Riverbeds, hills, and flowing liquid

Simply extraordinary. Apparently, we're really seeing hills and rivers. From the San Diego Union Tribune:

DARMSTADT, Germany – A European space probe Friday sent back the first detailed pictures of the frozen surface of Saturn's moon Titan, showing stunning black and white images of what appeared to be hilly terrain riddled with channels or riverbeds carved by a liquid.

One picture, taken about 10 miles above the surface as the Huygens spacecraft descended by parachute to a safe landing after a seven-year voyage from Earth, showed snaking, dark lines cut into the light-colored surface.

"Clearly there is liquid matter flowing on the surface of Titan," said scientist Marty Tomasko of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, in Tucson, which made the probe's camera.

He said the liquid appeared to be flowing into a dark area at the right side of the image.

"It almost looks like a river delta," he said. "It could be liquid methane, or hydrocarbons that settled out of the haze" that envelops Titan.

-- from European probe sends back first detailed images of Saturn's moon Titan in the San Diego Union Tribune

Those pictures to the left are courtesy DSR Data Products and copyright NASA, but I'll pass on posting a link, as apparently their servers are having enough trouble right now. Full disclosure--they came in real raw; I tweaked the contrast heavily on my own. The link was posted to Unscrewing the Inscrutable by one Matthew McIrvin.