PASADENA, Calif., Oct. 28 (UPI) -- The Cassini spacecraft has taken the most detailed images yet of Saturn's giant moon, Titan, but in the process has created a new mystery, Space.com reported.
The mystery surrounds a huge cloud formation over the moon's south pole, spanning 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) at its widest. Scientists had expected the cloud to be made of methane, which is plentiful on Titan, but the formation is too big to be composed of methane.
"I don't believe it," said Chris McKay, a NASA planetary scientist. "What else can they be? It would be like flying over Earth and saying the clouds are not water. If those clouds are really not methane, then a lot of the things we think about Titan are wrong. A lot of things we think about those clouds are wrong -- the whole explanation of why they're there."
The Cassini science team said it has not yet analyzed all the data sent back by the spacecraft, so they do not yet know what comprises the clouds. But they do hope to collect more data during Cassini's future close encounters with Titan, which are expected to total 45 during the craft's four-year mission.
