Titan's topography, strange.... |
Titan's topography, strange.... |
Apr 12 2009, 12:44 PM
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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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Oct 4 2009, 07:15 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 |
Mike, I noticed that you had implied this in one ot two other posts a while back. I've always taken on trust the eastward flow direction inferred in published papers on the landing site, but I have pondered whether I should be sharing your doubts.
For me it is the quasi-elliptical dark lobes that most graphically suggest a formation process for the spooky dude features. I picture each lobe as having been formed by a single huge 'river' of liquid pushing a moraine-like front of debris before it. Where it eventually loses momentum, or most of the liquid has drained into the ground, the debris front is deposited in place acting as a dam. Behind the dam there is still some liquid, and this being somewhat elevated with respect to the outside, some of it trickles through the dam forming small channels draining from inside the ellipse outward. I think this fairly describes what was seen in the few hundred metres around the landing site. What about the pointy ends? Well I've sort of half persuaded myself that if lobe-forming events happen repeatedly over time the loose material will be reworked into different patterns and earlier lobes may be truncated abruptly. Perhaps the points can be explained as bits and pieces of truncated lobes? I agree that this is shaky and I have often thought about staging an experiment to try to reproduce the shapes. I am hopeful that the VIMS landing site paper when it appears (soon?) will shed new light on what materials are actually involved in making these features, and how they might behave when mobile. |
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