Evidence for the exposure of water ice on Titan's surface

Caitlin A. Griffith, Tobias Owen, Thomas R. Geballe, John Rayner, Pascal Rannou

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

133 Scopus citations

Abstract

The smoggy stratosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, veils its surface from view, except at narrow wavelengths centered at 0.83, 0.94, 1.07, 1.28, 1.58, 2.0, 2.9, and 5.0 micrometers. We derived a spectrum of Titan's surface within these "windows" and detected features characteristic of water ice. Therefore, despite the hundreds of meters of organic liquids and solids hypothesized to exist on Titan's surface, its icy bedrock lies extensively exposed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)628-630
Number of pages3
JournalScience
Volume300
Issue number5619
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 25 2003

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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