Sunlight reflection confirms presence of liquid on Saturn's moon Titan

Washington, May 6 (ANI): NASA's Cassini Spacecraft has captured a glint of light reflecting from the surface of Saturn's moon Titan, which confirms the presence of a lake filled with liquid.

The discovery makes Titan the only place besides Earth known to have a body of liquid on its surface.

Stephan et al. report the first detection of a directly visible glint, also called a specular reflection, which occurs when sunlight reflects off a smooth, mirror-like liquid surface.

NASA's Cassini Spacecraft captured an image of the glint on 8 July 2009, and the researchers determined that it came from Kraken Mare, a large, lake-shaped basin near Titan's north pole.

Until recently the northern polar regions of Titan had been in winter darkness since Cassini's arrival in 2004; the recent direct illumination by sunlight made it possible to observe these optical reflections for the first time. (ANI)