Selk (crater)

The Selk crater is a crater on Titan, a moon of Saturn, located at 7°N 199°W. It is a geologically young impact crater that measures approximately 90 kilometres (56 mi) in diameter.[1]

Selk crater
The Selk crater as imaged by the Cassini probe
PlanetTitan
Coordinates7.0°N 199.0°W / 7.0; -199.0
Diameter90 km
EponymSerket

There is evidence of the past presence of organic compounds and liquid water in the crater, which is set to be studied in the planned Dragonfly mission.[2]

The crater is named after Serket, the Egyptian goddess of knowledge, writing, education, and reptiles, and was formally approved by the IAU in 2008.[3]

References

  1. "Geology of the Selk crater region on Titan from Cassini VIMS observations." J.M. Soderblom, R.H. Brown, L.A. Soderblom, J.W. Barnes, R. Jaumann, Stéphane Le Mouélic, Christophe Sotin, K. Stephan, K.H. Baines, B.J. Buratti, R.N. Clark, and P.D. Nicholson. Icarus. Volume 208, Issue 2, August 2010, Pages 905-912. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2010.03.001
  2. Hautaluoma, Grey; Johnson, Alana (27 June 2019). "NASA's Dragonfly Will Fly Around Titan Looking for Origins, Signs of Life" (Press release). NASA. Retrieved 2019-08-16.
  3. "Selk". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN). Retrieved 15 August 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.