Publication Date:
2011-03-19
Description:
Although there is evidence that liquids have flowed on the surface at Titan's equator in the past, to date, liquids have only been confirmed on the surface at polar latitudes, and the vast expanses of dunes that dominate Titan's equatorial regions require a predominantly arid climate. We report the detection by Cassini's Imaging Science Subsystem of a large low-latitude cloud system early in Titan's northern spring and extensive surface changes (spanning more than 500,000 square kilometers) in the wake of this storm. The changes are most consistent with widespread methane rainfall reaching the surface, which suggests that the dry channels observed at Titan's low latitudes are carved by seasonal precipitation.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Turtle, E P -- Perry, J E -- Hayes, A G -- Lorenz, R D -- Barnes, J W -- McEwen, A S -- West, R A -- Del Genio, A D -- Barbara, J M -- Lunine, J I -- Schaller, E L -- Ray, T L -- Lopes, R M C -- Stofan, E R -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2011 Mar 18;331(6023):1414-7. doi: 10.1126/science.1201063.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD 20723, USA. elizabeth.turtle@jhuapl.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21415347" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Atmosphere
;
Extraterrestrial Environment
;
*Methane
;
*Saturn
;
Spacecraft
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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