Saturn-rise Over the Lake
This is an artist’s depiction of a large lake on Titan, as seen from the surface. The landscape is at once alien and familiar: peaceful waves lapping at the shoreline contrast with a strangely-colored sky lit by the bright rings and body of Saturn.
While this image is fanciful, astronomers may get a chance to capture even more spectacular views if the Titan Mare Explorer (pdf) is selected to fly to Saturn. This mission would land a small boat-like probe on a large lake of Titan – likely Kraken or Ligeia Mare – in order to explore the seas of another world.
TiME is currently competing with two other proposed missions, a comet-hopping satellite and a Martian seismometer, for selection as part of NASA’s low-cost Discovery program. If selected, the boat-probe would launch from Earth in 2015 and reach Titan by 2022.
Images: 1) NASA 2) Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Corby Waste