Surfaces of Titan and Other Saturnian Satellites

Details Surfaces of Titan and Other Saturnian Satellites Surfaces of Titan and Other Saturnian Satellites

Sep 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996dps....28.2003c&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #28, #20.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 28, p.1130

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Scientific paper

Titan's surface has been investigated in 1995 and 1996 using the Fourier Transform Spectrometer at the CFHT in the near-infrared range (0.7-2.5 micron). This data complete previous observations since 1991 and give a complete lightcurve over Titan's orbit in the methane windows, showing a bright leading and a dark trailing hemisphere, in accordance with previous findings by Griffith (1993) and Lemmon et al. (1994). Modelling of the surface spectrum allows to constrain its nature and the components which could be present. Thus, Titan's spectrum shows two regions: a bright part near 1 micron and a darker one (by a factor of about 2.5) from 1.5 to 2 micron. The latter is compatible with the water ice absorption bands at 1.52 and 2.02 micron, present at all longitudes over the disk. The overall high albedos that we find are compatible with the presence of tholin material on the surface. Tholins and liquid hydrocarbons can not however explain the longitudinal variations of the surface brightness. Titan images (Smith et al., 1995; Combes et al, 1996) show that bright regions exist on Titan's leading hemisphere that could be responsible for the albedo increase. We have simulated the presence of a mountain to explain this morphology. We find that a surface relief, no matter how high, can not account for the total observed hemispheric asymmetry, even when associated with a large cloud opacity. The presence of one or more plateaux on Titan's leading hemisphere can, however, explain some minor differences observed in the surface spectrum. An additional component is required to satisfy the data. Other satellites of Saturn, such as Hyperion and Iapetus, exhibit a similar hemispheric asymmetry, possibly connected with the presence of organic material on their surfaces. We will attempt to observe these satellites with the ISIS spectrometer at the CFHT in late Aug. 1996 and report on the results.

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