Related topics: atmosphere · cassini spacecraft · saturn · moon

River networks on Titan point to a puzzling geologic history

For many years, Titan’s thick, methane- and nitrogen-rich atmosphere kept astronomers from seeing what lies beneath. Saturn’s largest moon appeared through telescopes as a hazy orange orb, in contrast to other heavily ...

Cassini shapes first global topographic map of Titan

(Phys.org) —Scientists have created the first global topographic map of Saturn's moon Titan, giving researchers a valuable tool for learning more about one of the most Earth-like and interesting worlds in the solar system. ...

Titan's river maps may advise Dragonfly's sedimental journey

With future space exploration in mind, a Cornell-led team of astronomers has published the final maps of Titan's liquid methane rivers and tributaries—as seen by NASA's late Cassini mission—so that may help provide context ...

Early Titan was a cold, hostile place for life

Titan is a mysterious orange-socked moon of Saturn that is exciting to astrobiologists because it has some of the same kinds of chemicals that were precursors to life on Earth. It also has a hydrological cycle that allows ...

Evaluating the energy balance of Saturn's moon Titan

To understand the weather and climate on Earth as well as on other planets and their moons, scientists need to know the global energy balance, the balance between energy coming in from solar radiation and thermal energy radiated ...

Raisin' mountains on Saturn's moon Titan

Saturn's moon Titan ripples with mountains, and scientists have been trying to figure out how they form. The best explanation, it turns out, is that Titan is shrinking as it cools, wrinkling up the moon's surface like a raisin.

Shape memory achieved for nano-sized objects

Alloys that can return to their original structure after being deformed have a so-called shape memory. This phenomenon and the resulting forces are used in many mechanical actuating systems, for example in generators or hydraulic ...

Study suggests bright patches on Titan are dry lake beds

A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in the U.S. and one in France has found evidence that suggests the bright patches spotted on Titan's surface 20 years ago are dry lake beds. In their paper published ...

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