Shangri-La is a large, dark region of
Saturn's moon
Titan at . It is named after
Shangri-La
Shangri-La is a fictional place in Asia's Kunlun Mountains (昆仑山), Uses the spelling 'Kuen-Lun'. described in the 1933 novel '' Lost Horizon'' by English author James Hilton. Hilton portrays Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, ...
, the mythical paradise in
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...
.
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 the Selk impact crater.
[NASA's Dragonfly Will Fly Around Titan Looking for Origins, Signs of Life]
Grey Hautaluoma and Alana Johnson, NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
. Press release 27 June 2019.
References
Surface features of Titan (moon)
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