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Monday, November 23, 2009

Photo: Earthlike "Continent" Found on Saturn Moon


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A radar image taken by the Cassini probe on April 30 shows a network of river channels located atop Xanadu, a continent-size region on Saturn's moon Titan. The river channels start from the top of the image and then split to the right and left.

Scientists say the region is remarkably Earthlike. "The images look much like radar images of Earth," said Jonathan Lunine, a planetary scientist from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "I'm staring at an image of Arizona on my wall, and it doesn't look a lot different."

Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL