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New Wrinkles on Titan (Colorization made on Radar Image - credits: Dr Paolo C. Fienga - Lunexit Team)
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In this Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image obtained by NASA's Cassini Spacecraft, two generally similar features, upper center and lower right, appear to be low Mountains with Grooves running roughly in the up-down direction.
A set of straight lines are also visible at lower left.
But what made the Grooves?
Grooves can result from forces that originate from within a planet - including forces that pull the Crust of a planet apart and cracks produced by melt intruding into the Crust.
They can also come from external forces like wind or rainfall, which produces river channels that can cut down through layers of rock.
All of these produce grooves on Earth's Surface, and may also be at work on Titan.
Another intriguing thing about this image is that in this image the "light" (actually the radar illumination) comes from the top. With this kind of illumination, the upper side of these mountains should be bright because they face the illumination, but the left side of the upper-center feature and the right side of the lower feature are bright. The brightness indicates that there is a different material in these areas, and the Grooves exist in both dark and light materials.
The Titan Radar Mapper acquired this image at 41° North Latitude and 213° West Longitude on December 28, 2009.
The image measures approx. 250 Km (about 160 miles) high and approx. 285 Km (about 180 miles) wide, with resolution of roughly 350 meters (1100 feet) per pixel. North is on the left, and the image is illuminated from the top.
The S.I.A. varies from 11 to 25°.
Two dark horizontal lines that run across the middle of the image show the joints between individual radar beams and are not features on the Titan Surface.
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(Dettagli)
