The feature named Tortola Facula
The feature named Tortola Facula seen by Cassini's VIMS at a resolution of 2 kilometers per pixel (left) and by Cassini's radar at a resolution of 300 meters per pixel (right).

Have the surface and belly of Saturn's smog-shrouded moon, Titan, recently simmered like a chilly, bubbling cauldron with ice volcanoes, or has this distant moon gone cold? In a newly published analysis, a pair of NASA scientists analyzing data collected by the Cassini spacecraft suggest Titan may be much less geologically active than some scientists have thought.

In the paper, published in the April 2011 edition of the journal Icarus, scientists conclude Titan's interior may be cool and dormant and incapable of causing active ice volcanoes.

"It would be fantastic to find strong evidence that clearly shows Titan has an internal heat source that causes ice volcanoes and lava flows to form," said Jeff Moore, lead author of the paper and a planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. "But we find that the evidence presented to date is unconvincing, and recent studies of Titan's interior conducted by geophysicists and gravity experts also weaken the possibility of volcanoes there."

Scientists agree that Titan shows evidence of having lakes of liquid methane and ethane, and valleys carved by these exotic liquids, as well as impact craters. However, a debate continues to brew about how to interpret the Cassini data on Titan. Some scientists theorize ice volcanoes exist and suggest energy from an internal heat source may have caused ice to rise and release methane vapors as it reached Titan's surface.

These images compare surface features observed by NASA's Cassini at the Xanadu region (left), and features observed by NASA's Galileo on Jupiter's moon Callisto (right).
These images compare surface features observed by NASA’s Cassini at the Xanadu region (left), and features observed by NASA's Galileo on Jupiter's moon Callisto (right).

In December 2010, a group of Cassini scientists presented new topographic data on an area of Titan called Sotra Facula, which they think makes the best case yet for a possible volcanic mountain that once erupted ice on Titan. Although Moore and Pappalardo do not explicitly consider this recent topographic analysis in their paper, they do not find the recent analysis of Sotra Facula to be convincing so far. It remains to be seen whether ongoing analyses of Sotra Facula can change minds.

Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is the only known moon to have a dense atmosphere, composed primarily of nitrogen, with two to three percent methane. One goal of the Cassini mission is to find an explanation for what, if anything, might be maintaining this atmosphere.

Titan's dense atmosphere makes its surface very difficult to study with visible-light cameras, but infrared instruments and radar signals can peer through the haze and provide information about both the composition and shape of the surface.

"Titan is most akin to Jupiter's moon Callisto, if Callisto had weather," Moore added. "Every feature we have seen on Titan can be explained by wind, rain and meteorite impacts, rather than from internal heating."

These two computer simulation models of landform evolution illustrate how, over time, rain can carve landscapes into formations that look like aspects of volcanoes.
These two computer simulation models of landform evolution illustrate how, over time, rain can carve landscapes into formations that look like aspects of volcanoes.

Callisto is almost the exact same size as Titan. It has a cratered appearance, and because of its cool interior, its surface features are not affected by internal forces. Moore and Pappalardo conclude that Titan also might have a cool interior, with only external processes like wind, rain and impacts shaping its surface.

The Cassini spacecraft, currently orbiting Saturn, continues to make fly-bys of Titan. Scientists will continue to explore Titan's mysteries, including investigations of the changes in the landscapes.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and several of its instruments were designed, developed and assembled at JPL.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini.

Fore more information about possible ice volcanoes on Titan, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/newsreleases/newsrelease20101214/ and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/newsreleases/20081215titanvolcanoes/ .

For more information about Alan Howard's Landform Evolution Computer Simulation Modeling at the University of Virginia, visit http://erode.evsc.virginia.edu/marsfluv.htm.


Jia-Rui C. Cook 818-354-0850
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
jccook@jpl.nasa.gov

Rachel Hoover 650-604-0643
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Rachel.hoover@nasa.gov

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