Dilmun Is Equatorial Bright Albedo Feature on Titan's Anti-Saturn Side

Summary: Dilmun is an equatorial bright albedo feature on Titan's anti-Saturn side that lies north of bright Adiri, dark Belet and dark Shangri-La.

Detail of Titan With ISS (maging Science Subsystem) Background map shows Dilmun (lower center) with southern neighbors (left to right) dark Belet, bright Adiri, dark Shangri-La and bright Xanadu; red icon marks landing site of Cassini-Huygens Mission's Huygens probe Jan. 14, 2005: map credit NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute, via IAU/USGS Astrogeology Science Center Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature

Dilmun is an equatorial bright albedo feature on Titan's anti-Saturn side that occurs to the north of bright albedo feature Adiri and dark albedo features Belet and Shangri-La.

Dilmun is centered at 15 degrees north latitude, 175 degrees west longitude, according to the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. The Gazetteer gives the northern equatorial-centered feature's center latitude and longitude as its northernmost and southernmost latitudes and its easternmost and westernmost longitudes, respectively.

Dilmun resides to the north of equatorial high albedo feature Adiri. Bright Adiri is centered at minus 10 degrees south latitude, 210 degrees west longitude. The southern equatorial-centered feature's center coordinates currently are identified as its northernmost-southernmost latitudes and easternmost-westernmost longitudes.

Belet and Shangri-La are positioned as Dilmun's two dark albedo, southern neighbors in Titan's equatorial belt. Both low albedo features are centered in the southern latitudes of Titan's equatorial belt.

Belet is centered at minus 5 degrees south latitude, 255 degrees west longitude. The dark albedo feature's northernmost-southernmost latitudes and easternmost-westernmost longitudes currently coincide with its center coordinates.

Shangri-La is centered at minus 10 degrees south latitude, 165 degrees west longitude. The low albedo feature's center coordinates currently correlate with its northernmost-southernmost latitudes and easternmost-westernmost longitudes.

Dilmun's location to the north of bright Adiri and of dark Shangri-La places the high albedo feature in proximity to the landing site of the Cassini-Huygens Mission's Huygens probe. Built and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), the atmospheric entry robotic space probe's Jan. 14, 2005, landing took place in northeastern Adiri, near western Shangri-La.

The probe's touchdown coordinates are 10.3 degrees south latitude, 192.32 degrees west longitude, according to the NASA Science Solar System Exploration website. The Huygens probe's landing site lies 4.7 degrees south and 17.32 east of Dilmun's center coordinates.

Dilmun's location in Titan's equatorial belt places it within the moon's dune-dominated region. As Titan's second most prevalent landform, dune, comprising dunes and interdunes, account for 17 percent of Titan's global area, according to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) senior research scientist and planetary scientist Rosaly Lopes and 12 co-authors in a research letter, "A Global Geomorphologic Map of Saturn’s Moon Titan," published in the March 2020 issue of Nature Astronomy.

Northwestern Dilmun presents large, parallel chains of east-to-west mountain chains that are interpreted as "a positive topographic expression" with the capability of creating divergences in the region's flow of materials, according to NASA 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. The presence of radar-dark/Imaging Science Subsystem ISS-bright plains as valley fill characterizes Dilmun's interior, in contrast to the large areas of linear, or prevailing wind-patterned, dunes in bright neighbor Adiri's interior. With 65 percent coverage of Titan's global area, plains occur as the most dominant Titanean geologic unit, according to the research letter by Rosaly Lopes and 12 co-authors in Nature Astronomy's March 2020 issue.

Northwestern Dilmun's east-west mountain chains join elevated topography in the southeast, depicted with approximate coordinates of 2 to 5 degrees north, 170 degrees west (Michael Malaska et al., 2015: Figure 11), in funneling wind-driven materials into an uncharacteristic direction. The topographical obstacles force vectors that normally would flow to the east-northeast (ENE) across Dilmun to detour into central Shangri-La, Dilmun's dark southeastern neighbor, via an uncharacteristically east-southeast (ESE) deviation. Michael Malaska and his five co-authors note the possible "important implications" of Dilmun's uncharacteristic ESE vector for the amount and transport of sand not only into central Shangri-La but also toward the western edge of Xanadu, Shangri-La's bright, eastern neighbor.

Xanadu is centered at minus 15 degrees south latitude, 100 degrees west longitude. The high albedo feature establishes northernmost and southernmost latitudes at 10 degrees north and minus 40 degrees south, respectively. It marks its easternmost and westernmost longitudes at 65 degrees west and 150 degrees west, respectively. Xanadu's diameter spans 3,400 kilometers.

The International Astronomical Union approved Dilmun's name in 2006. The bright albedo feature's official name references "Sumerian garden of paradise, primeval land of bliss," according to The Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. The IAU convention for Titan's albedo features calls for names in the world's cultures for celestial realms, paradises or enchanting or sacred places.

Detail of Titan With VIMS (Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer) Background and RADAR Strips map shows Dilmun (lower center) with southern neighbors (left to right) dark Belet, bright Adiri, dark Shangri-La and bright Xanadu in Titan's equatorial belt; map last updated Aug. 25, 2017: map credit NASA/JPL/UofA/USGS, via IAU/USGS Astrogeology Science Center Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature

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:

Detail of Titan With ISS (maging Science Subsystem) Background map shows Dilmun (lower center) with southern neighbors (left to right) dark Belet, bright Adiri, dark Shangri-La and bright Xanadu; red icon marks landing site of Cassini-Huygens Mission's Huygens probe Jan. 14, 2005: map credit NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute, via IAU/USGS Astrogeology Science Center Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/images/Titan_comp_ISSimage.pdf

Detail of Titan With VIMS (Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer) Background and RADAR Strips map shows Dilmun (lower center) with southern neighbors (left to right) dark Belet, bright Adiri, dark Shangri-La and bright Xanadu in Titan's equatorial belt; map last updated Aug. 25, 2017: map credit NASA/JPL/UofA/USGS, via IAU/USGS Astrogeology Science Center Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/images/Titan_comp_VIMSimage.pdf

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