JPL
Careers
Education
Science & Technology
JPL Logo
JPL Logo
Solar System
.

Impact Craters Reveal Details of Titan's Dynamic Surface Weathering

Oct. 29, 2020
This view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, acquired during the mission's 'T-114' flyby on Nov. 13, 2015, looks toward terrain that is mostly on the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Titan.
This view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, acquired during the mission's 'T-114' flyby on Nov. 13, 2015, looks toward terrain that is mostly on the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Titan.
Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/University of Idaho
Full Image Details

New research on nine craters of Saturn's largest moon provides more details about how weathering affects the evolution of the surface - and what lies beneath.

Scientists have used data from NASA's Cassini mission to delve into the impact craters on the surface of Titan, revealing more detail than ever before about how the craters evolve and how weather drives changes on the surface of Saturn's mammoth moon.

Like Earth, Titan has a thick atmosphere that acts as a protective shield from meteoroids; meanwhile, erosion and other geologic processes efficiently erase craters made by meteoroids that do reach the surface. The result is far fewer impacts and craters than on other moons. Even so, because impacts stir up what lies beneath and expose it, Titan's impact craters reveal a lot.

Get the Latest JPL News

Subscribe to the Newsletter

The new examination showed that they can be split into two categories: those in the fields of dunes around Titan's equator and those in the vast plains at midlatitudes (between the equatorial zone and the poles). Their location and their makeup are connected: The craters among the dunes at the equator consist completely of organic material, while craters in the midlatitude plains are a mix of organic materials, water ice, and a small amount of methane-like ice.

From there, scientists took the connections a step further and found that craters actually evolve differently, depending on where they lie on Titan.

Some of the new results reinforce what scientists knew about the craters - that the mixture of organic material and water ice is created by the heat of impact, and those surfaces are then washed by methane rain. But while researchers found that cleaning process happening in the midlatitude plains, they discovered that it's not happening in the equatorial region; instead, those impact areas are quickly covered by a thin layer of sand sediment.

That means Titan's atmosphere and weather aren't just shaping the surface of Titan; they're also driving a physical process that affects which materials remain exposed at the surface, the authors found.

"The most exciting part of our results is that we found evidence of Titan's dynamic surface hidden in the craters, which has allowed us to infer one of the most complete stories of Titan's surface evolution scenario to date," said Anezina Solomonidou, a research fellow at ESA (European Space Agency) and the lead author of the new study. "Our analysis offers more evidence that Titan remains a dynamic world in the present day."

Unveiling Secrets

The new work, published recently in Astronomy & Astrophysics, used data from visible and infrared instruments aboard the Cassini spacecraft, which operated between 2004 and 2017 and conducted more than 120 flybys of the Mercury-size moon.

"Locations and latitudes seem to unveil many of Titan's secrets, showing us that the surface is actively connected with atmospheric processes and possibly with internal ones," Solomonidou said.

Scientists are eager to learn more about Titan's potential for astrobiology, which is the study of the origins and evolution of life in the universe. Titan is an ocean world, with a sea of water and ammonia under its crust. And as scientists look for pathways for organic material to travel from the surface to the ocean underneath, impact craters offer a unique window into the subsurface.

The new research also found that one impact site, called Selk Crater, is completely covered with organics and untouched by the rain process that cleans the surface of other craters. Selk is in fact a target of NASA's Dragonfly mission, set to launch in 2027; the rotorcraft-lander will investigate key astrobiology questions as it searches for biologically important chemistry similar to early Earth before life emerged.

NASA got its first close-up encounter with Titan some 40 years ago, on Nov. 12, 1980, when the agency's Voyager 1 spacecraft flew by at a range of just 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers). Voyager images showed a thick, opaque atmosphere, and data revealed that liquid might be present on the surface (it was - in the form of liquid methane and ethane), and indicated that prebiotic chemical reactions might be possible on Titan.

Managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Cassini was an orbiter that observed Saturn for more than 13 years before exhausting its fuel supply. The mission plunged it into the planet's atmosphere in September 2017, in part to protect moons that have the potential of holding conditions suitable for life.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA, and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL designed, developed, and assembled the Cassini orbiter.

More information about Cassini can be found here:

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/cassini

Lakes on Titan may have started as explosion craters
Check out the first global geologic map of Titan

News Media Contact

Gretchen McCartney

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-6215

gretchen.p.mccartney@jpl.nasa.gov

Grey Hautaluoma / Alana Johnson

NASA Headquarters, Washington

202-358-0668 / 202-358-1501

grey.hautaluoma-1@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov

2020-205

Related News

Solar System .

NASA’s Magellan Data Reveals Volcanic Activity on Venus

Mars .

Engineers Keep an Eye on Fuel Supply of NASA’s Oldest Mars Orbiter

Solar System .

Study Finds Ocean Currents May Affect Rotation of Europa’s Icy Crust

Solar System .

Study Finds Venus’ ‘Squishy’ Outer Shell May Be Resurfacing the Planet

Solar System .

NASA’s NuSTAR Telescope Reveals Hidden Light Shows on the Sun

Mars .

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Completes Mars Sample Depot

Solar System .

NASA’s Juno Team Assessing Camera After 48th Flyby of Jupiter

Solar System .

NASA’s Psyche Mission Continues Preparation for Launch in 2023

Solar System .

NASA’s Lunar Flashlight Team Assessing Spacecraft’s Propulsion System

Mars .

NASA Explores a Winter Wonderland on Mars

Explore More

Mission .

Lunar Trailblazer

Image .

Radar Observations of Elongated Near-Earth Asteroid 2011 AG5

Image .

Three-Telescope View of the Sun

Mission .

Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration

Image .

NASA's Psyche: Picking up Launch Prep for 2023

Event Feb. 16, 2023 .

Perseverance: Two Years on Mars

Mission .

Ranger 1

Image .

Lunar Flashlight's Trajectory Correction Maneuver (Illustration)

Image .

NASA's Lunar Flashlight Spotted From Earth on Its Way to the Moon

Image .

NEO Surveyor in an Infrared Starfield Filled With Asteroids (Illustration)

About JPL
Who We Are
Executive Council
Directors
Careers
Internships
The JPL Story
JPL Achievements
Documentary Series
Annual Reports
Missions
Current
Past
Future
All
News
All
Earth
Solar System
Stars and Galaxies
Subscribe to JPL News
Galleries
Images
Videos
Audio
Podcasts
Apps
Visions of the Future
Slice of History
Robotics at JPL
Events
Lecture Series
Team Competitions
Speakers Bureau
Calendar
Visit
Public Tours
Virtual Tour
Directions and Maps
Topics
JPL Life
Solar System
Mars
Earth
Climate Change
Exoplanets
Stars and Galaxies
Robotics
More
Asteroid Watch
NASA's Eyes Visualizations
Universe - Internal Newsletter
Social Media
Get the Latest from JPL
Follow Us

JPL is a federally funded research and development center managed for NASA by Caltech.

More from JPL
Careers Education Science & Technology Acquisitions JPL Store
Careers
Education
Science & Technology
Acquisitions
JPL Store
Related NASA Sites
Basics of Spaceflight
Climate Kids
Earth / Global Climate Change
Exoplanet Exploration
Mars Exploration
Solar System Exploration
Space Place
NASA's Eyes Visualization Project
Voyager Interstellar Mission
NASA
Caltech
Privacy
Image Policy
FAQ
Feedback
Site Managers: Veronica McGregor, Randal Jackson
Site Editors: Tony Greicius, Naomi Hartono
CL#: 21-0018