Jingpo Lacus

Jingpo Lacus is a lake in the north polar region of Titan,[1] the planet Saturn's largest moon. It and similarly sized Ontario Lacus[2] are the largest known bodies of liquid on Titan after the three maria (Kraken Mare, Ligeia Mare and Punga Mare).[3] It is composed of liquid hydrocarbons (mainly methane and ethane). It is west of Kraken Mare at 73° N, 336° W, roughly 240 km (150 mi) long,[1][note 1] similar to the length of Lake Onega on Earth. Its namesake is Jingpo Lake,[1] a lake in China.

Jingpo Lacus
Jingpo Lacus in a false-color synthetic aperture radar image of Titan's north polar region. An extension of Kraken Mare enters the view at upper left.
Feature typeLacus
Coordinates73°N 336°W
Diameter240 km[note 1]
EponymJingpo Lake

Specular reflection

On 8 July 2009, Cassini's Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) observed a specular reflection in 5 µm infrared light off Jingpo Lacus at 71° N, 337° W. (This has sometimes been described less accurately as at the southern shoreline of Kraken Mare.[4]) Specular reflections indicate a smooth, mirror-like surface, so the observation corroborated the inference of the presence of a large liquid body drawn from radar imaging. The observation was made soon after the north polar region emerged from 15 years of winter darkness.[5]

  • Synthetic aperture radar image (top) overlaid onto a visible light/infrared image of Titan's north polar region, showing Jingpo Lacus (at center) and other liquid bodies (Kraken Mare at bottom, Ligeia Mare at right and Punga Mare) outlined in blue.
  • Specular reflection off Jingpo Lacus, observed by the Cassini probe on July 8, 2009
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See also

Notes
  1. The USGS web site gives the size as a "diameter", but it is actually the length in the longest dimension.

References
  1. "Jingpo Lacus". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Science Center. 2010-03-29. Feature ID 14655. Archived from the original on 2018-09-03. Retrieved 2012-03-17.
  2. "Titan lacūs". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Science Center. Retrieved 2012-03-17.
  3. "Titan maria". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Science Center. Archived from the original on 2019-06-21. Retrieved 2012-03-16.
  4. Cook, Jia-Rui C. (2009-12-17). "Glint of Sunlight Confirms Liquid in Northern Lake District of Titan". NASA. Archived from the original on 2018-06-04. Retrieved 2009-12-18.
  5. Lakdawalla, Emily (2009-12-17). "Cassini VIMS sees the long-awaited glint off a Titan lake". The Planetary Society. Archived from the original on 2019-08-21. Retrieved 2009-12-17.
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