Ching-Tu Is Equatorial Dark Albedo Feature on Titan's Anti-Saturn Side

Summary: Ching-Tu is an equatorial dark albedo feature on Titan's anti-Saturn side that lies to the south of equatorial bright albedo feature Adiri.

Titan VIMS (Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer) image shows Ching-Tu (far right) in the trailing hemisphere south of Adiri and west of Titan's anti-Saturn meridian (180 degrees west/east): map credit NASA/JPL/University of Airzona, via IAU/USGS Astrogeology Science Center Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature

Ching-Tu is an equatorial dark albedo feature on Titan's anti-Saturn side that neighbors south of bright albedo feature Adiri, southwest of dark albedo feature Shangri-La and southeast of dark albedo feature Belet.

Ching-Tu is centered at minus 30 degrees south latitude, 205 degrees west longitude, according to the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. The Gazetteer gives the dark albedo feature's center latitude and longitude as its northernmost and southernmost latitudes and its easternmost and westernmost longitudes, respectively.

Ching-Tu's center latitude coincides with the southernmost latitude of Titan's equatorial belt. The low albedo feature's northern areas lie within the Saturnian moon's southern equatorial latitudes. Its southern areas stretch across the low middle latitudes of Saturn's largest moon.

The dark albedo features neighbors south of equatorial bright albedo feature Adiri. The high albedo feature is centered at minus 10 degrees south latitude, 210 degrees west longitude. Adiri's center coordinates are repeated as its northernmost-southernmost latitudes and as its easternmost-westernmost longitudes.

As Adiri's southern neighbor, Ching-Tu lies to the southwest of the landing site of the Cassini-Huygens Mission's Huygens probe. The Cassini-Huygens Mission represented a collaboration among the United States federal government's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency's (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana; ASI). The Flagship-class robotic spaceship comprised the NASA-built and -managed Cassini spacecraft and the ESA-built and -operated Huygens lander.

The Cassini-Huygens Mission's launch took place Oct. 15, 1997, at Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) in eastern central coastal Florida. On July 1, 2004, the spacecraft achieved insertion into Saturn's orbit by flying through the gap between the planet's F and G rings.

The Huygens module separated from the Cassini spacecraft on Dec. 25, 2004. The probe touched down Jan. 14, 2005, on Titan's anti-Saturn side, in the terrain between northeastern Adiri and western Shangri-La. The landing site is located at 10.3 degrees south latitude, 192.32 degrees west longitude, according to the NASA Science Solar System Exploration website. The probe's landing site claims double landmark status as the first landing site on a moon other than Earth's moon and as the first landing site in the outer Solar System.

Equatorial dark albedo feature Shangri-La lies to the northeast of Ching-Tu. Shangri-La is centered at minus 10 degrees south latitude, 165 degrees west longitude. The anti-Saturn side occupant's center latitude and longitude are identified as its northernmost-southernmost latitudes and easternmost-westernmost longitudes, respectively.

Equatorial dark albedo feature Belet lies to the northwest of Ching-Tu. Belet is centered at minus 5 degrees south latitude, 255 degrees west longitude. The anti-Saturn side resident's center coordinates are listed as its northernmost-southernmost latitudes and as its easternmost-westernmost longitudes.

Ching-Tu's location places the low albedo feature within the equatorial belt's extensive dunes, also described as dune fields or as dune seas. Titan's thick, nitrogen-dominant atmosphere encourages the aeolian, or wind-driven, processes that shape and sustain the equatorial belt's dunes, according to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) planetary scientist and organic chemist Michael J. Malaska and five co-authors in their study, "Material Flux on Titan: The Fate of Dune Materials," presented at the 46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, held March 16-20,2015, at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel and Convention Center in The Woodlands, Texas.

Linear, or longitudinal, dunes, which reflect prevailing wind patterns, predominate in ergs, or broad, flat, wind-swept dune seas, in the equatorial belt's dark albedo regions. Westward to eastward, low albedo features Senkyo, Belet, Ching-Tu, Shangri-La, Fensal and Aztlan exhibit linear dunes that register in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images as "dark parallel lines against a variable backscatter substrate. . ." (page 9).

Senkyo is centered at minus 5 degrees south latitude, 320 degrees west longitude. The Saturn-facing side occupant's northernmost-southernmost latitudes and easternmost-westernmost longitudes are correlated with its center coordinates.

Material transport observes a west-to-east flow across Senkyo, Belet and Adiri (page 23). The sand seas of Belet, Ching-Tu and Shangri-La experience only a slight divergence in the west-to-east transport of dune material with respect to Adiri's local topography, such as east-west aligned mountain chains.

Ching-Tu received the International Astronomical Union's approval of its name in 2006. The Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature identifies Ching-Tu as the "Chinese Buddhist paradise where those who attain salvation will live in unalloyed happiness." The feature's name conforms with the IAU convention of naming Titan's albedo features after world cultural paradises or celestial, enchanting or sacred places.

Infrared image, constructed from 13 years of data obtained by Cassini spacecraft's VIMS (Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer), shows bright albedo feature Adiri (center) with dark albedo features Ching-Tu (below; south), Belet (left; west) and Shangri-La (right; east); image addition date 2018-07-18; image credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Nantes/University of Arizona: May be used for any purpose without prior permission, via NASA JPL Photojournal

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Dedication

This post is dedicated to the memory of our beloved blue-eyed brother, Charles, who guided the creation of the Met Opera and Astronomy posts on Earth and Space News. We memorialized our brother in "Our Beloved Blue-Eyed Brother, Charles, With Whom We Are Well Pleased," published on Earth and Space News on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, an anniversary of our beloved father's death.

Image credits:

Titan VIMS (Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer) image shows Ching-Tu (far right) in the trailing hemisphere south of Adiri and west of Titan's anti-Saturn meridian (180 degrees west/east): map credit NASA/JPL/University of Airzona, via IAU/USGS Astrogeology Science Center Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/images/titan_VIMS_comp.pdf

Infrared image, constructed from 13 years of data obtained by Cassini spacecraft's VIMS (Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer), shows bright albedo feature Adiri (center) with dark albedo features Ching-Tu (below; south), Belet (left; west) and Shangri-La (right; east); image addition date 2018-07-18; image credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Nantes/University of Arizona: May be used for any purpose without prior permission, via NASA JPL Photojournal @ https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21923

For further information:

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Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Page/Categories

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Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/6982

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Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/6984

International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN). “Ching-Tu.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Last updated Oct. 1, 2006.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/6985

International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN). “Senkyo.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Last updated Oct. 1, 2006.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/6989

International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN). “Shangri-La.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Last updated April 20, 2009.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/6990

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