1. Department of Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
2. US Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona 86001, USA
3. US Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado 80225, USA
4. Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, 12489 Berlin, Germany
5. NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California 94035, USA
6. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91107, USA
7. Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA

Correspondence to: R. H. Brown¹ Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to R.H.B. (Email: rhb@lpl.arizona.edu).

Abstract

Titan was once thought to have global oceans of light hydrocarbons on its surface^{1, 2, 3, 4, 5}, but after 40 close flybys of Titan by the Cassini spacecraft, it has become clear that no such oceans exist⁶. There are, however, features similar to terrestrial lakes and seas⁷, and widespread evidence for fluvial erosion^{8, 9}, presumably driven by precipitation of liquid methane from Titan's dense, nitrogen-dominated atmosphere¹⁰. Here we report infrared spectroscopic data, obtained by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer¹¹ (VIMS) on board the Cassini spacecraft, that strongly indicate that ethane, probably in liquid solution with methane, nitrogen and other low-molecular-mass hydrocarbons, is contained within Titan's Ontario Lacus.

1. Department of Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
2. US Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona 86001, USA
3. US Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado 80225, USA
4. Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, 12489 Berlin, Germany
5. NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California 94035, USA
6. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91107, USA
7. Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA

Correspondence to: R. H. Brown¹ Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to R.H.B. (Email: rhb@lpl.arizona.edu).

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