[LINK] Lake Ontario; Ontario Lacus

[rfmcdonald]

I was very pleased when astronomers let Lake Ontario supply the name for Ontario Lacus, the hydrocarbon lake located in the south polar region of Saturn's planet-sized moon Titan. They do look somewhat alike, don't they?



The Toronto conurbation is located on the shoreline in the lower left corner, while the outlet to the St. Lawrence River is in the upper left corner.



Ontario Lacus, located on a world with a cryogenic nitrogen-methane atmosphere that's nonetheless too warm to support bodies of liquid hydrocarbons outside of the polar regions, lacks such a sophisticated human geography. (So far?)

Ontario Lacus is a lake composed of methane, ethane and propane near the south pole of Saturn's moon Titan. Its character as a hydrocarbon lake was confirmed^[1] by observations from the Cassini spacecraft, published in the 31 July 2008 edition of Nature. Ontario Lacus has a surface area of about 15,000 square kilometers (6,000 square miles), slightly smaller than its terrestrial namesake, Lake Ontario in North America.

On January 12, 2010, Cassini took a more detailed radar-image of Ontario Lacus showing numerous remarkable features. The northern shoreline features low hills, probably about 1 kilometer (3,000 feet) in altitude, and flooded river valleys. A smooth, wave-sculpted shoreline, like that seen on the southeastern side of Lake Michigan, can be seen at the northeastern part of the lake. Smooth lines parallel to the current shoreline could be formed by low waves over time, which were likely driven by winds sweeping in from the west or southwest. The southeast shore features a round-headed bay intruding into the shore.

"New Toronto, Titan," would be a cool address.