Galerie de photos de Titan, satellite de la planète Saturne

<h1>PIA06982: Behold Titan's Surface</h1><div class="PIA06982" lang="en" style="width:618px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>These images show the surface of Titan at two different infrared wavelengths. They were captured by the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer onboard Cassini as the spacecraft flew by at an altitude of 1200 kilometers (745 miles) – Cassini's closest approach yet to the hazy moon. The image on the left was taken at a wavelength of 1 micron and shows approximately what a digital camera might see. The image on the right, taken at a wavelength of 2 microns, is the most detailed picture to date of the Titan's surface. It reveals complex landforms with sharp boundaries, which scientists are eager to further study. </p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov</a>. For more information about the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer visit <a href="http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu/">http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu/</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06982" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06982: Behold Titan's Surface sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06982: Behold Titan's Surface sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06982: Behold Titan's Surface
<h1>PIA07700: Titanic Complexity (Color)</h1><div class="PIA07700" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This view of Titan reveals structure in the moon's complex atmosphere. The geometry of the Cassini spacecraft's view of Titan during this flyby was similar to that of Voyager 1's pass in 1980.</p><p>The view has been greatly contrast-enhanced and shows intriguing structure in the north of Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) that is also clearly visible in a violet light view (see <a href="/catalog/PIA07701">PIA07701</a>) taken at about the same time.</p><p>The color view was created by combining images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters. The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 26, 2005, at a distance of approximately 193,000 kilometers (120,000 miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 29 degrees. The image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07700" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07700: Titanic Complexity (Color) sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07700: Titanic Complexity (Color) sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07700: Titanic Complexity (Color)
<h1>PIA09032: Titan's Sierras</h1><div class="PIA09032" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This composite image shows a massive mountain range running just south of Titan's equator. Near the center of the image, the mountain range runs from southeast to northwest. It is about 150 kilometers long (93 miles) and 30 kilometers (19 miles) wide and about 1.5 kilometers (nearly a mile) high. This range, and smaller ranges to the west and east of the main range, probably results from material welling up below as the crust of Titan is pulled apart by tectonic forces.</p><p>This image was obtained during an Oct. 25 flyby designed to obtain the highest resolution infrared views of Titan yet. Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer resolved surface features as small as 400 meters (1,300 feet). This composite image was taken at a distance of 12,000 kilometers (7,200 miles) from Titan. This image was constructed from images taken at wavelengths of 1.3 microns shown in blue, 2 microns shown in green, and 5 microns shown in red. </p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona where this image was produced.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/</a>. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team homepage is at <a href="http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu">http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09032" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA09032: Titan's Sierras sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA09032: Titan's Sierras sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA09032: Titan's Sierras
<h1>PIA07239: Titan Landing Site Seen From Cassini</h1><div class="PIA07239" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p><a href="/figures/PIA07239_fig1.jpg"></a><br>Figure 1</p>A view of Titan from the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer instrument on the Cassini orbiter. The Huygens probe landed in the small red circle on the boundary of the bright and dark regions. The size of the circle shows the field of view of the Huygens Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) instrument from an altitude of 20 kilometers (about 12 miles). </p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson. </p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov</a>. For more information about the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer visit <a href="http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu/">http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu/</a>. </p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07239" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07239: Titan Landing Site Seen From Cassini sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07239: Titan Landing Site Seen From Cassini sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07239: Titan Landing Site Seen From Cassini
<h1>PIA06985: Titan's Tantalizing Streaks</h1><div class="PIA06985" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This wide-angle image captured by Cassini's imaging science subsystem shows streaks of surface material in the equatorial region of Titan. It was acquired through a near-infrared filter, which is sensitive to methane. Streaks occur in the east-west direction (upper left to lower right), and may be caused by the movement of a fluid over the surface, such as wind, hydrocarbon liquids, or a migrating ice sheet, such as a glacier. The large-scale streaks are most easily explained by winds in Titan's massive atmosphere. The image scale of this picture is 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) per pixel. North is 45 degree to the right of vertical.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov</a> and the Cassini imaging team home page, <a href="http://ciclops.org/">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06985" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06985: Titan's Tantalizing Streaks sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06985: Titan's Tantalizing Streaks sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06985: Titan's Tantalizing Streaks
<h1>PIA07707: Titan Smiles Back</h1><div class="PIA07707" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This infrared view shows features on the leading hemisphere of Titan, including the bright, crescent-shaped Hotei arcus (right of center), which is also informally called "the Smile" by researchers.</p><p>The view is centered on the bright region called Xanadu. Above center is the large crater Menrva, which is surrounded by darker material.</p><p>North on Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) is up and rotated 30 degrees to the left.</p><p>The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 13, 2006 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 938 nanometers. The image was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 41 degrees. Image scale is 7 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07707" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07707: Titan Smiles Back sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07707: Titan Smiles Back sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07707: Titan Smiles Back
<h1>PIA09035: Infrared and Radar Views of Titan</h1><div class="PIA09035" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This set of composite images was constructed from the best Cassini radar data and visual and infrared mapping spectrometer data obtained from all the Titan flybys up to the most recent flyby on Oct 25 (T20). </p><p>The globe to the upper right is centered on 0 degrees longitude, and each of the other globes is labeled as to which longitude appears at the center of the disk. The two rightmost images in the bottom row are of the north and south poles of Titan, respectively. The two instruments provide complementary data, all of which is required to understand the geologic processes that have shaped the surface of Titan over the age of the solar system. </p><p>The images were taken at wavelengths of 1.3 microns shown in blue, 2 microns shown in green, and 5 microns shown in red.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona where this image was produced. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the United States and several European countries.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/</a>. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team homepage is at <a href="http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu">http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09035" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA09035: Infrared and Radar Views of Titan sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA09035: Infrared and Radar Views of Titan sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA09035: Infrared and Radar Views of Titan
<h1>PIA07366: Huygens Landing Site Similarities</h1><div class="PIA07366" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This area imaged by the Cassini radar system during the spacecraft's third close flyby of Titan on Feb. 15, 2005, is just to the east of the Circus Maximus impact feature (see <a href="/catalog/PIA07365">PIA07365</a>). </p><p>The white lines could be channels in which fluid flowed from the slopes of Circus Maximus toward the bright area in the upper right. Areas that appear bright at radar wavelengths may be rough or inclined toward the direction of illumination. The bright area in this image could have received outflows of debris from the channels, making the surface appear radar bright. In this sense, the area may resemble somewhat the rubble strewn plains in the region where the Huygens probe landed. The fluid carrying the debris was most likely liquid methane, given the extremely cold ambient conditions at the surface of Titan.</p><p>The longest channel in the feature is approximately 200 kilometers long (124 miles). The seams running across the image are an effect of the matching of the different radar beams to assemble the full image.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument team is based at JPL, working with team members from the United States and several European countries. </p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07366" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07366: Huygens Landing Site Similarities sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07366: Huygens Landing Site Similarities sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07366: Huygens Landing Site Similarities
<h1>PIA08214: Amazing Hazes</h1><div class="PIA08214" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Sunlight streams through the high-altitude haze layer that extends completely around the giant moon, Titan, in this view of the moon taken by the Cassini spacecraft. Some fine structure can be spotted in the ever-shifting hazes in Titan's northern polar reaches to the top.</p><p>The distant sky beyond Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) is not empty, but instead is filled in the lower half by the barely visible, immense bulk of Saturn 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) beyond. The view is toward the night side of both worlds.</p><p>Titan's image is saturated, or over exposed, near the five o'clock position, obscuring the details in the atmosphere.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 2, 2006 at a distance of approximately 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 163 degrees. Image scale is 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel on Titan.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08214" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08214: Amazing Hazes sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08214: Amazing Hazes sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08214: Amazing Hazes
<h1>PIA08268: Titan's Halo</h1><div class="PIA08268" lang="en" style="width:493px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Titan's murky atmosphere shines as a halo of scattered light.</p><p>Prior to the Cassini spacecraft's arrival, Titan remained incognito, swathed in its impenetrable envelope of frigid gases. Now, gradually but relentlessly, the veil continues to fall away under Cassini's gaze, bringing the wonders of this world into view.</p><p>North on Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) is up.</p><p>The image was taken using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 938 nanometers. The image was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 10, 2006 at a distance of approximately 3.1 million kilometers (1.9 million miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 165 degrees. Image scale is 18 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08268" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08268: Titan's Halo sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08268: Titan's Halo sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08268: Titan's Halo
<h1>PIA09111: Two Sides of Dunes</h1><div class="PIA09111" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This pair of images, taken by the Cassini spacecraft radar mapper on two different Titan passes on Dec. 11, 2006 (T21 left), and Oct. 29, 2005 (T8 right), represent two different views of a field of dunes located near 9.4 degrees south latitude by 290 degrees west longitude. </p><p>The images were taken in synthetic aperture mode and have a resolution of approximately 500 meters (1,640 feet). North is toward the top of both images, and each image is approximately 400 kilometers (250 miles) long by 275 kilometers (170 miles) wide. The images are different only because the radar instrument illuminated the dunes from different directions. Acting somewhat like a flash camera, the radar sends out microwave pulses and makes an image from the pulses after they are reflected back. Imagine that both the "camera" and the "flash" come from the left in the left image and from the top in the right image. </p><p>Most obvious differences are seen in the large bright feature at the center of both images. At left, its left edge is brighter, emphasizing the more steep slopes there. Farther left, the dunes are more clearly defined in the right image as their faces are caught by the illumination. However, since the dunes are visible in both images, it is likely that the materials making up the dark and light stripes are also somehow different. More detailed studies of how materials on Titan reflect and scatter at different angles are giving us clues about what different materials might be present in this cold and distant world.</p><p>For more information about dunes on Titan, see <a href="/catalog/PIA03567">PIA03567</a>.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the United States and several European countries. </p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09111" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA09111: Two Sides of Dunes sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA09111: Two Sides of Dunes sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA09111: Two Sides of Dunes
<h1>PIA06241: Clouds in the Distance</h1><div class="PIA06241" lang="en" style="width:705px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Although it is far too cold for blossoming flowers, summer does bring storm clouds and presumably rain to Titan's south polar region. The observed persistence of convective storm activity in the region during the southern Titan summer has led scientists to speculate that the dark, footprint-shaped feature near the upper left could be a past or present reservoir for Titan's methane rains.</p><p>This series of three Cassini narrow-angle camera images, centered on the pole, shows the evolution of bright clouds in the region over the course of two hours during Cassini's distant June 6, 2005, flyby of the planet-sized moon.</p><p>The appearance of the feature seen here is unique among the dark terrains observed thus far on Titan. Other dark areas appear to have angular or diffuse boundaries, while this one possesses a smooth perimeter, suggestive of an eroded shoreline.</p><p>In addition to the notion that the dark feature is or was a lake filled with liquid hydrocarbons, scientists have speculated about other possibilities. For instance, it is plausible that the lake is simply a broad depression filled by dark, solid hydrocarbons falling from the atmosphere onto Titan's surface. In this case, the smoothed outline might be the result of a process unrelated to rainfall, such as a sinkhole or a volcanic caldera.</p><p>A still image of the south polar region from the same time period is also available (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06240">PIA06240</a>).</p><p>The images in this movie sequence were taken using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of polarized infrared light, allowing Cassini to see through the obscuring smog of Titan's atmosphere and down to the surface. The images were acquired from an approximate distance of 450,000 kilometers (279,000 miles) from Titan. Resolution in the original images is approximately 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel; the images were aligned and reprocessed at the same scale to create the movie.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06241" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06241: Clouds in the Distance sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06241: Clouds in the Distance sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06241: Clouds in the Distance
<h1>PIA08112: Stereographic View of Titan's Surface</h1><div class="PIA08112" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p><a href="/figures/PIA08112_fig1.jpg"></a><br />Annotated Stereographic<br />View of Titan's Surface</p><p>This poster shows a stereographic (fish-eye) view of Titan's surface from six different altitudes. The images taken by the European Space Agency's Huygens probe descent imager/spectral radiometer show the haze layer at 20 to 21 kilometers (12 to 13 miles). The images were taken on Jan. 14, 2005.<p></p>The Huygens probe was delivered to Saturn's moon Titan by the Cassini spacecraft, which is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. NASA supplied two instruments on the probe, the descent imager/spectral radiometer and the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer. <p></p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The descent imager/spectral radiometer team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a></p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08112" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08112: Stereographic View of Titan's Surface sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08112: Stereographic View of Titan's Surface sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08112: Stereographic View of Titan's Surface
<h1>PIA09217: Titan (T28) Viewed by Cassini's Radar-- April 10, 2007</h1><div class="PIA09217" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Cassini's radar instrument obtained another in its series of north polar swaths of Titan on April 10, 2007. This image exposes more of the transition between the mid-latitudes and the polar area, and extends coverage of the lakes region previously described in <a href="/catalog/PIA09182">PIA09182</a>.</p><p>This swath begins at 20 degrees south, 37 degrees west, continuing approximately north-northeast. Although it appears to be straight in this image, its path on Titan curves gently toward the east until it reaches 80 degrees north at 300 degrees west, then it turns south and ends at 51 degrees north, 213 degrees west. The swath width varies from about 200 kilometers (120 miles) at its center to about 500 kilometers (310 miles) at the ends, and is more than 6,700 kilometers (4,100 miles) long.</p><p>Beginning at the left end of the image as shown, we see the dark sinuous features previously interpreted to be dunes, interspersed with bright features that appear to be higher. In some cases the dunes seem to bend around the bright features, and in others they may be climbing up onto them; both behaviors are commonly seen in dune fields on Earth. About one-third of the way through the swath, the dunes become rare and then disappear, to be replaced by more linear features. Some of these have rounded and brighter ends, similar to lava flows on Earth (in synthetic aperture radar images, rougher features appear as bright). Just past the midway point, we find relatively flat and featureless terrain with some structures that also resemble flow fronts, followed by a complex area of semi-circular to irregular depressions that may have formed by collapse. These give way to the lakes at the northernmost portion. Here T28 overlaps with the T25 synthetic aperture radar swath (see <a href="/catalog/PIA09182">PIA09182</a>), offering stereo coverage that will be used to determine feature heights. </p><p>The lakes, which are thought to be filled with a combination of methane and ethane, have complex shorelines that often include channels. Some of these channels have well-developed tributary systems and drain many thousands of square kilometers of the surrounding terrain. As shown in the mosaic (see <a href="/catalog/PIA08365">PIA08365</a>), these lakes are likely connected, and may form part of a larger sea. Brighter areas within the lakes may represent the lake bottom - at the radar's 2-centimeter wavelength, it is possible that the liquid is transparent for many tens of meters (tens of yards) to the radar, allowing a reflection to be returned from the lake bottom.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the United States and several European countries. </p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09217" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA09217: Titan (T28) Viewed by Cassini's Radar-- April 10, 2007 sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA09217: Titan (T28) Viewed by Cassini's Radar-- April 10, 2007 sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA09217: Titan (T28) Viewed by Cassini's Radar-- April 10, 2007
<h1>PIA08740: Titan's "Kissing Lakes"</h1><div class="PIA08740" lang="en" style="width:484px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This Cassini radar image shows two lakes "kissing" each other on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan. </p><p>The image from a flyby on Sept. 23, 2006, covers an area about 60 kilometers (37 miles) wide by 40 kilometers (25 miles) high. </p><p>This pass was primarily dedicated to the ion and neutral mass spectrometer instrument, so although, the volume of radar data was small, scientists were amazed to see Earth-like lakes. With Titan's colder temperatures and hydrocarbon-rich atmosphere, however, the lakes likely contain a combination of methane and ethane, not water. </p><p>In this image, near 73 degrees north latitude, 46 degrees west longitude, two lakes are seen, each 20 to 25 kilometers (12 to 16 miles) across. They are joined by a relatively narrow channel. The lake on the right has lighter patches within it, indicating that it may be slowly drying out as the northern summer approaches. </p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument team is based at JPL, working with team members from the United States and several European countries. </p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. </p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08740" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08740: Titan's "Kissing Lakes" sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08740: Titan's "Kissing Lakes" sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08740: Titan's "Kissing Lakes"
<h1>PIA03563: Shoreline on Titan?</h1><div class="PIA03563" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This Synthetic Aperture Radar image of the surface of Saturn's moon Titan was obtained by the Cassini spacecraft on Sept. 7, 2005. The bright, rough region on the left side of the image seems to be topographically high terrain that is cut by channels and bays.</p><p>The boundary of the bright (rough) region and the dark (smooth) region appears to be a shoreline. The patterns in the dark area indicate that it may once have been flooded, with the liquid having at least partially receded. </p><p>The image is 175 kilometers high and 330 kilometers wide (109 miles by 205 miles), and is located at 66 degrees south latitude, 356 degrees west longitude in the southern hemisphere of Titan.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the United States and several European countries.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov</a>. </p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03563" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA03563: Shoreline on Titan? sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA03563: Shoreline on Titan? sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA03563: Shoreline on Titan?
<h1>PIA10655: Impact Craters</h1><div class="PIA10655" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This side-by-side view shows a newly discovered impact crater (at left) compared with a previously discovered crater (at right). The new crater was just discovered by the Cassini spacecraft's radar instrument during its most recent Titan flyby on May 12, 2008. This makes the fourth feature definitely identified as an impact crater so far on Titan -- fewer than 100 features are regarded as possible impacts. Compared with Saturn's other moons, which have many thousands of craters, Titan's surface is very sparsely cratered. This is in part due to Titan's dense atmosphere, which burns up the smaller impacting bodies before they can hit the surface. Geological processes, such as wind-driven motion of sand and icy volcanism, may also wipe out craters.</p><p>Both images are about 350 kilometers (217 miles) in width. The crater on the right was discovered by Cassini in 2005 and is shown here for comparison. It is 80 kilometers (50 miles) in diameter (see <a href="/catalog/PIA07368">PIA07368</a>), with the radar illumination from above. Called Sinlap, this crater is estimated to be about 1,300 meters (4300 feet) deep. The new feature pictured on the left, which has not been named yet, is bigger than the Sinlap crater with a diameter of about 112 kilometers (70 miles). </p><p>The new crater is located at about 26 degrees north latitude, 200 degrees west longitude, in the bright region known as Dilmun, about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) north of the Huygens landing site. In its image, also illuminated from above, it appears slightly irregular, suggesting that it was modified after it was formed, perhaps by collapses of segments of its rim onto the floor. The crater floor appears flat, and two small bright spots indicate a likely central peak complex. The ejecta blanket (surrounding material) from this crater is less prominent than that of the Sinlap crater. The crater's more degraded character suggests it could be older than Sinlap (assuming that erosive processes are the same at both locations, which are at similar latitudes).</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the United States and several European countries. </p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov" class="external free" target="wpext">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10655" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA10655: Impact Craters sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA10655: Impact Craters sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA10655: Impact Craters
<h1>PIA03564: Canyonlands of Titan</h1><div class="PIA03564" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Fluids have flowed and cut these deeply-incised channels into the icy surface of Titan as seen in this Synthetic Aperture Radar image. The channels are roughly 1 kilometer across (0.6 miles) and perhaps 200 meters deep (650 feet); some can be traced as far as 200 kilometers (120 miles). Many of them have angular segments suggesting they may follow faults in Titan's crust.</p><p>Taken together with the two other radar passes (October 2004 and February 2005), these very high resolution images have identified at least two distinct types of drainage and channel formation on Titan. The style shown in this image consists of long valleys following angular patterns without many tributaries, suggesting that fluids flow over great distances. By contrast, (<a href="/catalog/PIA03565">PIA03565</a>) shows channels that form a denser network that might indicate rainfall.</p><p>This Cassini radar image was acquired as a part of the Titan flyby observations taken on Sept. 7, 2005, from a distance of about 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles). The area is located at about 55 degrees south latitude, 7.5 degrees west longitude and extends over 300 kilometers (186 miles) right to left.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the United States and several European countries.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov</a>. </p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03564" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA03564: Canyonlands of Titan sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA03564: Canyonlands of Titan sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA03564: Canyonlands of Titan
<h1>PIA10466: World Beneath the Haze</h1><div class="PIA10466" lang="en" style="width:781px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Surface details on Titan are seen faintly through the murky haze of the moon's atmosphere.</p><p>Lit terrain seen here is on the leading hemisphere of Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across). North is toward the top of the image.</p><p>The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 30, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 939 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 370,000 kilometers (230,000 miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 87 degrees. Image scale is 22 kilometers (14 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov" class="external free" target="wpext">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org" class="external free" target="wpext">http://ciclops.org</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10466" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA10466: World Beneath the Haze sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA10466: World Beneath the Haze sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA10466: World Beneath the Haze
<h1>PIA06151: Second Titan Targeted Flyby #1</h1><div class="PIA06151" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This image was taken on Dec. 11, 2004 by the Cassini spacecraft as it approached Titan for its second close encounter with this intriguing moon.</p><p>The bright and dark regions near the center of the frame are features on Titan's surface. The image has been processed to make features more visible. The surface contrast is degraded toward the edges of the disk due to the effects of Titan's smoggy atmosphere. The region seen here is similar to that seen during Cassini's first close flyby of Titan in October (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06141">PIA06141</a>). The bright area toward the bottom of the image is the region dubbed "Xanadu." North is to the upper right.</p><p>The image was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera at a distance of approximately 810,000 kilometers (503,000 miles). The image scale is 4.8 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov</a> and the Cassini imaging team home page, <a href="http://ciclops.org/">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06151" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06151: Second Titan Targeted Flyby #1 sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06151: Second Titan Targeted Flyby #1 sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06151: Second Titan Targeted Flyby #1
<h1>PIA07711: Cassini's Aug. 22, 2005, Titan Flyby</h1><div class="PIA07711" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This map of Titan's surface illustrates the regions that will be imaged by Cassini during the spacecraft's close flyby of Titan on Aug. 22, 2005. At closest approach, the spacecraft is expected to pass approximately 3,800 kilometers (2,360 miles) above the moon's surface. At 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles) across, Titan is one of the solar system's largest moons.</p><p>The colored lines delineate the regions that will be imaged at differing resolutions.</p><p>As Cassini continues its reconnaissance of Titan, maps of this haze-enshrouded world continue to improve. Images from this flyby will sharpen the moderate resolution coverage of terrain on the side of Titan that always faces Saturn.</p><p>The highest resolution image planned for this encounter will cover a 215-kilometer-wide (134-mile) bright feature provisionally named "Bazaruto Facula." (A facula is the name chosen to denote a bright spot on Titan.) At the center of the facula is an 80-kilometer-wide (50-mile) crater (not yet named), seen by Cassini's radar experiment during a Titan flyby in February 2005 (see <a href="/catalog/PIA07368">PIA07368</a>). The imaging cameras and visual and infrared mapping spectrometer images taken in March and April 2005 also show this crater (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06234">PIA06234</a>).</p><p>The southernmost corner of the highest resolution (1 kilometer per pixel) frame should also cover the northern portion of a large bright feature provisionally known as "Quivira."</p><p>Wide-angle images obtained during this flyby should cover much of the Tsegihi-Aztlan-Quivira region (also known as the "H" region) at lower resolution.</p><p>The map shows only brightness variations on Titan's surface (the illumination is such that there are no shadows and no shading from topographic variations). Previous observations indicate that, due to Titan's thick, hazy atmosphere, the sizes of surface features that can be resolved are up to five times larger than the actual pixel scale labeled on the map.</p><p>The images for this global map were obtained using a narrow-band filter centered at 938 nanometers -- a near-infrared wavelength (invisible to the human eye) at which light can penetrate Titan's atmosphere. The images have been processed to enhance surface details. </p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07711" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07711: Cassini's Aug. 22, 2005, Titan Flyby sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07711: Cassini's Aug. 22, 2005, Titan Flyby sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07711: Cassini's Aug. 22, 2005, Titan Flyby
<h1>PIA06993: Oozing Across Titan</h1><div class="PIA06993" lang="en" style="width:504px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This synthetic aperture radar image of the surface of Saturn's moon Titan was acquired on Oct. 26, 2004, when the Cassini spacecraft flew approximately 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles) above the surface and acquired radar data for the first time. </p><p>The radar illumination was from the south: dark regions may represent areas that are smooth, made of radar-absorbing materials, or are sloped away from the direction of illumination. A striking bright feature stretches from upper left to lower right across this image, with connected 'arms' to the East. The fact that the lower (southern) edges of the features are brighter is consistent with the structure being raised above the relatively featureless darker background. Comparisons with other features and data from other instruments will help to determine whether this is a cryovolcanic flow, where water-rich liquid has welled up from Titan's warm interior.</p><p>The image covers an area about 150 kilometers (90 miles) square, and is centered at about 45 degrees north, 30 degrees west in the northern hemisphere of Titan, over a region that has not yet been imaged optically. The smallest details seen on the image are around 1 kilometer (.62 mile) across. Features are less clear at the bottom of the image where the viewing was less favorable. A faint horizontal seam between the radar beams can be seen half way up in this image. </p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument team is based at JPL, working with team members from the United States and several European countries. </p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov</a>. </p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06993" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06993: Oozing Across Titan sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06993: Oozing Across Titan sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06993: Oozing Across Titan
<h1>PIA06180: Close Titan Flyby 3, Image #1</h1><div class="PIA06180" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This image was taken during Cassini's third close approach to Titan on Feb. 15, 2005.</p><p>The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera, through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light, centered at 938 nanometers.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov</a> and the Cassini imaging team home page, <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06180" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06180: Close Titan Flyby 3, Image #1 sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06180: Close Titan Flyby 3, Image #1 sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06180: Close Titan Flyby 3, Image #1
<h1>PIA06123: High Haze in Color (Close-up)</h1><div class="PIA06123" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>A global detached haze layer and discrete cloud-like features high above Titan's northern terminator (day-night transition) are visible in this close-up image acquired on October 24, 2004, as the Cassini spacecraft neared its first close encounter with Titan. This image is a colorized version of an ultraviolet image released on October 25, 2004 (<a href="/catalog/PIA06120">PIA06120</a>). The haze has been given colors that are close to what the natural colors are believed to be. The view was also sharpened to enhance the structure in the discrete features.</p><p>The image was acquired at a distance of about 1 million kilometers (621,371 miles) in a near ultraviolet filter that is sensitive to scattering by small particles. The Sun preferentially illuminates the southern hemisphere at this time; the north polar region is in darkness. The well-known global detached haze layer, hundreds of kilometers above Titan's surface, is produced by photochemical reactions and is visible as a thin ring of bright material around the entire planet. At the northern high-latitude edge of the image, additional striations are visible, caused by particulates that are high enough to be illuminated by the Sun even though the surface directly below is in darkness. These striations may simply be caused by a wave propagating through the detached haze, or they may be evidence of additional regional haze or cloud layers not present at other latitudes.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov</a> and the Cassini imaging team home page, <a href="http://ciclops.org/">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06123" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06123: High Haze in Color (Close-up) sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06123: High Haze in Color (Close-up) sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06123: High Haze in Color (Close-up)
<h1>PIA06234: Dark Spots on Titan</h1><div class="PIA06234" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This recent image of Titan reveals more complex patterns of bright and dark regions on the surface, including a small, dark, circular feature, completely surrounded by brighter material.</p><p>During the two most recent flybys of Titan, on March 31 and April 16, 2005, Cassini captured a number of images of the hemisphere of Titan that faces Saturn. The image at the left is taken from a mosaic of images obtained in March 2005 (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06222">PIA06222</a>) and shows the location of the more recently acquired image at the right. The new image shows intriguing details in the bright and dark patterns near an 80-kilometer-wide (50-mile) crater seen first by Cassini's synthetic aperture radar experiment during a Titan flyby in February 2005 (see <a href="/catalog/PIA07368">PIA07368</a>) and subsequently seen by the imaging science subsystem cameras as a dark spot (center of the image at the left).</p><p>Interestingly, a smaller, roughly 20-kilometer-wide (12-mile), dark and circular feature can be seen within an irregularly-shaped, brighter ring, and is similar to the larger dark spot associated with the radar crater. However, the imaging cameras see only brightness variations, and without topographic information, the identity of this feature as an impact crater cannot be conclusively determined from this image. The visual infrared mapping spectrometer, which is sensitive to longer wavelengths where Titan's atmospheric haze is less obscuring -- observed this area simultaneously with the imaging cameras, so those data, and perhaps future observations by Cassini's radar, may help to answer the question of this feature's origin.</p><p>The new image at the right consists of five images that have been added together and enhanced to bring out surface detail and to reduce noise, although some camera artifacts remain.</p><p>These images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 938 nanometers -- considered to be the imaging science subsystem's best spectral filter for observing the surface of Titan. This view was acquired from a distance of 33,000 kilometers (20,500 miles). The pixel scale of this image is 390 meters (0.2 miles) per pixel, although the actual resolution is likely to be several times larger. </p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06234" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06234: Dark Spots on Titan sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06234: Dark Spots on Titan sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06234: Dark Spots on Titan
<h1>PIA08167: Shifting Northern Hazes</h1><div class="PIA08167" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The complex and dynamic atmosphere of Titan displays multiple haze layers near the north pole in this view, which also provides an excellent look at the detached stratospheric haze layer that surrounds the moon at lower latitudes.</p><p>North on Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) is up and rotated 20 degrees to the left.</p><p>The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 16, 2006, using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers. The image was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 68 degrees. Image scale is 7 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08167" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08167: Shifting Northern Hazes sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08167: Shifting Northern Hazes sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08167: Shifting Northern Hazes
<h1>PIA09175: A New Crater on Titan?</h1><div class="PIA09175" lang="en" style="width:725px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This radar image of Titan shows a semi-circular feature that may be part of an impact crater. Very few impact craters have been seen on Titan so far, implying that the surface is young. Each new crater identified on Titan helps scientists to constrain the age of the surface.</p><p>Taken by Cassini's radar mapper on Jan. 13, 2007, during a flyby of Titan, the image swath revealed what appeared to be the northernmost half of an impact crater. This crater is roughly 180 kilometers (110 miles) wide. Only three impact craters have been identified on Titan and several others, like this one, are likely to also have been caused by impact. The bright material is interpreted to be part of the crater’s ejecta blanket, and is likely topographically higher than the surrounding plains. The inner part of the crater is dark, and may represent smooth deposits that have covered the inside of the crater. </p><p>This image was taken in synthetic aperture mode and has a resolution of approximately 350 meters (1,150 feet). North is toward the top left corner of the image, which is approximately 240 kilometers (150 miles) wide by 140 kilometers (90 miles) high. The image is centered at about 26.5 degrees north and 9 degrees west.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the United States and several European countries. </p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09175" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA09175: A New Crater on Titan? sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA09175: A New Crater on Titan? sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA09175: A New Crater on Titan?
<h1>PIA08425: Radar Images the Margin of Xanadu</h1><div class="PIA08425" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This image of Saturn's moon Titan from the Synthetic Aperture Radar instrument on the Cassini spacecraft shows the southwestern area of a feature called Xanadu (bottom right of the image). The area is bright because it reflects the radio wavelengths used to make this radar images. The image was taken on April 30, 2006.</p></p>Xanadu is one of the most prominent features on Titan and was first seen in ground-based observations. The origin of Xanadu is still unknown, but this radar image reveals details previously unseen, such as numerous curvy features that may indicate fluid flows. Linear dark streaks visible in radar-dark areas are dune fields, also seen in previous radar images (see <a href="/catalog/PIA03567">PIA03567</a>).</p></p>Near the center of the image is a prominent circular feature, named Guabonito, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) in diameter. It might be an impact crater or a cryovolcanic caldera. If this is an impact structure, the absence of an ejecta blanket suggests that the feature has been highly eroded, like some impact structures on Earth, or has been buried by the dune fields. Other radar-bright areas (top left and top right) appear to be topographically high and might act as obstacles, diverting the dunes around them. </p></p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the United States and several European countries. </p></p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. </p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08425" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08425: Radar Images the Margin of Xanadu sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08425: Radar Images the Margin of Xanadu sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08425: Radar Images the Margin of Xanadu
<h1>PIA09172: Titan (T17) Viewed by Cassini's Radar - Sept. 7, 2006</h1><div class="PIA09172" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This image of Titan's surface shows the entire scene obtained by the Cassini radar instrument on Sept. 7, 2006. It includes clear examples of the longitudinal dunes, as well as one of only three positively-identified impact craters (on the far left). </p><p>Titan's longitudinal dunes, first discovered during the third close flyby of Titan in February 2005 (see <a href="/catalog/PIA03555">PIA03555</a>), make up most of Titan's equatorial dark regions. These run east-west, are around 1 to 2 kilometers (0.6 to 1.2 miles) wide, spaced 1 to 2 kilometers apart, around 100 meters (111 yards) high, and from 10 to over 100 kilometers (6.2 to 62 miles) long. They curve around the bright features in the image -- which may be high-standing topographic obstacles -- following the prevailing wind pattern. Unlike Earth's silicate dunes, these may be solid organic particles or ice coated with organic material. </p><p>The left (western-most) portion of the image also shows one of only three impact craters confirmed on Titan so far. Roughly 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) in diameter, its center is at 70 degrees west, 10 degrees north. The difference in overall appearance between this crater, which has a central peak, and those without, such as Sinlap (see <a href="/catalog/PIA07368">PIA07368</a>), indicates variations in the conditions of impact, thickness of the crust, or properties of the meteorite that made the crater. The dark floor indicates smooth and/or highly absorbing materials.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the United States and several European countries. </p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a> </p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09172" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA09172: Titan (T17) Viewed by Cassini's Radar - Sept. 7, 2006 sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA09172: Titan (T17) Viewed by Cassini's Radar - Sept. 7, 2006 sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA09172: Titan (T17) Viewed by Cassini's Radar - Sept. 7, 2006
<h1>PIA06158: Titan Mosaic: October 2004</h1><div class="PIA06158" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This mosaic of 28 images shows the regional coverage taken during Cassini's first encounter with Titan on Oct. 26, 2004.</p><p>Cutting through the middle of the image is a sharp boundary between the bright region known as Xanadu Regio on the right and dark terrain to the left. Several smaller bright features, between 30 and 200 kilometers (20 to 125 miles) across are seen within the dark terrain. These intriguing features are a focus of further research and observations for Cassini scientists. One clue to their origin and history is the presence of bright "trails" within the dark material on the eastern sides of the bright spots.</p><p>A mottled texture is seen within Xanadu, including dark, crisscrossing lines, suggestive of tectonic activity. No definitive craters have been found in these images, though several bright rings or circular features are seen in the dark terrain. However, without topographic shading, their identification as impact structures can not be confirmed.</p><p>The images in this mosaic have been processed to enhance surface features and sharpen boundaries. All images were taken at a special filter centered in the near-infrared at 938 nanometers that provides the camera's best view of surface features. </p><p>The images making up this mosaic were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera at distances ranging from 100,400 to 71,000 kilometers (62,400 to 44,100 miles) and have pixel scales ranging from 1.2 to 0.8 kilometers (0.75 to 0.5miles). This mosaic is scaled to 800 meters (2,625 feet) per pixel and is centered at 20 degrees south latitude, 157.5 degrees west longitude on Titan. Black areas on this mosaic represent areas where images were not taken during this sequence or were not returned from Cassini.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov</a> and the Cassini imaging team home page, <a href="http://ciclops.org/">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06158" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06158: Titan Mosaic: October 2004 sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06158: Titan Mosaic: October 2004 sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06158: Titan Mosaic: October 2004