-from today's "Sometimes Common Sense Just Gets in the Way" Department:
"March 20, 2008 -- An ocean may be hiding below the crust of Saturn's biggest moon, Titan, teaming up with its dense atmosphere to cause shifts on the moon's surface, a study said Thursday.
"Years worth of radar observations from the Cassini probe showed that features of Titan's geology had drifted from a fixed point of reference, indicating that the moon's rotation had temporarily sped up, the study said.
"Powerful winds could be rocking Titan back and forth around its axis, meaning the moon's massive atmosphere speeds up its rotation speed and slows it down later in the year, said the study, published in the journal Science.
"But for the atmosphere to be able to change the moon's surface, it would need help from an underground ocean flowing between Titan's crust and core, wrote researchers from Johns Hopkins University, led by astronomer Ralph Lorenz.
An ocean may also be hiding under the surface of another Saturn moon, Enceladus, according to NASA." - Discovery News
PS. Titan's surface temperature averages a chilly -290 Fahrenheit.
