NASA creates the first topographic map of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon (Engadget via arielwaldman)
From the abstract of the paper at Icarus (on ScienceDirect.com):
Cassini RADAR SARtopo and altimetry data are used to construct a global gridded 1 × 1° elevation map, for use in Global Circulation Models, hydrological models and correlative studies. The data are sparse, and so most of the map domain (∼90%) is populated with interpolated values using a spline algorithm. The highest (∼+520 m) gridded point observed is at 48°S, 12°W. The lowest point observed (∼1700 m below a 2575 km sphere) is at 59°S, 317°W: this may be a basin where liquids presently in the north could have resided in the past. If the deepest point were once a sea with the areal extent of present-day Ligeia Mare, it would be ∼1000 m deep. We find four prominent topographic rises, each ∼200 km wide, radar-bright and heavily dissected, distributed over a ∼3000 km arc in the southeastern quadrant of Titan (∼40–60°S, 15–150°W).
See also: a rectangular projection of the topographic map.
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