Publication Date:
2005-10-08
Description:
Observations from the Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer show an anomalously bright spot on Titan located at 80 degrees W and 20 degrees S. This area is bright in reflected light at all observed wavelengths, but is most noticeable at 5 microns. The spot is associated with a surface albedo feature identified in images taken by the Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem. We discuss various hypotheses about the source of the spot, reaching the conclusion that the spot is probably due to variation in surface composition, perhaps associated with recent geophysical phenomena.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Barnes, Jason W -- Brown, Robert H -- Turtle, Elizabeth P -- McEwen, Alfred S -- Lorenz, Ralph D -- Janssen, Michael -- Schaller, Emily L -- Brown, Michael E -- Buratti, Bonnie J -- Sotin, Christophe -- Griffith, Caitlin -- Clark, Roger -- Perry, Jason -- Fussner, Stephanie -- Barbara, John -- West, Richard -- Elachi, Charles -- Bouchez, Antonin H -- Roe, Henry G -- Baines, Kevin H -- Bellucci, Giancarlo -- Bibring, Jean-Pierre -- Capaccioni, Fabrizio -- Cerroni, Priscilla -- Combes, Michel -- Coradini, Angioletta -- Cruikshank, Dale P -- Drossart, Pierre -- Formisano, Vittorio -- Jaumann, Ralf -- Langevin, Yves -- Matson, Dennis L -- McCord, Thomas B -- Nicholson, Phillip D -- Sicardy, Bruno -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2005 Oct 7;310(5745):92-5.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. jbarnes@lpl.arizona.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16210535" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Atmosphere
;
Dry Ice
;
Extraterrestrial Environment
;
Ice
;
Methane
;
*Saturn
;
Spacecraft
;
Spectrum Analysis
;
Temperature
;
Water
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
Permalink
