[X] My Assistant

[ngunn]

Mountains on Titan - news via jupiter list:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/jupiter_list/message/7565
Edit: Shouldn't be in T21 thread - don't know how to move it though.

[volcanopele]

Massive Mountain Range Imaged on Saturn's Moon Titan
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-rele....cfm?newsID=709

I'm not so sure I agree with their conclusion, but they seem to think that based on the appearance of the dark "stuff" to the east of the bright streaks at different wavelengths, that that dark "stuff" is topographic shading and that the bright streaks are mountain chains. I am not sure I agree with that statement. I can't go into detail why, but I think bright streaks are some kind of "stain" on the surface, not topographic.

The more interesting news is the statement:

The composition of dunes that run across much of Titan is also much clearer. "The dunes seem to consist of sand grains made of organics, built on water-ice bedrock, and there may also be some snow and bright deposits," Brown said.

VIMS was able to resolve the dunes and able to see the compositional differences between the dunes and the inter-dune regions.

[ngunn]

I'm not so sure I agree with their conclusion, but they seem to think that based on the appearance of the dark "stuff" to the east of the bright streaks at different wavelengths, that that dark "stuff" is topographic shading and that the bright streaks are mountain chains. I am not sure I agree with that statement. I can't go into detail why, but I think bright streaks are some kind of "stain" on the surface, not topographic.

Thanks for posting the proper link.
Are you questioning the whole mountain range idea or just a more subtle aspect of their interpretation?
Does the 3D appearance of the 'mountain' image arise from processing based on an assumption about the topography or is it intrinsic to the data?

[volcanopele]

They could be mountain ranges, but I question that they are seeing topographic shading, which underpins their mountain interpretation. I think the "3D" appearance arises from the pattern of bright-dark material in that region that makes it look like some of the dark material is actually topographic shading.

Though this image, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...fm?imageID=2381, is really good for having been taken from 12 billion km away