Published June 2019 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

Titan as Revealed by the Cassini Radar

Abstract

Titan was a mostly unknown world prior to the Cassini spacecraft's arrival in July 2004. We review the major scientific advances made by Cassini's Titan Radar Mapper (RADAR) during 13 years of Cassini's exploration of Saturn and its moons. RADAR measurements revealed Titan's surface geology, observed lakes and seas of mostly liquid methane in the polar regions, measured the depth of several lakes and seas, detected temporal changes on its surface, and provided key evidence that Titan contains an interior ocean. As a result of the Cassini mission, Titan has gone from an uncharted world to one that exhibits a variety of Earth-like geologic processes and surface-atmosphere interactions. Titan has also joined the ranks of "ocean worlds" along with Enceladus and Europa, which are prime targets for astrobiological research.

Additional Information

© 2019 Springer Nature B.V. First Online: 21 May 2019. We thank Robert M. Nelson and an anonymous reviewer for excellent and detailed reviews that greatly improved the manuscript, and Phil Callahan for an informal review and helpful suggestions for improvement. Part of this work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of technology, under contract with NASA. Copyright 2018, California Institute of Technology. Government sponsorship is acknowledged.

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
95727
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20190523-085715714

Funding

NASA/JPL/Caltech

Dates

Created
2019-05-23
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-16
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Astronomy Department, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)