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 15 2009, 09:34 AM
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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 |
On the ellipsoid vs. equipotential I'm happy to be corrected. (I can't pretend I meant something different.) Like you say, we're just at the beginning.
I'm very interested in your idea of albedo-driven winds. For some time I've been trying to shake off habitual assumptions about the importance of gravity in distributing surface materials on Titan. At the Huygens landing site for example there seems to be evidence of fairly recent fluid flow from at least two directions. To me that suggests something like a storm-driven flood, followed up by some gravitational trickling. Of course lighter materials would pay even less heed to gravitational constraint. Even on high-g Earth with heavy silicate sand there is striking evidence that sand seas don't follow equipotentials. The Taklamakhan in western China is a good example. It is much higher at it's western end. I was lucky enough to be there last year and was amazed to see sand 'mountains' piled high on the Pamir plateau, deposited near the head of the steep valley that leads up there from the desert. |
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