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Imaging of Titan from the Cassini spacecraft
Dones, Luke; Porco, Carolyn C.; McEwen, Alfred +33 more
Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is the only satellite in the Solar System with a substantial atmosphere. The atmosphere is poorly understood and obscures the surface, leading to intense speculation about Titan's nature. Here we present observations of Titan from the imaging science experiment onboard the Cassini spacecraft that address some of …
Release of volatiles from a possible cryovolcano from near-infrared imaging of Titan
Rodriguez, S.; Sotin, C.; Brown, R. H. +23 more
Titan is the only satellite in our Solar System with a dense atmosphere. The surface pressure is 1.5bar (ref. 1) and, similar to the Earth, N2 is the main component of the atmosphere. Methane is the second most important component, but it is photodissociated on a timescale of 107years (ref. 3). This short timescale has led to…
Complex organic matter in Titan's atmospheric aerosols from in situ pyrolysis and analysis
Steller, M.; Atreya, S. K.; Owen, T. +19 more
Aerosols in Titan's atmosphere play an important role in determining its thermal structure. They also serve as sinks for organic vapours and can act as condensation nuclei for the formation of clouds, where the condensation efficiency will depend on the chemical composition of the aerosols. So far, however, no direct information has been available…
An overview of the descent and landing of the Huygens probe on Titan
Lebreton, Jean-Pierre; Witasse, Olivier; Matson, Dennis L. +9 more
Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is the only Solar System planetary body other than Earth with a thick nitrogen atmosphere. The Voyager spacecraft confirmed that methane was the second-most abundant atmospheric constituent in Titan's atmosphere, and revealed a rich organic chemistry, but its cameras could not see through the thick organic haze. After…
Compositional maps of Saturn's moon Phoebe from imaging spectroscopy
Sotin, C.; Baines, K. H.; Nicholson, P. D. +23 more
The origin of Phoebe, which is the outermost large satellite of Saturn, is of particular interest because its inclined, retrograde orbit suggests that it was gravitationally captured by Saturn, having accreted outside the region of the solar nebula in which Saturn formed. By contrast, Saturn's regular satellites (with prograde, low-inclination, ci…
Solar wind dynamic pressure and electric field as the main factors controlling Saturn's aurorae
Coates, A. J.; Dougherty, M. K.; Kurth, W. S. +11 more
The interaction of the solar wind with Earth's magnetosphere gives rise to the bright polar aurorae and to geomagnetic storms, but the relation between the solar wind and the dynamics of the outer planets' magnetospheres is poorly understood. Jupiter's magnetospheric dynamics and aurorae are dominated by processes internal to the jovian system, wh…
Saturn's moon Phoebe as a captured body from the outer Solar System
Lunine, Jonathan I.; Johnson, Torrence V.
The orbital properties of Phoebe, one of Saturn's irregular moons, suggest that it was captured by the ringed planet's gravitational field rather than formed in situ. Phoebe's generally dark surface shows evidence of water ice, but otherwise the surface most closely resembles that of C-type asteroids and small outer Solar System bodies such as Chi…
An Earth-like correspondence between Saturn's auroral features and radio emission
Gurnett, D. A.; Dougherty, M. K.; Kurth, W. S. +12 more
Saturn is a source of intense kilometre-wavelength radio emissions that are believed to be associated with its polar aurorae, and which provide an important remote diagnostic of its magnetospheric activity. Previous observations implied that the radio emission originated in the polar regions, and indicated a strong correlation with solar wind dyna…
High-velocity streams of dust originating from Saturn
Grün, Eberhard; Kempf, Sascha; Srama, Ralf +5 more
High-velocity submicrometre-sized dust particles expelled from the jovian system have been identified by dust detectors on board several spacecraft. On the basis of periodicities in the dust impact rate, Jupiter's moon Io was found to be the dominant source of the streams. The grains become positively charged within the plasma environment of Jupit…
No oceans on Titan from the absence of a near-infrared specular reflection
West, R. A.; Brown, M. E.; Roe, H. G. +2 more
With its substantial atmosphere of nitrogen, hydrocarbons and nitriles, Saturn's moon Titan is a unique planetary satellite. Photochemical processing of the gaseous constituents produces an extended haze that obscures the surface. Soon after the Voyager fly-bys in 1980 and 1981 photochemical models led to the conclusion that there should be enough…