New images show Titan geography much like Earth

New radar images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft show a great resemblance between Saturn's giant moon Titan and Earth, say NASA officials.

The scientists say the images show a variety of dunes, hills, valleys, and rivers in a bright area of Titan called Xanadu.

The Cassini team on Earth produced the images by telling the craft to bounce radar off the surface of Xanadu and measure the time it took for the radar to return.

The results were views of mountains that could be as high the Appalachians, and rivers probably made by liquid methane or ethane, the scientists predict.

They claim that the liquid methane or ethane may have fell like rain or trickled from springs that carved channels into the icy surface.

The scientists say there is also a possibility of sand dunes being formed elsewhere in Xanadu from particles carried through these channels.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope first discovered Xanadu in 1994 with the help of infrared imaging.

The Cassini spacecraft's radar system viewed Xanadu in April 2006 and found a surface modified by winds, rain, and a flow of liquids.

Cassini will view Titan again, including Xanadu, July 22 to explore the moon's Northern latitudes.

According to NASA, the spacecraft will orbit Titan 29 more times in the next two years.

Illustration: Universe Review

Source: Discovery Channel Reports, July 20 edition