Titan's 'rivers' might flow as Earth's do

CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Dec. 5 (UPI) -- The Huygens Probe of the Cassini Mission suggests Titan, Saturn's largest moon, has rivers of liquid methane sculpting channels in continents of ice.

NASA and European Space Agency scientists say surface images even show gravel-sized pieces of water ice that resemble rounded stones lying in a dry riverbed on Earth -- although Titan has a surface temperature of minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit and an atmospheric pressure 1 1/2 times that of Earth,

"The idea that rivers of methane moving chunks of ice on Titan ought to obey the same rules as rivers on Earth is not what you would assume at first," said Gary Parker, professor of geology and environmental engineering at the University of Illinois. "However, if river dynamics are truly understood at a physical level, then relations that provide reasonable results on Earth ought to provide similarly reasonable results on Titan."

Parker will present his findings in San Francisco this week, during a meeting of the American Geophysical Union