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Titan Seas Reflect Sunlight
- ChuckMcM 12y agoI am curious if you could use multiple exposures to identify waves on the surface.
- danielsju6 12y agoThey did indeed detect what they believe to be waves from the sun-glint, from what I recall.
- dalke 12y agohttp://www.space.com/25186-cassini-spies-titan-waves.html http://www.space.com/25186-cassini-spies-titan-waves.html - "New observations from NASA’s Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft show what appear to be glints of sunlight bouncing off a wind-rippled lake on the moon Titan." but cautions there may be other explanations. http://news.sciencemag.org/space/2014/12/spacecraft-spots-probable-waves-titan-s-seas http://news.sciencemag.org/space/2014/12/spacecraft-spots-pr... - "Near the moon’s north pole, there is growing evidence for waves on three different seas, ... In a handful of flybys of Titan in the past 6 months, Cassini scientists have seen signs of waves on three different seas: Kraken Mare, Ligeia Mare, and Punga Mare. ... Scientists involved in the discoveries have been cautious, saying that the features could also be floating debris or bubbles. At Kraken Mare, however, Cassini researchers detected a wavelike feature with both the spacecraft’s radar and a mapping spectrometer. That double detection gives Alexander Hayes, a planetary scientist at Cornell, extra confidence."
- cma 12y agoTangent: I was just watching the new Cosmos and it pointed out ice was the most reflective surface on earth and water the least. But sea ice is near the poles, where the sun's angle of incidence is shallow and water presumably becomes more reflective--how close is the sea's albedo to snow and ice at the poles on average (different seasons have different angles of incidence, waves probably have an effect, the sun isn't always shining directly but sometimes comes through (or reflects off the water back onto) clouds, etc.).