[X] My Assistant

[Decepticon]

Getting the Holiday Spirit going.

This is a Distant Flyby @ 10,409KM CA
Hope we will see a NEW Titan map Soon!?
If anyone has a animation of the flyby Please Post It!

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

I imagine that the real explanation is that the specular reflections are coming off some of the mudflats or playa surfaces that seem to be scattered all over Titan; they're flat enough to produce a specular-reflection effect for long-wavelength waves like radio, but much too rough-surfaced to produce such a glint for short wavelengths like light.

[belleraphon1]

I imagine that the real explanation is that the specular reflections are coming off some of the mudflats or playa surfaces that seem to be scattered all over Titan; they're flat enough to produce a specular-reflection effect for long-wavelength waves like radio, but much too rough-surfaced to produce such a glint for short wavelengths like light.

Good point, Bruce.....

That certainly fits the theorectical arguments (West et al 05 paper). But it does not fit some of the observations since the glints did not come from the dark 'playas'.

Huygens did a nice job at one small point on this big moon. But we have to be careful not to interpret that result too literally to all the light/dark expanses. How much geology would we understand of the Earth from one small point on it's surface.

So... the observations are of light areas that glint at radar wavelengths and not at infrared wavelengths... hmmmmmmmmmm

Craig