Titan, 'snooping' Options

[volcanopele]

Saturn color image coming today along with the previously mentioned Titan image of Vallis Cassinis. However, the color image is from like May 7

[volcanopele]

scratch that, the Saturn color image is not as far along (caption wise) as I thought. I'm not going to be the one who posts it but lets just say it is findable

[David]

Possible correct forms of a name meaning "Cassini Valley" are:
Vallis/Valles Cassini "Valley *of* Cassini"
Vallis/Valles Cassiniana "Cassinian Valley"

Valles is an acceptable singular, but Vallis seems to be more often used in astronomical nomenclature, perhaps because it is more clearly distinguished from the plural form, which is always _valles_.
If Valles (plural) is to be used as the name of a system of valleys, then one would say:
Valles Cassini "Valleys of Cassini"
Valles Cassinianae "Cassinian Valleys"

[SFJCody]

I think this thread should now be taken up with speculation->

Titan- Tectonic rifting? Active cryo-volcanism? Icy fold belts? Rivers, lakes or seas? Tholin gunk? Layers of fresh and 'dirty' ices? Strange polar features? Calderas filled with ammonia-water eutectic melt? Pedestal craters? Palimpsests? Geysers?


Maybe Titan will have cryo-volcanic 'coronae' like Venus... or it could turn out to be a clone of Ganymede.

[David]

I think this thread should now be taken up with speculation->

Titan- Tectonic rifting? Active cryo-volcanism? Icy fold belts? Rivers, lakes or seas? Tholin gunk? Layers of fresh and 'dirty' ices? Strange polar features? Calderas filled with ammonia-water eutectic melt? Pedestal craters? Palimpsests? Geysers?

Maybe something like this:



http://www.frankwu.com/Paul-113.5.html

[volcanopele]

I think this thread should now be taken up with speculation->

Titan- Tectonic rifting? Active cryo-volcanism? Icy fold belts? Rivers, lakes or seas? Tholin gunk? Layers of fresh and 'dirty' ices? Strange polar features? Calderas filled with ammonia-water eutectic melt? Pedestal craters? Palimpsests? Geysers?


Maybe Titan will have cryo-volcanic 'coronae' like Venus... or it could turn out to be a clone of Ganymede.

I think this willl end up having an unusual amount of endogenic activity with tectonic landforms being the dominant terrain. Now this is completely speculation, so don't think that we can see these yet. I would anticipate dry river beds (much like here in Tucson where they call ditches rivers). I would expect that the albedo shadings are coorelated to the amount of water ice exposed. Xanadu, being the brightest feature, might have a large precentage of its surface being exposed ice, both by being at a higher elevation (thus allowing a downslope movement of haze particles) and through enhanced cratering activity due to being on the leading hemisphere. The intermediate albedo terrain maybe mostly covered in haze particles but not that many crater lakes. Finally the dark terrain may be a high percentage of crater lakes, a thicker deposit of haze particles, endogenic material produced by tectonism/volcanism, or an actual sea.

[SFJCody]

If there are rivers/river beds I expect the largest one will be named Alph...


In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.



I doubt there are many 'surface' seas more sunless than those on Titan (if they exist).

[pioneer]

As far as having a better understanding, well, we just aren't seeing much of anything that appears to be impact-related.

You mean you all haven't seen many craters caused by meteorite impacts?

[volcanopele]

As far as having a better understanding, well, we just aren't seeing much of anything that appears to be impact-related.

You mean you all haven't seen many craters caused by meteorite impacts?

depends....

EDIT: Let me clarify. We haven't had any unambiguous detections of craters. We have some issues with S/N so that limits our ability at this resolution to detect features that are a few percent above the surrounding terrain.

[volcanopele]

If there are rivers/river beds I expect the largest one will be named Alph...


In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.



I doubt there are many 'surface' seas more sunless than those on Titan (if they exist).

cool thanks for the name idea. I think we have bright albedo feature, rivers, and crater names down pat. What I want to know is does anyone know any good names for the dark areas. Here are the guidelines:

Legendary/mythical primordial seas or enchanted waters from world cultures

[Mongo]

What  I want to know is does anyone know any good names for the dark areas.  Here are the guidelines:

Legendary/mythical primordial seas or enchanted waters from world cultures

Let's see, we have the five rivers of the Greek underworld:

the Acheron (river of woe)
the Cocytus (river of lamentation)
the Phlegethon (river of fire)
the Styx (river of unbreakable oath by which the gods swear)
the Lethe (river of forgetfulness)

An equivalent in the Norse mythology would be the Gioll, a river surrounding the Lower World.

The Mesopotamian equivalent of this river would be the Hubur:

Copied from this site:

According to ancient Mesopotamian belief, the Abzu (or engur) was the vast freshwater ocean that lay beneath the earth (as opposed to the salt sea, which was thought to surround the earth). The Abzu therefore served as the source of all wells, springs, rivers, streams and lakes.

The Abzu was the domain of the god Enki (Ea), his consort Damgalnuna (Damkina) and his mother Nammu, as well as being the home of a number of his peculiar creatures. (Enki was believed to have ruled the Abzu prior to mankind's creation). The temple of Enki at Eridu was known as E-Abzu, "the house, or temple, of the Abzu".

On another level, according to the Babylonian Epic of Creation, Apsû was a primal being, the lover of Tiamat. After Ea's killing of Apsû, he erected his dwelling on Apsû's body, the dead creature's name being transferred thereafter to Ea's residence. As Ea's son, Marduk was often designated "firstborn son of the apsû".

The Underworld was located beneath the Abzu. Occasionally, it seems, the Abzu was identified with a river (the Hubur) that one had to cross in order to reach the Underworld.

Hope that this is helpful...

Bill

[volcanopele]

What  I want to know is does anyone know any good names for the dark areas.  Here are the guidelines:

Legendary/mythical primordial seas or enchanted waters from world cultures

Let's see, we have the five rivers of the Greek underworld:

the Acheron (river of woe)
the Cocytus (river of lamentation)
the Phlegethon (river of fire)
the Styx (river of unbreakable oath by which the gods swear)
the Lethe (river of forgetfulness)

An equivalent in the Norse mythology would be the Gioll, a river surrounding the Lower World.

The Mesopotamian equivalent of this river would be the Hubur:

According to this site:

According to ancient Mesopotamian belief, the Abzu (or engur) was the vast freshwater ocean that lay beneath the earth (as opposed to the salt sea, which was thought to surround the earth). The Abzu therefore served as the source of all wells, springs, rivers, streams and lakes.

The Abzu was the domain of the god Enki (Ea), his consort Damgalnuna (Damkina) and his mother Nammu, as well as being the home of a number of his peculiar creatures. (Enki was believed to have ruled the Abzu prior to mankind's creation). The temple of Enki at Eridu was known as E-Abzu, "the house, or temple, of the Abzu".

On another level, according to the Babylonian Epic of Creation, Apsû was a primal being, the lover of Tiamat. After Ea's killing of Apsû, he erected his dwelling on Apsû's body, the dead creature's name being transferred thereafter to Ea's residence. As Ea's son, Marduk was often designated "firstborn son of the apsû".

The Underworld was located beneath the Abzu. Occasionally, it seems, the Abzu was identified with a river (the Hubur) that one had to cross in order to reach the Underworld.

Hope that this is helpful...

Bill

The rivers of the Greek underworld are also in the Divine Comedy by Dante, which is a source for names on Io. I really want to see these turned into mountains on Io.

The Abzu suggestion though is very good. I will add that to my list.

[David]

The seven legendary oceans of the Indian Vedas are:

Lavana
Ikshu
Sura
Sarpi
Dadhi
Dugdha
Jala

I don't know if these names have been used in the planetographical nomenclature of other bodies, but I don't recall having seen them.

[David]

And the primordial sea in Avestan (Zoroastrian) mythology is called Vourukasha.

While Alborz or Mount Hara was the source for both light and water, the Vourukasha Sea is described in the Avesta as the gathering point of water. This important sea occupied 'one third of the earth, to the south, on the skirts of the Harburz' [Vendidad 3 21, 66], and was fed by a huge river, the Harahvaiti. Forming the boundaries of the inhabited world were two great rivers, which flowed out from the sea to the east and the west. The rivers were cleansed as they passed around the earth and, when they returned to the Vourukasha, their clean water was taken back up to the Peak of Hara.

[Mongo]

The Egyptian primordial sea was called Nun (or Nu):

Ancient Creation Myth - upper Kingdom: At first there was only Nun, the primal ocean of chaos that contained the beginnings of everything to come. From these waters came Ra who, by himself, gave birth to Shu and Tefnut. Shu, the god of air, and Tefnut, the goddess of moisture gave birth to Geb and Nut, the earth god and the sky goddess. And so the physical universe was created.

Four cosmologies (creation theories) developed over different periods in ancient Egyptian history. Some elements are common to all four - such as the belief that in the beginning there was only primordial ocean (Nu, Nun). All the cosmologies agree that a hill rose from the ocean (it is believed the first step pyramids were symbolic of the hill). They also agree that creation was a very slow process and that there was a 'First Time' (a period during which the gods lived on Earth).

Bill