Punga Mare Is Third Largest Body of Liquid on Titan

Summary: Punga Mare is the third largest body of liquid on Titan, with a surface area larger than Lake Huron and a diameter larger than Lake Victoria's length.

Detail of colorized mosaic, obtained from 2004 to 2013 by Cassini spacecraft's radar instrument, shows Punga Mare's placement near Titan's north pole; NASA JPL Photojournal 17655 image addition date 2013-12-12; image credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/USGS: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Punga Mare is the third largest body of liquid on Titan, with a surface area that is larger than that of Lake Huron, Earth's third largest freshwater body, and a diameter that is larger than the length of Lake Victoria, Earth's second largest freshwater body.

Punga Mare (Latin: "sea'") is centered at 85.1 degrees north latitude, 339.7 degrees west longitude, according to the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Its northernmost and southernmost latitudes occur at 89 degrees north and 82.2 degrees north, respectively. It obtains easternmost and westernmost longitudes of 72 degrees west and 287 degrees west, respectively. Punga Mare's diameter measures 380 kilometers.

Punga Mare's longitudinal breadth spreads across Titan's prime meridian, 0 degrees of longitude. The planetographic coordinate system assigned to Titan by the International Astronomical Union measures longitude westward from the prime meridian.

Titan's prime meridian occurs on the Saturnian moon's Saturn-facing side. It continues on Titan's anti-Saturn side as the anti-meridian that marks 180 degrees west longitude. Punga Mare's location across the prime meridian places it on Titan's Saturn-facing side.

Punga Mare's location in the north polar region places it in proximity to Titan's two other maria (Latin: "seas"). All three of Titan's seas cluster in the north polar region. Kraken Mare lies to the southeast of Punga Mare. Ligeia Mare is sited to the east of Punga Mare.

Kraken Mare is centered at 68 degrees north latitude, 310 degrees west longitude. Its northernmost and southernmost latitudes extend to 81 degrees north and 55 degrees north, respectively. Its easternmost and westernmost longitudes stretch to 274 degrees west and 335 degrees west, respectively. Kraken Mare's diameter spans 1,170 kilometers.

Ligeia Mare is centered at 79.7 degrees north latitude, 247.9 degrees west longitude, according to the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. It registers northernmost and southernmost latitudes of 82 degrees north and 74 degrees north, respectively. It records easternmost and westernmost longitudes of 222 degrees west and 276.7 degrees west, respectively. Ligeia Mare's diameter measures 500 kilometers.

Kraken Mare's diameter of 1,170 kilometers places it as the largest of Titan's three seas. Ligeia Mare's 500 kilometer-width ranks as the second largest diameter among the trio. Punga Mare's 380 kilometer-diameter takes third place as the smallest of the trio.

Punga Mare's surface area approximates 61,000 square kilometers (6.1×104 km2; 23,552 square miles), according to planetary scientist Alexander Gerard Hayes in "Lakes and Seas of Titan," published in the June 2016 issue of Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences (page 60). Its surface area is larger than the 59,565 square kilometers (23,000 square miles) covered by Lake Huron, Earth's third largest freshwater body and the second largest of the five Great Lakes, according to "About Our Great Lakes: Lake by Lake Profiles," posted by the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) website.

Although Punga Mare's surface area is less than that of Earth's second largest freshwater body, Lake Victoria, its greatest length of 380 kilometers (236 miles) surpasses the length of Africa's largest-sized lake. Lake Victoria, which lies in three East African countries (Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda), spreads over 69,484 square kilometers (26,828 square miles), has a greatest north-to-south length of 337 kilometers (210 miles) and a greatest breadth of 240 kilometers (150 miles), according to the article, "Lake Victoria," on Encyclopaedia Britannica's website.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) approved Punga Mare as the sea's official name on Nov. 14, 2008. Punga Mare is the name of a "Māori (New Zealand) supernatural being, the father of sharks and lizards. Son of the sea god Tangaroa," according to the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Titan's maria are named after literary or mythic sea monsters, according to the Gazetteer's page on "Categories (Themes) for Naming Features on Planets and Satellites."

Polar stereographic map, assembled in 2015 from imaging data collected through Cassini spacecraft's T100 flyby of April 7, 2014, shows Punga Mare (center) as poleward body of liquid with Kraken Mare (center right) and Ligeia Mare (upper right); image addition date 2015-10-09: image credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute, No known copyright restrictions, via NASA JPL Photojournal

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Dedication

This post is dedicated to the memory of our beloved blue-eyed brother, Charles, who guided the creation of the Met Opera and Astronomy posts on Earth and Space News. We memorialized our brother in "Our Beloved Blue-Eyed Brother, Charles, With Whom We Are Well Pleased," published on Earth and Space News on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, an anniversary of our beloved father's death.

Image credits:

Detail of colorized mosaic, obtained from 2004 to 2013 by Cassini spacecraft's radar instrument, shows Punga Mare's placement near Titan's north pole; NASA JPL Photojournal 17655 image addition date 2013-12-12; image credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/USGS: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Punga_Mare_crop.jpg; via NASA JPL Photojournal @ https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17655

Polar stereographic map, assembled in 2015 from imaging data collected through Cassini spacecraft's T100 flyby of April 7, 2014, shows Punga Mare (center) as poleward body of liquid with Kraken Mare (center right) and Ligeia Mare (upper right); image addition date 2015-10-09: image credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute, No known copyright restrictions, via NASA JPL Photojournal @ https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19657

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