Saturn's moon Titan sports Earth-like features | Cornell Chronicle
http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2018/01/saturns-moon-titan-sports-earth-features
Using the now-complete Cassini data set, Cornell astronomers have created a new global topographic map of Saturn’s moon Titan that has opened new windows into
understanding its liquid flows and terrain. Two new papers, published Dec. 2 in Geophysical Review Letters, describe the map and discoveries arising from it.
Creating the map took about a year, according to doctoral student Paul Corlies, first author on “Titan’s Topography and Shape at the End of the Cassini Mission.”
The map combines all of the Titan topography data from multiple sources. Since only about 9 percent of Titan has been observed in relatively high-resolution
topography, with 25-30 percent of the topography imaged in lower resolution, the remainder of the moon was mapped using an interpolation algorithm and a global
minimization process, which reduced errors such as those arising from spacecraft location.
The map revealed several new features on Titan, including new mountains, none higher than 700 meters. The map also provides a global view of the highs and lows
of Titan’s topography, which enabled the scientists to confirm that two locations in the equatorial region of Titan are in fact depressions that could be either
ancient, dried seas or cryovolcanic flows. The map also revealed that Titan is a little bit flatter – more oblate – than was previously known, which suggests
there is more variability in the thickness of Titan’s crust than previously thought.