Friday, September 16, 2005

New Titan Image: Shoreline on Titan?


The RADAR team on Cassini has released some of their SAR swath taken on September 7. I will post my comments on all three cut outs. This portion is near the very end of the part the were able to get back. The second half was lost. This portion shows a possible shoreline in the central part of the dark albedo feature known as Mezzoramia. On the left, you can see terrain that is suggestive of erosion by liquids, with alcoves and scarps. At right, the surface is quite dark suggesting that the area is much smoother than any other place so far looked on Titan by Cassini RADAR. Many of the bright features that bound this terrain are similar to shoreline terrain on Earth.

This portion of the swath is from 66 South, 356 West in central Mezzoramia. This portion is 330 km wide and 175 km tall.