Titan's topography, strange.... |
Titan's topography, strange.... |
Apr 12 2009, 12:44 PM
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#1
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2785 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
Recent article in Science by Zebker et al.:
Zebker et al. Science in press, "Size and Shape of Saturn's Moon Titan". doi: 10.1126/science.1168905 (published online April 2, 2009) Link to abstract (pay-for article): http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1168905 Article on spaceref discusses this paper: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=27912 Figure 3 from the Science article is a global elevation map relative to barycenter. Key points of article:
"Xanadu seems to be systematically lower than other parts of the equatorial belt, and not uplifted like most mountainous areas on Earth." (quote from Fig. 3 caption in article) -Mike -------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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Apr 12 2009, 08:24 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
Thanks for starting off a discussion on this. One fairly safe conclusion would seem to be that for Titan a triaxial ellipsoid is a very poor fit to an equipotential. The latter must be very bumpy compared with what we're used to. But as you say there are problems everywhere with this (which likely means that it will be a very productive observation in the long run). Are Xanadu's mountains dense, or light and porous? We have observational evidence for the latter, yet here it is suggested that they are denser than surrounding terrain and thus capable of making their own basin to sit in.
A general observation (not necessarily helpful): topsy-turvy topography is less difficult to explain away if ALL the surface materials (except the liquids) are of very low density, i.e. fluffy or aerated. |
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