.

However, the researchers think that the volcanism on titan has been and potentially still is active because some of the craters are apparently new. Also, they have shown evidence for internal heat which leads to the formation of cryovolcanoes on the surface due to the eruption of water ice crust in the form of liquid water.

Futhermore, Charles Wood also explains that these volcanic features at the Polar regions are located near the lakes of methane which might be an indication that they are being powered by volatile gasses like methane or nitrogen.