NASA’s Cassini space probe has revealed the surprisingly dynamic landscape of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. The chart reveals its features an Earth-like landscape, including mountains, lakes, valleys and “labyrinth terrains”.
Astronomers used data from the more than 120 flybys of the Mercury-sized moon by Cassini, collected after orbiting ringed planet Saturn for more than a decade.
The map was developed by a team at Arizona State University, in collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
Dr Rosaly Lopes, a NASA planetary geologist, and lead author of new research used to develop the map, said: “Titan has an active methane-based hydrologic cycle that has shaped a complex geologic landscape, making its surface one of most geologically diverse in the solar system.”
“Despite the different materials, temperatures and gravity fields between Earth and Titan, many surface features are similar between the two worlds and can be interpreted as being products of the same geologic processes.”
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“Although we did not have global coverage with Synthetic Aperture Radar [SAR], we used data from other instruments and other modes from radar to correlate characteristics of the different terrain units so we could infer what the terrains are even in areas where we don’t have SAR coverage.”
Scientists understand Titan is the only object in the Solar System, other than Earth, with “stable liquids” on the surface.
However, unlike Earth raining water, methane and ethane fall from clouds in Titan’s atmosphere.
The Moon features an active methane-based hydrologic cycle creating a complex geologic landscape, making its surface one of most geologically diverse in the Solar System, revealed the NASA scientist.
She said: “Despite the different materials, temperatures and gravity fields between Earth and Titan, many surface features are similar between the two worlds and can be interpreted as products of the same geologic processes.
“The map shows that the different geological terrains have a clear distribution with latitude, globally, and that some terrains cover far more area than others.”
The map, which is a first ever, reveals 65 percent of Titan is covered in plains and dunes make up 17 percent of the surface.
Hilly and mountainous areas, thought to represent exposed portions of Titan’s crust of water ice, represent 14 percent of the surface.
Dr Michael Malaska, JPL scientist and study co-author, said: “What is really fun to think about is if there are any ways that those more complex organics can go down and mix with water in the deep icy crust or deep subsurface ocean.
Noting that on Earth there is a bacterium that can survive just on a hydrocarbon called acetylene and water, Malaska asked, “Could it or something like it live in Titan deep in the crust or ocean where temperatures are a little warmer?”
