Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Equatorial Xanadu Is Titan's Largest, Brightest Albedo Feature


Summary: Equatorial Xanadu is Titan's largest, brightest albedo feature, with "continent-sized" terrain that stretches across Titan's near and far sides.


Image, obtained April 30, 2006, by the Cassini spacecraft's Titan Radar Mapper, reveals "continent-sized" Xanadu's complex mix of hilly or mountainous terrain and drainage channels; image addition date 2006-05-09; image credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI: May be used for any purpose without prior permission, via NASA JPL Photojournal

Equatorial Xanadu is Titan's largest, brightest feature, with "continent-sized" terrain that wraps around Titan's leading limb in its occupancy of both of the Saturnian moon's Saturn-facing and anti-Saturn sides.
Xanadu is centered at minus 15 degrees south latitude, 100 degrees west longitude, according to the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. The southern equatorial belt-centered feature posts northernmost and southernmost latitudes of 10 degrees north and minus 40 degrees south, respectively. The highly reflective feature obtains easternmost and westernmost longitudes of 65 degrees west and 150 degrees west, respectively. Xanadu's diameter spans 3,400 kilometers.
Xanadu is acknowledged as Titan's "largest, brightest region" (5.3.1 Morphology, page 81) by planetary scientist Ralf Jaumann and 10 co-authors in "Geology and Surface Processes on Titan," chapter five of Titan From Cassini-Huygens, published in 2009 under the editorship of Robert H. Brown, Jean-Pierre Lebreton and J. Hunter Waite. Credit for first discovery of the "Australia-sized, bright region" goes to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST), according to page editor Susan Watanabe's mission news post, "Cassini Reveals Titan's Xanadu Region to Be an Earth-Like Land," published July 19, 2006, on NASA's mission website. Hubble was launched into Low Earth orbit April 24, 1990, via Space Shuttle Discovery (Space Transportation System STS-31) from John F. Kennedy Space Center's (KSC) Launch Complex 39B (LC-39B) on eastern coastal Florida's Merritt Island. In 1994, the space telescope detected then-unnamed Xanadu as a "striking bright spot seen in infrared imaging. Xanadu has the honor of being ". . . the first surface feature to be recognized on Titan," according to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) Photojournal website post, "The 'Xanadu Annex' on Titan," published Sep. 7, 2016.
Xanadu's vast brightness stretches around Titan's leading, west limb to establish occupancy on Titan's near, Saturn-facing side as well as on the Saturnian moon's far, anti-Saturn side. Its east-to-west expanse logs 85 degrees of longitude, with its eastern portion facing Saturn and its central and western areas turned away from Saturn.
Xanadu's vastness is described as "continent-sized terrain" in Susan Watanabe's "Eyes on Xanadu," posted Oct. 25, 2004, as a Cassin-Huygens multimedia feature on NASA's mission website. Photojournal's March 6, 2009, post, "Skirting Xanadu's Southern Boundary," refers to Xanadu as a "continent-size feature." Its "continent-sized" sprawl dominates Titan's equatorial belt, with a northern reach beyond the equator, into low equatorial northern latitudes, and southern stretch through the low equatorial southern latitudes into the Titanean southern hemisphere's mid-latitudes.
Dark Shangri-La lies to the west of Xanadu on Titan's anti-Saturn side. Shangri-La is centered at minus 10 degrees south latitude, 165 degrees west longitude. The low albedo feature's center coordinates are given as its northernmost-southernmost latitudes and its easternmost-westernmost longitudes.
The parallel trio of dark Fensal, bright Quivira and dark Aztlan neighbor to the east of Xanadu, on Titan's Saturn-facing side. Fensal's center coordinates of 5 degrees north latitude, 30 degrees west longitude are repeated as the dark albedo feature's northernmost-southernmost latitudes and easternmost-westernmost longitudes, respectively. Reflective Quivira is centered on the equator at 15 degrees west longitude, and its northernmost-southernmost latitudes and easternmost-westernmost longitudes are equated with its center coordinates. Aztlan's center coordinates of minus 10 degrees south latitude, 20 degrees west longitude, are listed as the low albedo feature's northernmost-southernmost latitudes and easternmost-westernmost longitudes, respectively.
Bright Tsegihi occurs to the southeast of Xanadu. The high albedo feature is centered at minus 40 south latitude, 10 degrees west longitude. The Saturn-facing side occupant's undetermined parameters are reflected in the identification of center coordinates with northernmost-southernmost latitudes and easternmost-westernmost longitudes.
Rugged terrain to the south of Xanadu has been nicknamed as "Xanadu Annex" by members of the Cassini-Huygens Mission's radar team, according to Photojournal's "The 'Xanadu Annex' on Titan." A Synthetic-Aperture Radar (SAR) image obtained July 25, 2016, captured mountainous terrains that resemble the hill and mountain chains that appeared in an image of Xanadu that was acquired April 30, 2006, by the Cassini spacecraft's Titan Radar Mapper and was published in Photojournal's "Complex Terrain" post on May 9, 2006.
Xanadu and also perhaps the Xanadu Annex present ". . . something of a mystery," according to Photojournal's "The 'Xanadu Annex' on Titan" post. Xanadu was originally interpreted as a raised plateau. The bright region currently is regarded as ". . . slightly tilted, but not higher than, the darker surrounding regions." Dunes dominate Titan's equatorial belt. Yet, Xanadu exhibit's the unexplained phenomenon of blockage of sand dune formation.
The International Astronomical Union approved Xanadu as the vast bright region's name in 2006. The Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature traces the name to an "imaginary country" described in Kubla Khan, the English Romantic poem published in 1816 by English poet, literary critic, philosopher and Anglican theologian Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Oct. 21, 1772-July 25, 1834).

Synthetic-Aperture Radar (SAR) image, obtained July 25, 2016, during Cassini spacecraft's T121 flyby of Titan's southern latitudes, captures area nicknamed Xanadu Annex's rugged mountainous terrains, which resemble bright albedo feature Xanadu's hilly or mountainous landscapes; imaged area, illuminated from bottom by radar at a 30-degree incidence angle and centered at approximately 30 degrees south latitude and 60 degrees west longitude, covers about 155 by 310 miles (250 by 500 kilometers); image addition date 2016-09-07; image credit NASA/NPL-Caltech/ASI: 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.

Image credits:
Image, obtained April 30, 2006, by the Cassini spacecraft's Titan Radar Mapper, reveals "continent-sized" Xanadu's complex mix of hilly or mountainous terrain and drainage channels; image addition date 2006-05-09; image credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI: May be used for any purpose without prior permission, via NASA JPL Photojournal @ https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08449
Synthetic-Aperture Radar (SAR) image, obtained July 25, 2016, during Cassini spacecraft's T121 flyby of Titan's southern latitudes, captures area nicknamed Xanadu Annex's rugged mountainous terrains, which resemble bright albedo feature Xanadu's hilly or mountainous landscapes; imaged area, illuminated from bottom by radar at a 30-degree incidence angle and centered at approximately 30 degrees south latitude and 60 degrees west longitude, covers about 155 by 310 miles (250 by 500 kilometers); image addition date 2016-09-07; image credit NASA/NPL-Caltech/ASI: May be used for any purpose without prior permission, via NASA JPL Photojournal @ https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20712

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