While orbiting Saturn, NASA's Cassini spacecraft observed an incredible light display glimmering off Kraken Mare, a massive hydrocarbon lake in one of Saturn's moons, Titan. Cassini's photos of this phenomenon taken August 21 were the first evidence of precipitation on an alien moon.

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Cassini used its infrared camera to capture remarkable images of the sea for the first time ever as sunlight emanated from the northern polar sea reflected off the methane sea. This phenomenon is called "specular reflection."

The lake is located in the southern ocean region of Titan's North Pole. The shimmer was so bright it overwhelmed the camera on board the spacecraft.

Lakes and other bodies of water on Titan are made up of mostly methane and ethane, two chemical elements commonly found on Earth.

Some methane clouds are also visible on the images. Scientists said the clouds probably act like rain clouds that replenish hydrocarbons in the lake.

The lake also possesses a remarkable feature--a basin that highlights the liquid methane as a bright ring, which is comparable to a giant bathtub ring. This feature could provide evidence the lake had been larger in the past.

To the naked eye, humans will only see Titan's glimmering methane sea as a vague, ultra bright haze. To create the composite image of the lake, NASA engineers used three wavelengths that penetrated Titan's atmosphere.

The Cassini mission team said the deposits seen on the images are leftover material from the evaporation of liquid methane and ethane similar to saline crusts on salt flats. Titan is Saturn's biggest moon and the only known satellite that sustains an atmosphere in the entire solar system.

Before Cassini arrived in the Saturnian system, astronomers had an inkling the giant moon might harbor large bodies of liquid hydrocarbons spanning some 1,600 miles across.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers said Titan has a great expanse of sand dunes near the equator. Lakes and oceans mostly covered higher altitudes near the poles.

There is no existing liquid water on Titan but methane is as abundant on Titan as water is on Earth. Liquid methane forms oceans, lakes and rivers on Titan, whose surface temperatures can reach as low as -289 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Cassini probe was launched in 1997 and finally reached its primary destination, Saturn, in July 2004. 

TagsNASA's Cassini Captures Shimmering Alien Lake on Saturn's Moon Titan, cassini, NASA, Saturn, titan seas lakes cassini saturn