[X] My Assistant

[remcook]

..according to earth-based measurements

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=...dId=space_rss20

The surface doesn't look like an ocean anyway

[JRehling]

..according to earth-based measurements

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=...dId=space_rss20

The surface doesn't look like an ocean anyway

I think the picture that we've seen is that the dark areas in the low latitudes (+/- 40 or so) have the shape of oceans -- but aren't. They are possibly pretty flat, dark, show signs of once having been an area where liquid flowed down from the brighter highlands, but now are either dry with dark organic sediments coloring things or are damp -- mud as Alex Blackwell has recently said.

The high latitudes (near the south pole, anyway) are a different story -- potentially. They may be just like the low-latitude dark areas, but we simply don't have confirmatory evidence one way or the other -- they could be unlike the low-latitude "dry oceans" and actually be lake/river/marsh even sea (the "Dinosaur" of T0) with wet stuff flowing now. One good reason to think so would be that that region is where there are actually clouds now. And the 938 nm view shows that Peanut as well as the Dinosaur and the channel systems down there seem a little more prominent. I think we're seeing what is at least seasonal liquid activity, and it'll turn out that Titan is another wet world, but covered with something more like 1% liquid in contrast to the Earth's 72%.