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Adiri (Titan)
Adiri is a large, bright albedo feature on Saturn's moon Titan. It is named after the paradise in Melanesian mythology. It is located to the west of the large, dark region of Shangri-la. Adiri is a region of high ground and appears to be riddled with drainage channels. The Huygens probe ''Huygens'' ( ) was an atmospheric entry robotic space probe that landed successfully on Saturn's moon Titan in 2005. Built and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), launched by NASA, it was part of the ''Cassini–Huygens'' mission and ... landed on a plain just off the northwest 'coast' of Adiri in 2005. Surface features of Titan (moon) {{Crater-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melanesia
Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from Indonesia's New Guinea in the west to Fiji in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea. It also includes the French oversea collectivity of New Caledonia, Indigenous Australians of the Torres Strait Islands and parts of Indonesia, most notably the provinces of Central Papua, Highland Papua, Papua, South Papua, Southwest Papua, and West Papua. Almost all of the region is in the Southern Hemisphere; only a few small islands that are not politically considered part of Oceania—specifically the northwestern islands of Western New Guinea—lie in the Northern Hemisphere. The name ''Melanesia'' (in French, ''Mélanésie'') was first used in 1832 by French navigator Jules Dumont d'Urville: he coined the terms ''Melanesia'' and '' Micronesia'' along the preexisting '' Polyne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albedo
Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of sunlight, solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body that reflects all incident radiation. Surface albedo is defined as the ratio of Radiosity (radiometry), radiosity ''J''e to the irradiance ''E''e (flux per unit area) received by a surface. The proportion reflected is not only determined by properties of the surface itself, but also by the spectral and angular distribution of solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface. These factors vary with atmospheric composition, geographic location, and time (see position of the Sun). While bi-hemispherical reflectance is calculated for a single angle of incidence (i.e., for a given position of the Sun), albedo is the directional integration of reflectance over all solar angles in a given period. The temporal resolution may range from seconds (as ob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; however, with its larger volume, Saturn is over 95 times more massive. Saturn's interior is most likely composed of a core of iron–nickel and rock (silicon and oxygen compounds). Its core is surrounded by a deep layer of metallic hydrogen, an intermediate layer of liquid hydrogen and liquid helium, and finally, a gaseous outer layer. Saturn has a pale yellow hue due to ammonia crystals in its upper atmosphere. An electrical current within the metallic hydrogen layer is thought to give rise to Saturn's planetary magnetic field, which is weaker than Earth's, but which has a magnetic moment 580 times that of Earth due to Saturn's larger size. Saturn's magnetic field strength is around one-twentieth of Jupiter's. The outer atmosphere is g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Titan (moon)
Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and the second-largest natural satellite in the Solar System. It is the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere, and is the only known object in space other than Earth on which clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found. Titan is one of the seven gravitationally rounded moons in orbit around Saturn, and the second most distant from Saturn of those seven. Frequently described as a planet-like moon, Titan is 50% larger (in diameter) than Earth's Moon and 80% more massive. It is the second-largest moon in the Solar System after Jupiter's moon Ganymede, and is larger than the planet Mercury, but only 40% as massive. Discovered in 1655 by the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, Titan was the first known moon of Saturn, and the sixth known planetary satellite (after Earth's moon and the four Galilean moons of Jupiter). Titan orbits Saturn at 20 Saturn radii. From Titan's surface, Saturn subtends an arc of 5.09 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shangri-la (Titan)
Shangri-La is a large, dark region of Saturn's moon Titan at . It is named after Shangri-La, the mythical paradise in Tibet. It is thought to be an immense sand sea of dark, organic material, one of three major equatorial sand seas on the moon (the others being Belet and Fensal). Shangri-La is studded with bright 'islands' of higher ground, called inselbergs, which are thought to be protrusions of the icy bedrock. The composition of the sand itself is unknown and a current area of research, although orbital observations strongly suggest organic compounds. It has been speculated that the sand may have eroded from sources that no longer exist, although other hypotheses, such as transport of evaporites from hydrocarbon seas and precipitation of organics from the atmosphere have been proposed. The ''Huygens'' probe landed on the west part of Shangri-La, close to the boundary with Adiri. The planned lander rotorcraft ''Dragonfly'' will land on Shangri-La, and will fly toward ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Huygens Probe
''Huygens'' ( ) was an atmospheric entry robotic space probe that landed successfully on Saturn's moon Titan in 2005. Built and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), launched by NASA, it was part of the ''Cassini–Huygens'' mission and became the first spacecraft to land on Titan and the farthest landing from Earth a spacecraft has ever made. The probe was named after the 17th-century Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, who discovered Titan in 1655. The combined ''Cassini–Huygens'' spacecraft was launched from Earth on October 15, 1997. ''Huygens'' separated from the ''Cassini'' orbiter on December 25, 2004, and landed on Titan on January 14, 2005 near the Adiri region. ''Huygenss landing is so far the only one accomplished in the outer Solar System, and was also the first on a moon other than Earth's. ''Huygens'' touched down on land, although the possibility that it would touch down in an ocean was also taken into account in its design. The probe was designed to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
