T16 RADAR SAR Swath, Land o' lakes |
T16 RADAR SAR Swath, Land o' lakes |
Jul 24 2006, 09:33 PM
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3242 Joined: 11-February 04 From: Tucson, AZ Member No.: 23 |
Much to my surprise, a chunk of the T16 Sar swath as been released:
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08630 An abundance of lakes can been seen. Some appear to be crater lakes (or sinkholes), like the lake at far left on the top cutout. That lake appears similar to Crater Lake in Oregon, with a little island in the middle (you can kinda see the attenuation of the signal surrounding the island as the methane gets deeper). Some lakes appear quite distinctive from the surrounding terrain, like the features on the right part of the bottom cutout. -------------------- &@^^!% Jim! I'm a geologist, not a physicist!
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Jul 24 2006, 11:31 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 509 Joined: 2-July 05 From: Calgary, Alberta Member No.: 426 |
Okay. Let's assume that these are lakes.
There are a bunch of them near the north pole but not many at the south pole; just Ontario Lacus, which, last I heard, could just be mudflats at the present time. Making a further assumption that this isn't a coincidence, here's some wild speculation: (1) Does this mean these lakes are seasonal? If they are seasonal, the northern-hemisphere lakes would have to start to evaporate as we get closer to ring-plane crossing -- *IF* sunlight at Saturn packs enough energy to evaporate the lakes (I have no idea whether this is possible). (2) The methane would presumably have to transfer from the northern to the southern hemisphere. So will we perhaps see a "rainy season" starting as we get closer to 2009? I guess that any seasonality of Titanian lakes could also involve groundwater (groundmethane?) flow -- maybe no rainy season required. Don't know if there's anyone out there who specializes in both planetary science and hydrology, but, if so, they're gonna love this. |
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