Planetary scientists have been puzzling for years over the honeycomb patterns and flat valleys with squiggly edges evident in radar images of Saturn's moon Titan. Now, working with a "volunteer researcher" who has put his own spin on data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, they have found some recognisable analogies to a type of spectacular terrain on Earth known as karst topography. A poster session today, Thursday, March 4, at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas, displays their work. Karst terrain on Earth occurs when water dissolves layers of bedrock, leaving dramatic rock outcroppings and sinkholes. Comparing images of White Canyon in Utah, the Darai Hills of Papua New Guinea, and Guangxi Province in China to an area of connected valleys and ridges on Titan known as Sikun Labyrinthus yields eerie similarities. The materials may be different - liquid methane and ethane on Titan instead of water, and probably some slurry of organic molecules on Titan instead of rock - but the processes are likely quite similar. Read more
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This image of Titan was taken by the Cassini spaceprobe on the 16th February, 2010 when it was approximately 1,236,226 kilometres away. The image was taken using the CL1 and CB3 filters.
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This image of Titan was taken by the Cassini spaceprobe on the 30th January, 2010 when it was approximately 954,735 kilometres away. The image was taken using the CL1 and CB3 filters.
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This image of Titan was taken by the Cassini spaceprobe on the 29th January, 2010 when it was approximately 366,028 kilometres away. The image was taken using the CL1 and CB3 filters.
This image of Titan was taken by the Cassini spaceprobe on the 28th January, 2010 when it was approximately 114,886 kilometres away. The image was taken using the IR2 and IR1 filters.
This synthetic aperture radar image was obtained by the Radar Mapper aboard the Cassini spacecraft, on the 28th December, 2009. The image is located in the northern hemisphere region known as Belet, at 41 degrees north latitude and 213 degrees west longitude. The image measures 250 kilometres by 285 kilometres, with resolution of about 350 meters per pixel. North is up. The brightness indicates different materials. Strange grooves can be seen in both dark and light materials.
This natural colour image of Saturn's moon Titan with Tethys passing behind it was taken by the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on the 26th November, 2009. The prominent Odysseus Crater can be seen on Tethys. The image scale is 6 kilometres per pixel on Titan and 13 kilometres per pixel on Tethys.
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This image of Titan was taken by the Cassini spaceprobe on the 15th January, 2010 when it was approximately 1,206,868 kilometres away. The image was taken using the CL1 and CB3 filters.
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This image of Titan was taken by the Cassini spaceprobe on the 16th January, 2010 when it was approximately 1,711,839 kilometres away. The image was taken using the CL1 and CB3 filters.
Five years ago today ESA's Huygens probe reached the upper layer of Titan's atmosphere and landed on the surface after a parachute descent of 2 hours and 28 minutes. As part of the joint NASA/ESA/ASI mission to Saturn and its moons, the Huygens probe was sent from the Cassini spacecraft to explore Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Read more