Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Titan appears to be remarkably flat.

What gives? Impacts pound Titan's surface "flat".

While Titan's surface is pounded "flat", actually it is very rough, and when the color coded fine altitude data is released, that's what we'll see.

That's what those "blips" in the imagery data are - not radiation, but some kind of small impactors.

These are not asteroidal, but on the other hand there seems to be too many of them to be cometary, from the Oort Cloud - I don't know if they're outgassing that's caught and condensed, only to impact later, or if they're just remnants from the condensation of the Saturnian system.

Whatever they are, they have a high albedo - they're bright enough to be imaged.

The craters from the larger impacts seem to be rapidly eroded by these small impacts.

Note also the hydrocarbons - given the rate of outgassing, some of this was probably delivered to Titan by long period comets.

Finally, there's the pressure ridges...

It will all unfold over the coming weeks, and with luck, they'll make it to the next pass.

In the meantime, the rocky moon data will be coming in, along with cometary impact rates...

ep

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