BBC Learning English
Words in the News
17

th

December 2010

‘Ice volcano’ found on Saturn’s moon

Words in the News

© British Broadcasting Corporation 2010

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bbclearningenglish.com

Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is made up mainly of water, ice and mountains. Now scientists

think they’ve found a mountain that spews lava made not of molten rock, but ice. The

observation was announced at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

Jonathan Amos reports.

Titan is a mysterious world. Because it's shrouded in a thick, oily haze, it's extremely hard to

identify anything at the moon with confidence. But with temperatures that plunge to minus

180 Celsius at the surface, researchers had suspected it might have ice volcanoes.

And now the Cassini probe has spotted a 1,500m-high mountain with a deep pit in it, and

what looks like a flow of material nearby.

Scientists can only speculate what sort of material a cryo-volcano might erupt, but the

complex chemistry at Titan suggests it could be a slushy water-ice containing ammonia.

If there are a lot of carbon molecules present, the lava could even look like a softened asphalt,

candle wax or even polyethylene.

The team which discovered the mountain have dubbed it "the Rose".

Jonathan Amos, BBC News

Words in the News

© British Broadcasting Corporation 2010

Page 2 of 2

bbclearningenglish.com

Vocabulary and definitions

shrouded

partly hidden or covered

haze

a mist or substance in the air which partly obscures what is

behind it

plunge

to fall quickly

probe

here, an unmanned spacecraft which has been launched

from Earth to study Saturn and Titan

spotted

seen or identified

speculate

guess about the nature of something

erupt

here, when the volcano violently throws out material that

is inside it

slushy

partly melted

molecules

the smallest, most basic elements which make up a

chemical substance

dubbed

named in an unofficial or affectionate way

More on this story:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11996621

Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2010/12/101217_witn_titan_volcano_page.shtml