Nature Communications (Jun 2020)

The root of anomalously specular reflections from solid surfaces on Saturn’s moon Titan

  • Jason D. Hofgartner,
  • Alexander G. Hayes,
  • Donald B. Campbell,
  • Jonathan I. Lunine,
  • Gregory J. Black,
  • Shannon M. MacKenzie,
  • Samuel P. D. Birch,
  • Charles Elachi,
  • Randolph D. Kirk,
  • Alice Le Gall,
  • Ralph D. Lorenz,
  • Stephen D. Wall

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16663-1
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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Anomalously specular radar reflections (ASRR) from Titan’s tropical region were interpreted earlier as evidence for liquid surfaces, but the Cassini spacecraft did not observe lakes/seas at the anomalously specular locations. Here, the authors show that ASRR originate from one terrain unit, likely paleolakes/paleoseas.