The entire Titan map was created based on photographs and radar observations taken from Saturn’s satellite Titan flyover over 100 times by the Cassini probe. Here, like the Earth, there are various topography such as mountains, plains, valleys, craters, and lakes.
Rosalie Lopez, a geochemist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Research Institute, says Titans have an atmosphere, rainstorms and mountains like Earth. This fun world is one of the best places to find life.
Two-thirds of Titan’s surface is covered with flat terrain, but 17% of the total, including near the equator, has raised sand dunes. About 14% have hills and mountainous areas. In addition, about 1.5% of the surface of the surface runs like a maze of valleys eroded by liquid methane rain, and although it is not shown on the map, there is a lake created by flowing such a liquid in 1.5% width. Since there are only a few craters that are common on other planets and satellites, this topography can be said to have been formed relatively recently by space standards of 100 to 1 billion years ago.
Maps allow researchers to clarify riddles such as whether Titan has seasons and why such topography was formed. For example, it is possible that the difference in the northern and southern summer lengths of Saturn’s elliptical orbit caused the lake to form in the Arctic direction. In addition, due to the tidal heating caused by the gravitational change received from the young Saturn, the surface may change due to low temperature volcanic action in which ammonium sulfate and the ice covering it melt and erupt.
The map study is expected to help clarify the secrets of the Titan little by little. The map also aids NASA’s Dragonfly mission, scheduled for launch in 2026. Dragonfly will arrive on Titan in 2034 and explore the surface of Titan with a drone-like rotating wing drone for about two and a half years. At this point, this map will help you decide in advance where the lander will get off and how to explore. Related information can be found here .