Dunes of Shangri-La on Saturn's Moon Titan

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has radar vision that allows it to peer through the haze that surrounds Saturn's largest moon, Titan. This video focuses on Shangri-la, a large, dark area on Titan filled with dunes. The long, linear dunes are thought to be comprised of grains derived from hydrocarbons that have settled out of Titan's atmosphere. Cassini has shown that dunes of this sort encircle most of Titan's equator. Scientists can use the dunes to learn about winds, the sands they're composed of, and highs and lows in the landscape.

The radar image was obtained by the Cassini Synthetic Aperture radar (SAR) on July 25, 2016, during the mission's 122nd targeted Titan encounter.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/Université Paris-Diderot

[ballom]

What's fascinating with titan is how actually it's so much earth like despite being extremely cold and full of toxic gas for us.

It even outbeat mars as it have contrary to the red planet :
-a dense atmosphere
-a magnetosphere protection (titan doesn't have his own, but is inside saturn magnetosphere )
-complex climate and liquid cycle
-permanent huge bodies of liquid on surface
-complex biochemistry.
-have what is considered a suitable environnement for one form of live (advanced life could survive on mars, but is extremely unlikely primitive wwill appear and survive )

[ArnaudG]

A true "what a time to be alive" video, definitely need to have a rover there if possible (after sending a submarine to Europa of course..)

[sdmarlow]

Wait, the animation has "wind" running parallel to these dunes, but that isn't how sand or beach sand dunes are created (the action is perpendicular, and the change in speed is what drops the grains, slowly moving the dunes over time).

[TheHelghast]

Glad to see my real estate on Titan is doing well :)

[NeonsStyleHD]

Oh wow, that was awesome. I love things like this, my geology knowledge kicks into overdrive and start picking out processses. Love it. More please

[TheBitanian]

What is the name of the music in this video? Or does NASA make their own music?

[Porschedude]

As "Spock" would say, "fascinating"....

[Lemonducky]

Too bad the average human couldn't even tell you where Titan even is...

[milky_wayan]

"Dunes of Shangri-La" sounds like a kickass science fiction story

[Obi-WanKannabis]

It's frustrating how little we know about Titan when it's so close to us.

Except it isn't close to us. But you get the point. We need to get a rover over there.

[keithdurant]

I love how much we can infer from how little we know...damn I want to go there and see if it is true!

[pinkponyofprey]

You need a working atmosphere for that to function? Kewl! :D

[CodeLeeCarter]

Nice, .... Now I'm asking myself, .... What are the Sand Dunes made of, It's Structure & make up, Sand as we know sand on Earth or something we've yet to find, then what's under the dunes.

Don't you just love Exploring Space & It's make-up.

[imjustjamei]

Considering Titan is an Ice Moon like Europa, wouldn't that be snow dunes...not sand dunes on the surface observed by Cassini, especially with their perpendicular grain.? Maybe I am wrong in assuming Titan is an Ice moon even though that is what I learned in school.

[fwwryh]

Why did they use a black and white camera from the 1940s?

[qwerffa]

that's more interesting than apple presentation

[theapotheosisofgdot]

Seems to be more like water to me, some of the stones seem to be under shallow water

[BensLab]

A good informative video. Why do these videos always bring out the tinfoil hat brigade?

[turtle]

Kurt Vonnegutt always said there was life on Titan.

[paultremblay]

Why Nasa don't like colored pictures? I almost fall asleep watching those meaningless pictures.

Can't those modern day hitech satellites mane high pixels resolution pictures?

It seem like we are watching the universe in black and white ever since the first spoutnik satellite.
Am sorry but I am living in color, 2016 with HD tv, hoping to get a 4k one day.

Is it a budget problem? Can't they ask sony or samsung to build the strongest camera resolution they can, and send this think to show us a colorful univers