Cassini-Huygens: Titan has a crater the size of Iowa

Circus Maximus



the Cassini probe has recorded a huge crater on the surface of Saturns's moon, Titan.

A giant impact crater the size of Iowa was spotted on Saturn's moon Titan by NASA's Cassini radar instrument during Tuesday's Titan flyby.

A huge annular feature with an outer diameter of approximately 440 kilometers (273 miles) appears in this image taken with Cassini's Titan radar mapper. It resembles a large crater or part of a ringed basin, either of which could be formed when a comet or asteroid tens of kilometers in size slammed into Titan. This is the first impact feature identified in radar images of Titan

source:
nasa.gov

It was to be expected that Titan has got its share of impacts.
Smallers impact scars are just propably extremely rare because of methane rain could wipe signs of those away.
(remember northern hemisphere of Mars and mare's of Moon)

Wow, nice find. Man, that had to be one hell of an explosion. It makes one wonder about the date of this impact as Titan is so dynamic and it's still visible. Of course, some large impact craters are still visible on earth so I guess we could be talking about thousands of years.

Originally posted by skychief
Wow, nice find. Man, that had to be one hell of an explosion. It makes one wonder about the date of this impact as Titan is so dynamic and it's still visible. Of course, some large impact craters are still visible on earth so I guess we could be talking about thousands of years.

Mars has much better hole, Hellas

It's plate tectonic which is most effective in destroying all sign of big impacts, normal geological factors can't destroy those well. (remember Chicxulub is buried under thick sediments but there's "bumb" in gravity)

Hey thanks E T, I had never seen that "monster" on Mars. Also, thanks for the info I guess it does make sense that plate tectonics would play a huge role in destroying the evidence of an impact. Sort of like a giant etc-a-sketch

Originally posted by E_T
Mars has much better hole, Hellas

yes i agree,
it is a really BIG hole!

Is there proof that there is liquid methene on Titian? like seas and such. Becuase I would think a crater taht size would ahve filled with liquid