Titan’s Mysterious “Magic Islands” – Honeycombed Hydrocarbon Icebergs on Saturn’s Largest Moon
An artist’s rendition of Titan’s landscape features a hazy atmosphere, dark dunes, and mirror-smooth lakes and seas that resemble Earth’s. On these bodies of liquid hydrocarbons, new research suggests that the appearance of “magic islands” may be caused by floating organic solids. Credit: NASA/JPL Saturn’s largest moon rains and snows ethane, methane, and fancier organic compounds. On the ground, accumulated chunks may calve like glaciers at the edges of the moon’s methane lakes, forming ephemeral, floating “magic…