Titan as Revealed by the Cassini Radar

R. M. C. Lopes (1) , S.D. Wall (1) , C. Elachi (2) , Samuel P. D. Birch (3) , P. Corlies (3) , Athena Coustenis (4) , A. G. Hayes (3) , J. D. Hofgartner (1) , Michael A. Janssen (1) , R. L Kirk (5) , Alice Le Gall (6) , R. D. Lorenz (7) , Jonathan I. Lunine (3, 2) , Michael J. Malaska (1) , M. Mastroguiseppe (8) , G. Mitri (9) , C. D. Neish (10) , Claudia Notarnicola (11) , F. Paganelli (12) , Philippe Paillou (13) , Valerio Poggiali (3) , J. Radebaugh (14) , S. Rodriguez (15) , A. Schoenfeld (16) , Jason M. Soderblom (17) , Anezina Solomonidou (18) , E. R. Stofan (19) , B. W. Stiles (1) , F. Tosi (20) , E. P. Turtle (7) , Richard D. West (1) , C. A. Wood (21) , Howard A. Zebker (22) , J.W. Barnes (23) , Domenico Casarano (24) , Pierre Encrenaz (4) , T. Farr (1) , C. Grima (25) , D. Hemingway (26) , O. Karatekin (27) , Antoine Lucas (15) , K. L. Mitchell (1) , G. Ori (9) , Roberto Orosei (28) , P. Ries (1) , D. Riccio (29) , L. A. Soderblom (5) , Z. Zhang (2)

1 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
2 Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences [Pasadena]
3 Department of Astronomy [Ithaca]
4 LESIA (UMR_8109) - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique
5 Astrogeology Science Center [Flagstaff]
6 PLANETO - LATMOS
7 APL - Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory [Laurel, MD]
8 UNIROMA - Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza" = Sapienza University [Rome]
9 IRSPS - International Research School of Planetary Sciences [Pescara]
10 Department of Earth Sciences [London, ON]
11 Institute for Earth Observation [Bolzano]
12 SETI - Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute
13 ASP 2019
14 Department of Geological Sciences [BYU]
15 IPGP - Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
16 EPSS - Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences [Los Angeles]
17 EAPS - Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences [MIT, Cambridge]
18 ESAC - European Space Astronomy Centre
19 Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
20 IAPS - Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali - INAF
21 PSI - Planetary Science Institute [Tucson]
22 Department of Electrical Engineering [Stanford]
23 Department of Physics [Moscow,USA]
24 IRPI - Istituto di Ricerca per la Protezione Idrogeologica [Padova]
25 IG - Institute of Geophysics [Austin]
26 Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science
27 ROB - Royal Observatory of Belgium [Brussels]
28 IRA - Istituto di Radioastronomia [Bologna]
29 DIETI - Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica e delle Tecnologie dell'Informazione [Napoli]

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.

Keywords: Titan; Cassini; Radar; Titan

Domains: Astrophysics [astro-ph]; Earth and Planetary Astrophysics [astro-ph.EP]

R. M. C. Lopes, S.D. Wall, C. Elachi, Samuel P. D. Birch, P. Corlies, et al.. Titan as Revealed by the Cassini Radar. Space Science Reviews, 2019, 215 (4), pp.id. 33. ⟨10.1007/s11214-019-0598-6⟩. ⟨insu-02136345⟩