Astronomy Picture of the Day
    


Shoreline Terrain on Saturns Titan
<< Yesterday 21.09.2005 Tomorrow >>
Shoreline Terrain on Saturns Titan
Credit & Copyright: Synthetic Aperture RADAR, JPL, ESA, NASA
Explanation: What could have created this unusual terrain on Saturn's moon Titan? The robotic Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn swooped once again, earlier this month, past the Solar System's most enigmatic moon and radar imaged a rich but unusual region that appears to be some sort of shoreline. The choppy, light-colored, high regions on the left appears to be have channels cut by a moving fluid, while the smoother dark regions on the right appear to outline bays. Results from the Huygens probe that landed on Titan earlier this year imply that fluids, possibly liquid methane and not water, might only occupy some of these channels and bays intermittently. The radar image shown above spans about 200 kilometers.

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
 < September 2005  >
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su



1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Based on Astronomy Picture Of the Day

Publications with keywords: Titan - cassini spacecraft
Publications with words: Titan - cassini spacecraft
See also:
All publications on this topic >>