Cassini watched bright “islands” appear, disappear and reappear in Titan’s methane seas — and laboratory experiments suggest they may be fields of nitrogen bubbles fizzing out of solution as the alien

A possible solution to Saturn's moon mystery: nitrogen bubbles rising through alien seas as conditions shift beneath the surface.

By Space Daily Editorial Team · Editorial process

Cassini’s radar saw bright features appear within Titan’s dark northern seas, vanish on later passes and, in one region, return in a changed form. They were nicknamed “magic islands”, but the observations never established that they were islands or even solid objects.

One plausible explanation came from experiments with methane, ethane and nitrogen chilled to Titan-like conditions. The tests showed that nitrogen can dissolve readily in cold liquid methane, then escape in vigorous bubbles when the liquid warms, pressure falls or methane-rich and ethane-rich fluids mix.