Mapping the Second-largest moon of our Solar System
The geology of the Saturn’s Largest Moon Titan consists of oceans, plains, dunes & mountains
Although Titan has been long sought as the foremost contender of harboring life beyond our own planet, the recent discovery of icy plumes above Saturn’s sixth-largest moon Enceladus points to increased chances of finding microbial life beneath the sub-surface ocean of these lunar bodies. A similar phenomenon on Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon Europa has aroused further interest among researchers— a discovery which has more recently been confirmed by NASA.
Titan has both, a dense atmosphere and known stable bodies of liquid methane, which have been of great interest to researchers. The earlier Cassini mission, which lasted for 20 years (1997–2017) provided valuable information into the geology of the moon.
Astronomers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California have now used years of Cassini data to construct the first global map (pictured above) of the Titan’s surface. While the moon gives out an orange-brown glow devoid of any futures from space, the data from the Cassini machine revealed complex geology of the moon’s surface consisting of an array of different terrains — lakes, rivers, oceans, plains, dunes & mountains.
