The research team, led by geologist Jani Radebaugh of Brigham Young University, found the mountains while analyzing images from NASA's Cassini Radar instrument.

The findings were published in the December issue of the astronomy journal Icarus, the university said Thursday in a release.

The discovery of mountains on Titan grew out of Radebaugh's collaboration with a research team that recently found sand dunes and methane lakes on Titan. The report said Titan's mountains are most likely made of water ice and are relatively small at about 1.25 miles from base to peak.