BBC Learning English
Words in the News
17th December 2010
 Ice volcano found on Saturn s moon
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
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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:
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Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2010
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