Jingpo Lacus


Jingpo Lacus is a lake in the north polar region of Titan, the planet Saturn's largest moon. It and similarly sized Ontario Lacus are the largest known bodies of liquid on Titan after the three maria. It is composed of liquid hydrocarbons. It is west of Kraken Mare at 73° N, 336° W, roughly 240 km long, similar to the length of Lake Onega on Earth. Its namesake is Jingpo Lake, a lake in China.

Specular reflection

On 8 July 2009, Cassini's Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer observed a specular reflection in 5 µm infrared light off Jingpo Lacus at 71° N, 337° W. 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.

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