Surface Features
See also: List of geological features on TitanThe surface of Titan has been described as "complex, fluid-processed, geologically young". It is believed that both: Titan has been around since the solar system's formation, and a recent event shaped Titan's surface. Titan’s atmosphere is twice as thick as the Earth's, making it difficult for astronomical instruments to image its surface in the visible light spectrum. The Cassini spacecraft is using infrared instruments, radar altimetry and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging to map portions of Titan during its close fly-bys of the moon. The first images revealed a diverse geology, with both rough and smooth areas. There are features that seem volcanic in origin, which probably disgorge water mixed with ammonia. There are also streaky features, some of them hundreds of kilometers in length, that appear to be caused by windblown particles. Examination has also shown the surface to be relatively smooth; the few objects that seem to be impact craters appeared to have been filled in, perhaps by raining hydrocarbons or volcanoes. Radar altimetry suggests height variation is low, typically no more than 150 meters. Occasional elevation changes of 500 meters have been discovered and Titan has mountains that sometimes reach several hundred meters to more than 1 kilometer in height.
Titan's surface is marked by broad regions of bright and dark terrain. These include Xanadu, a large, reflective equatorial area about the size of Australia. It was first identified in infrared images from the Hubble Space Telescope in 1994, and later viewed by the Cassini spacecraft. The convoluted region is filled with hills and cut by valleys and chasms. It is criss-crossed in places by dark lineaments—sinuous topographical features resembling ridges or crevices. These may represent tectonic activity, which would indicate that Xanadu is geologically young. Alternatively, the lineaments may be liquid-formed channels, suggesting old terrain that has been cut through by stream systems. There are dark areas of similar size elsewhere on the moon, observed from the ground and by Cassini; it had been speculated that these are methane or ethane seas, but Cassini observations seem to indicate otherwise (see below).
Mosaic of Titan from Cassini's February 2005 flyby. The large dark region is Shangri-la. | Titan in false color showing surface details and atmosphere with Xanadu in the bright region at the center-right. | Titan Globe, a mosaic of infrared images with nomenclature |
Read more about this topic: Titan (moon)
Famous quotes containing the words surface and/or features:
“Weve forgotten what its like not to be able to reach the light switch. Weve forgotten a lot of the monsters that seemed to live in our room at night. Nevertheless, those memories are still there, somewhere inside us, and can sometimes be brought to the surface by events, sights, sounds, or smells. Children, though, can never have grown-up feelings until theyve been allowed to do the growing.”
—Fred Rogers (20th century)
“The features of our face are hardly more than gestures which force of habit made permanent. Nature, like the destruction of Pompeii, like the metamorphosis of a nymph into a tree, has arrested us in an accustomed movement.”
—Marcel Proust (18711922)