Scientists have unveiled the first map showing the global geology of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan,.
The map reveals a dynamic world of dunes, lakes, plains, craters and other terrains.
Titan (diameter 5,150km), is the solar system’s second-biggest moon, behind Jupiter’s Ganymede. It is larger than the planet Mercury.
Planetary geologist David Williams of Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration worked with a team of researchers, led by planetary geologist Rosaly Lopes of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, to develop this global geologic map of Titan. The map, and their findings, which include the relative age of Titan’s geological terrains, were recently published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Titan is the only planetary body in our solar system other than Earth known to have stable liquid on its surface. But instead of water raining down from clouds and filling lakes and seas as on Earth, on Titan what rains down is methane and ethane—hydrocarbons that we think of as gases but that behave as liquids in Titan’s frigid climate.
