News - Ralph Lorenz
Saturn's orange moon Titan has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth. The hydrocarbons rain from the sky, collecting in vast deposits that form lakes and dunes.
Ever spilled your drink on an airline due to turbulence? Researchers on both sides of the Atlantic are finding new ways to understand the phenomenon - both on Earth and on Titan.
As scientist puzzle over the Titan images from the recent Cassini flyby, some of the most intriguing landforms appear in radar reflections. Ralph Lorenz from the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Lab takes a tour of Titan's surprises including what may be icy volcanoes.
A strikingly bright feature that is consistent with an active geology has been seen in one of Cassini's first radar images of Saturn's moon Titan. There are many possibilities for what it is but one of the leading candidates is that it may be a 'cryovolcanic' flow or 'ice volcano'.