Joe, I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that the little vertical lines on the image are artifacts of the imaging process. Seth Jarvis -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces+sjarvis=slco.org@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces+sjarvis=slco.org@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Joe Bauman Sent: Monday, March 07, 2005 9:32 AM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: [Utah-astronomy] "Scratches" on Titan Hi all, I'm curious about what you make of the "cat scratches" that have shown up on radar images by Cassini, taken during close swings by Titan. Here is one of the views: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpegMod/PIA07009_modest.jpg Actually, it's not the long streaks themselves that have me scratching my head, so to speak. I can imagine some sort of Titanian plate tectonics that would stretch and rupture the terrain -- I've seen maps of undersea deformations that have stretch lines like that, where Earth's crust is pulling apart. What is strange to me is the amazing regularity of the small hatch marks that show up at right angles to a few of the scratches. Are these things artifacts of the scanning or radar or transmission? Or are they really on the ground? What could make them so evenly spaced? One of the scratches looks like a ruler with 1/16 inch marks! Just wondering what you think -- Thanks, Joe _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com