Galerie de photos de Titan, satellite de la planète Saturne

<h1>PIA02145: Mapping Titan's Changes</h1><div class="PIA02145" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The three mosaics shown here were composed with data from Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer taken during the last three Titan flybys, on Oct. 28, 2005 (left image), Dec. 26, 2005 (middle image), and Jan. 15, 2006 (right image). </p><p>These false-color images were constructed from images taken at the following wavelengths: 1.6 microns (blue), 2.01 (green), and 5 microns (red). </p><p>The viewing geometry of the December flyby is roughly on Titan's opposite hemisphere from the flybys in October and January. There are several important features to note in the images. The first is that the south polar cloud system was very bright during the December flyby, while during the October and January flybys, it is barely visible, indicating that the atmosphere over Titan's south pole is very dynamic. </p><p>In the December (middle) mosaic, a north polar hood that is bright at 5 microns is visible. Its composition is unknown. The north polar hood is barely seen in the October (left image) and January (right image) data. Visible in the October and January images just south of the equator is Tui Reggio, a region nicknamed the "chevron." This region is very bright at 5 microns and is among the brightest features on Titan at that wavelength. Tui Reggio is thought to be a surface deposit, probably of volcanic origin, and may be water and/or carbon dioxide frozen from the vapor. The January flyby data show that the western margins of Tui Reggio have a complex flow-like character consistent with eruptive phenomena.</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. </p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</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/PIA02145" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02145: Mapping Titan's Changes sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02145: Mapping Titan's Changes sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02145: Mapping Titan's Changes
<h1>PIA08953: High Altitude Hints</h1><div class="PIA08953" lang="en" style="width:483px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The Cassini spacecraft catches a glimpse of features that reveal important clues about processes occurring in Titan's atmosphere.</p><p>The north polar stratosphere exhibits a banded appearance, as fast-moving clouds whirl around the giant moon. The moon's halo -- its detached, high-altitude global haze layer -- is faintly visible here as well.</p><p>Planet-sized Titan is 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles) across.</p><p>The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of polarized ultraviolet light. The image was obtained on May 15, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 25 degrees. Image scale is 15 kilometers (10 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/PIA08953" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08953: High Altitude Hints sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08953: High Altitude Hints sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08953: High Altitude Hints
<h1>PIA06178: Titan Flyby Number Four</h1><div class="PIA06178" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This map of the surface of Saturn's moon Titan illustrates the regions that will be imaged by Cassini during the spacecraft's fourth (and third very close) flyby of the smoggy moon on Feb. 15, 2005. At closest approach, Cassini is expected to pass approximately 1,580 kilometers (982 miles) above the moon's surface.</p><p>The colored lines delineate the regions that will be imaged at differing resolutions. The lower resolution imaging sequences (outlined in blue) are designed to study the atmosphere, clouds and surface in a variety of spectral filters. Other areas have been specifically targeted for creation of mosaics based on moderate resolution images of surface features. Two small areas (outlined in yellow) will be seen at high resolution by Cassini's narrow angle camera, and will be jointly covered by the visual and mapping spectrometer experiment. These high resolution targets also overlap areas covered by the Cassini radar altimetry and synthetic aperture radar experiments.</p><p>The site where the Huygens probe landed in mid-January will be imaged at lower resolution during this flyby and is within the terrain in the extreme western part of the coverage area. The low-resolution imaging coverage will extend farther east than the previous two close flybys in October and December 2004. Some areas covered at moderate resolution during previous flybys have been targeted again to allow Cassini scientists to look for changes.</p><p>The map shows only brightness variations on Titan's surface (the illumination is such that there are no shadows and no shading due to topographic variations). Previous observations indicate that, due to Titan's thick, hazy atmosphere, the sizes of surface features that can be resolved are a few to five times larger than the actual pixel scale labeled on the map.</p><p>The map was made from global images taken in June 2004, at image scales of 35 to 88 kilometers (22 to 55 miles) per pixel, and south polar coverage from July 2004, at an image scale of 2 kilometers (1.3 miles) per pixel. The images 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 to reach the surface and return through the atmosphere to be detected by the camera. The images have been processed to enhance surface details.</p><p>It is currently northern winter on Titan, so the moon's high northern latitudes are not illuminated, resulting in the lack of coverage north of 45 degrees north latitude. Clouds near the south pole (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06110">PIA06110</a>) have also been removed (south of -75 degrees).</p><p>At 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles) across, Titan is one of the solar system's largest moons.</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/PIA06178" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06178: Titan Flyby Number Four sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06178: Titan Flyby Number Four sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06178: Titan Flyby Number Four
<h1>PIA00733: Titan's Brighter Southern Hemisphere</h1><div class="PIA00733" lang="en" style="width:400px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;">Titan, the largest of Saturn's 14 known satellites, shows little more than the upper layers of clouds covering the moon in this Voyager 1 picture, taken on November 4, 1980 at a range of 12 million kilometers (7,560,000 miles). The orange colored haze, believed to be composed of photochemically produced hydrocarbons, hides Titan's solid surface from the Voyager cameras. Some weak shadings in the clouds are becoming visible. However, note that the satellite's southern (lower) hemisphere is brighter than the northern. It is not known whether these subtle shadings are on the surface or are due to clouds below a high haze layer.<p>The Voyager project is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA.<br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00733" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA00733: Titan's Brighter Southern Hemisphere sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA00733: Titan's Brighter Southern Hemisphere sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA00733: Titan's Brighter Southern Hemisphere
<h1>PIA09183: Radar Shows Evidence of Seas</h1><div class="PIA09183" lang="en" style="width:481px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p><a href="/archive/PIA09183.mov"></a><br />Click on the image for full resolution movie<br />Radar Shows Evidence of Seas<br />(<a href="/archive/PIA09183_sm.mov">Half Resolution</a>)</p><p>This movie, comprised of several detailed images taken by Cassini's radar instrument, shows bodies of liquid near Titan's north pole. These images show that many of the features commonly associated with lakes on Earth, such as islands, bays, inlets and channels, are also present on this cold Saturnian moon. They offer strong evidence that larger bodies seen in infrared images are, in fact, seas. These seas are most likely liquid methane and ethane.</p><p>For more than two decades, scientists have debated whether liquids on Titan exist, and if so, where they would be located. Pre-Cassini observations from the 1980s indicated that something on Titan's surface must be re-supplying the methane to its atmosphere. A global ocean was once hypothesized. Subsequently, disconnected lakes or seas were predicted. The discovery of numerous lakes near Titan's north pole by the Cassini radar instrument in July 2006 has confirmed the latter idea, and indicates an apparent preference during the current season for liquids to be located near the north pole. </p><p>These new observations of the north polar area show how extensive and widespread these lakes are, and reveal at least one body of liquid that might rightly be called a sea. These seas cover an area about 100,000 square kilometers (about 39,000 square miles), larger than the largest Great Lake, Lake Superior, near the U.S. and Canadian border, whose area is 82,000 square kilometers (about 32,000 square miles). Analysis of the data indicates that the bodies of liquid may be tens of meters in depth.</p><p>This high-definition video offers a trip through the north polar area just as Cassini radar saw it. It combines radar swaths seen on several Titan passes: July 22, 2006 (T16); Sept. 23, 2006 (T18); Oct. 9, 2006 (T19); and Feb. 22, 2007 (T25), respectively. The mosaic reveals the extent of the lakes, their shapes and interconnections. The areas believed to be composed of liquids are shown in blue as an aid to interpretation.</p><p>The movie begins with an illustration of the relative orbits of Titan and Cassini, both circling Saturn. The spacecraft is seen approaching the planet with a nodding motion as its antenna scans the moon's surface, turning to keep its target in sight. The animation shows all radar swaths, and zooms in for a close look at the many complex shapes the lakes take. Some features that resemble lakes with no liquid may be remnants that have already dried as the northern winter fades into spring. </p><p>The resolution of the radar data varies from several kilometers to as fine as 300 meters (984 feet). The coverage shown in the video spans from 50 degrees north latitude, almost to the pole, where a small triangular gap in coverage misses the exact pole.</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/PIA09183" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA09183: Radar Shows Evidence of Seas sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA09183: Radar Shows Evidence of Seas sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA09183: Radar Shows Evidence of Seas
<h1>PIA08966: Weather Without Water</h1><div class="PIA08966" lang="en" style="width:512px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Bright mid-latitude clouds near the bottom of this view hint at the ongoing cycling of methane on Titan. These cloud streaks are near the same latitude as similar clouds observed above different longitudes on Titan.</p><p>The view is centered on Titan's trailing hemisphere, over the 1,700 kilometer (1,050 mile) wide bright region known as Adiri.</p><p>North on Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) is up and rotated 15 degrees to the right.</p><p>This view was created by combining multiple images taken using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 939 and 742 nanometers</p><p>The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on May 13, 2007 at a distance of approximately 104,000 kilometers (65,000 miles) from Titan. Image scale is 12 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel. Due to scattering of light by Titan's hazy atmosphere, the sizes of surface features that can be resolved are a few times larger than the actual pixel scale.</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/PIA08966" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08966: Weather Without Water sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08966: Weather Without Water sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08966: Weather Without Water
Saturne_Titan_Huygens_3.jpg
Saturne_Titan_Huygens_3.jpg
<h1>PIA07868: Titan Crater in Three Views</h1><div class="PIA07868" lang="en" style="width:750px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p><a href="/figures/PIA07868_fig1.jpg"></a><br>Figure 1: Titan Crater in Three Views</p><p>This three-panel image shows one of Titan's most prominent impact craters in an infrared-wavelength image (left), radar image (center) and in the false-color image (right). The Cassini radar imaged this crater during Cassini's third flyby of Titan, on Feb. 15, 2005, (see <a href="/catalog/PIA07368">PIA07368</a>). The crater, located at 16 degrees west, 11 degrees north, is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) in diameter and is surrounded beyond that by a blanket of material thrown out of the crater during impact. In radar, brighter surfaces mean rougher terrains, or else terrains tilted toward the radar. </p><p>Two Titan flybys later, on April 16, the visual infrared mapping spectrometer on Cassini obtained images of the same crater. The panel on the left is an image at the 2.0 micron wavelength, showing that the crater has a dark floor and a small bright area in the center. The crater is surrounded by bright material, which has a very faint halo slightly darker than the surrounding dark material. Compare the radar image with the visual infrared mapping spectrometer image. Both the crater and the blanket of surrounding material (called ejecta) are bright at radar wavelengths; in the infrared, the crater itself is dark and this blanket of material is quite bright. In radar, the faint halo surrounding the blanket of material is quite similar in appearance to the rest of the ejecta blanket. </p><p>The right hand panel is a false-color visual infrared mapping spectrometer image of the crater at lower resolution. It shows the faint halo to be slightly bluer than surrounding material. That the material is bluer than its surroundings, while also being darker, suggests that the faint halo is somewhat different in composition. This suggests that the composition of Titan's upper crust varies with depth, and various materials were excavated when the crater was formed.</p><p>The same structure appearing so different to different instruments illustrates the importance of multiple instruments studying such phenomena. The Cassini spacecraft, being the most interdisciplinary spacecraft ever flown, strongly embodies such an approach.</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. 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/PIA07868" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07868: Titan Crater in Three Views sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07868: Titan Crater in Three Views sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07868: Titan Crater in Three Views
<h1>PIA08346: Map of Titan - December 2006</h1><div class="PIA08346" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p><a href="/figures/PIA08346_fig1.jpg"></a><br />Annotated Version</p><p>This global digital map of Titan was created using data taken by the Cassini spacecraft Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS).</p><p>The data here consist of images taken using a filter centered at 938 nanometers, allowing researchers to examine albedo (or inherent brightness) variations across the surface of Titan. Due to the scattering of light by Titan's dense atmosphere, no topographic shading is visible in these images.</p><p>The map is an equidistant projection and has a scale of 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) per pixel. Equidistant projections preserve distances on a body, with some distortion of area and direction. Actual resolution varies greatly across the map, with the best coverage (close to the map scale) near the center and edges of the map and the worst coverage on the trailing hemisphere (centered around 270 degrees west longitude).</p><p>Coverage should improve in some of the poorly covered areas starting in February 2007, when northern Belet, Adiri, and Dilmun will be imaged. Imaging coverage in the northern polar region, currently blank on this map, will improve over the next few years, as Titan approaches vernal equinox in August 2009.</p><p>The mean radius of Titan used for projection of this map is 2,575 kilometers (1,600 miles). Until a control network is created for Titan, the satellite is assumed to be spherical.</p><p>The named features are designated by the International Astronomical Union. (A "facula" on Titan is a bright spot; a "macula" is a dark spot.)</p><p>This map demonstrates how our knowledge of Titan's surface has been vastly improved since Cassini arrived and began mapping the outsize moon. See <a href="/catalog/PIA06086">PIA06086</a> for an earlier Cassini map 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 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/PIA08346" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08346: Map of Titan - December 2006 sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08346: Map of Titan - December 2006 sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08346: Map of Titan - December 2006
<h1>PIA08893: Murky World</h1><div class="PIA08893" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Straining to make out the surface of Titan through its murky atmosphere, the Cassini spacecraft's wide angle camera manages to exploit one of the infrared spectral windows where the particulate smog is transparent enough for a peek.</p><p>The Senkyo region is visible in the north, while Mezzoramia lies to the south in this view of Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across). (See the December 2006 Map of Titan at <a href="/catalog/PIA08346">PIA08346</a>.)</p><p>The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 939 nanometers. The image was taken on Jan. 29, 2007 at a distance of approximately 79,000 kilometers (49,000 miles) from Titan. Image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel.</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/PIA08893" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08893: Murky World sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08893: Murky World sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08893: Murky World
<h1>PIA07234: Descent Through Clouds to Surface</h1><div class="PIA07234" lang="en" style="width:233px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This short animation is made up from a sequence of images taken by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) instrument on board ESA's Huygens probe, during its successful descent to Titan on Jan. 14, 2005.</p><p>It shows what a passenger riding on Huygens would have seen. The sequence starts from an altitude of 152 kilometers (about 95 miles) and initially only shows a hazy view looking into thick cloud. As the probe descends, ground features can be discerned and Huygens emerges from the clouds at around 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) altitude. The ground features seem to rotate as Huygens spins slowly underits parachute.</p><p>The DISR consists of a downward-looking High Resolution Imager (HRI), a Medium Resolution Imager (MRI), which looks out at an angle, and a Side Looking Imager (SLI). For this animation, most images used were captured by the HRI and MRI. Once on the ground, the final landing scene was captured by the SLI.</p><p>The Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer is one of two NASA instruments on the probe. </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 Descent Imager/Spectral team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz. </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 Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer visit <a href=" http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~kholso/"> http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~kholso/</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07234" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07234: Descent Through Clouds to Surface sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07234: Descent Through Clouds to Surface sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07234: Descent Through Clouds to Surface
<h1>PIA07542: Clues in the Bright and Dark</h1><div class="PIA07542" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>During a recent pass of Saturn's moon Titan, one of more than 40 during Cassini's planned four-year mission, the spacecraft acquired this infrared view of the bright Xanadu region and the moon's south pole. Titan is 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles) across.</p><p>Southeast of Xanadu (and above the center in this view) is a peculiar semi-circular feature informally referred to by imaging scientists as "the Smile." This surface feature is the brightest spot on Titan's surface, not only to the imaging science subsystem cameras, but also to the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer instrument, which sees the surface at even longer wavelengths (see <a href="/catalog/PIA07876">PIA07876</a>). The Smile is 560 kilometers (345 miles) wide.</p><p>At the landing site of the successful Huygens probe mission, brighter regions correspond to icy upland areas, while the darker regions are lowlands that possess a higher proportion of the organic byproducts of Titan's atmospheric photochemistry. Those results seem to confirm the long-standing hypothesis that Xanadu is a relatively high region of less contaminated ice. However, the cause of the even brighter Smile is a mystery that is still under study.</p><p>Farther south, a field of bright clouds arcs around the pole, moving at a few meters per second. Around the limb (edge), Cassini peers through Titan's smoggy, nitrogen-rich atmosphere.</p><p>North in this image is toward the upper left.</p><p>The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 4, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Titan using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 938 nanometers. The image scale is 7 kilometers (4 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 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/PIA07542" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07542: Clues in the Bright and Dark sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07542: Clues in the Bright and Dark sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07542: Clues in the Bright and Dark
<h1>PIA06988: Diversity on Titan</h1><div class="PIA06988" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This radar image of the surface of Saturn's moon Titan was acquired on October 26, 2004, when the Cassini spacecraft flew approximately 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) above the surface and acquired radar data for the first time. It reveals a complex geologic surface thought to be composed of icy materials and hydrocarbons.</p><p>A wide variety of geologic terrain types can be seen on the image; brighter areas may correspond to rougher terrains and darker areas are thought to be smoother. A large dark circular feature is seen at the western (left) end of the image, but very few features resembling fresh impact craters are seen. This suggests that the surface is relatively young. Enigmatic sinuous bright linear features are visible, mainly cutting across dark areas. </p><p>The image is about 150 kilometers (93 miles) wide and 250 kilometers (155 miles) long, and is centered at 50 N, 82 W in the northern hemisphere of Titan, over a region that has not yet been imaged optically. The smallest details seen on the image are about 300 meters (984 feet) across.</p><p>The data were acquired in the synthetic aperture radar mode of Cassini's radar instrument. In this mode, radio signals are bounced off the surface 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 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 instrument team is based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.</p><p>For the latest news about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/cassini">http://www.nasa.gov/cassini</a>. For more information about the 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/PIA06988" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06988: Diversity on Titan sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06988: Diversity on Titan sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06988: Diversity on Titan
<h1>PIA08219: Rings Occulting Titan</h1><div class="PIA08219" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Titan shines beyond the rings like a brilliant ring of fire, its light gleaming here and there through the gaps in Saturn's magnificent plane of ice.</p><p>Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) is surrounded by a thick photochemical haze which scatters the Sun's light.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 11, 2006 at a distance of approximately 5.3 million kilometers (3.3 million miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 158 degrees. Image scale is 32 kilometers (20 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/PIA08219" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08219: Rings Occulting Titan sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08219: Rings Occulting Titan sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08219: Rings Occulting Titan
<h1>PIA07233: First 'Best-Guess' View of Huygens Landing Site</h1><div class="PIA07233" lang="en" style="width:177px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>A view of Huygens' probable landing site based on initial, best-guess estimates. Scientists on the Huygens Descent Imager/ Spectral Radiometer (DISR) science team are still working to refine the exact location of the probe's landing site, but they estimate that it lies within the white circle shown in this image.</p><p>The Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer is one of two NASA instruments on the probe. </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 Descent Imager/Spectral team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz. </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 Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer visit <a href=" http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~kholso/"> http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~kholso/</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07233" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07233: First 'Best-Guess' View of Huygens Landing Site sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07233: First 'Best-Guess' View of Huygens Landing Site sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07233: First 'Best-Guess' View of Huygens Landing Site
Saturne_Titan_Huygens_4.jpg
Saturne_Titan_Huygens_4.jpg
<h1>PIA08604: Xanadu's Meandering Rivers</h1><div class="PIA08604" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>A network of river channels is located atop Xanadu, the continent-sized region on Saturn's moon Titan. This radar image was captured by the Cassini Radar Mapper on April 30, 2006. </p><p>These winding, meandering river channels start from the top of the image and run like a fork in the road, splitting to the right and left of the image. At Titan's chilly conditions, streams of methane and/or ethane might flow across parts of the region.</p><p>The picture is roughly 230 kilometers (143 miles) wide by 340 kilometers (211 miles) long, and shows features as small as 500 meters (1,640 feet). </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/PIA08604" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08604: Xanadu's Meandering Rivers sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08604: Xanadu's Meandering Rivers sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08604: Xanadu's Meandering Rivers
<h1>PIA06136: Huygen's Landing Site</h1><div class="PIA06136" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Shown here are two images of the expected landing site of Cassini's Huygen's probe (latitude 10.6 S, longitude 191 W). At right is a wide-angle image showing most of Titan's disc, with a scale of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) per pixel. At left is a narrow-angle image of the landing site at a scale of 0.83 kilometers (.5 miles) per pixel (location shown by black box at right). North is tilted about 45 degrees from the top of both images. The surface has bright and dark markings with a streamlined pattern consistent with motion from a fluid, such as the atmosphere, moving from west to east (upper left to lower right). The image at left is 400 kilometers (249 miles) wide. Both images were taken by Cassini's imaging science subsystem through near-infrared filters.</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/PIA06136" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06136: Huygen's Landing Site sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06136: Huygen's Landing Site sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06136: Huygen's Landing Site
<h1>PIA07365: Circus Maximus</h1><div class="PIA07365" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>A huge annular feature with an outer diameter of approximately 440 kilometers (273 miles) appears in this image taken with Cassini's Titan radar mapper. It resembles a large crater or part of a ringed basin, either of which could be formed when a comet or asteroid tens of kilometers in size slammed into Titan. This is the first impact feature identified in radar images of Titan. </p><p>The surface of Titan appears to be very young compared to other Saturnian satellites. In Titan's case, debris raining down from the atmosphere or other geologic processes may mask or remove the craters. The pattern of brightness suggests that there is topography associated with this feature; for example, in the center of the image there appear to be mounds each about 25 kilometers (15 miles) across. Since they are dark on their lower edges that face away from the radar and bright on the opposite face, they must be elevated above the surrounding terrain. </p><p>This image is a part of a larger swath acquired on Feb. 15, 2005, on Cassini's second opportunity to map Titan's surface via radar. Seams between radar segments are visible as horizontal, sawtooth-shaped lines.</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/PIA07365" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07365: Circus Maximus sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07365: Circus Maximus sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07365: Circus Maximus
<h1>PIA09859: High Cloud, Low Cloud</h1><div class="PIA09859" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Shadows cast by Saturn's rings separate the planet's bright equatorial band from the darker northern latitudes. </p><p>This view makes use of a spectral filter sensitive to absorption of certain wavelengths of light by methane in Saturn's atmosphere. In the north, the light at these wavelengths reaches slightly greater depth before being reflected off the cloud tops, compared to the equatorial region -- and it passes through more light-absorbing methane along the way.</p><p>The innermost rings arc across the lower left corner. </p><p>The view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 37 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Feb. 18, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 890 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 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>.<br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09859" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA09859: High Cloud, Low Cloud sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA09859: High Cloud, Low Cloud sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA09859: High Cloud, Low Cloud
<h1>PIA06138: Titan Close-Ups</h1><div class="PIA06138" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>These images, taken during Cassini's first close flyby of Titan, show details never before seen on Titan's mysterious surface.</p><p>The large, bottom image shows a complex interplay between dark and bright material on Titan's surface. This image was taken at a range of about 340,000 kilometers (211,000 miles), and the entire view is approximately 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) across. The surface appears to have been shaped by multiple geologic processes. Although a few circular features can be seen, there are no features that can be definitively identified as impact craters. Cassini scientists are studying these and other images acquired during the flyby to understand the nature and origins of the intriguing features.</p><p>The three smaller images show details of some of the features seen within the larger scene. The image on the upper right shows a scene approximately 500 kilometers (311 miles) across in which bright and dark bands of material span east to west. The upper middle and upper right images show bright material surrounded by dark material in scenes approximately 300 kilometers (186 miles) across. Very narrow, dark bands can be seen crossing the bright terrain. These features are approximately 2 kilometers (1.2 mile) across and up to a few hundred kilometers long. The dark circular feature that appears at the top of each of the upper images is a camera artifact that was not removed by the preliminary image processing.</p><p>The tops of the images point to the northwest. The Sun is illuminating Titan from nearly behind the spacecraft, and there are no shadows or topographic shading visible in these images. All shading is due to surface brightness contrasts. The images were captured by Cassini's imaging science subsystem through near-infrared filters. </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/PIA06138" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06138: Titan Close-Ups sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06138: Titan Close-Ups sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06138: Titan Close-Ups
<h1>PIA09112: Titan (T16) Viewed by Cassini's Radar - July 22, 2006</h1><div class="PIA09112" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This radar image shows the entire scene in which hydrocarbon lakes were first discovered on Titan, near its north pole (see <a href="/catalog/PIA08630">PIA08630</a>). This image was acquired on July 22, 2006, by Cassini's radar instrument in synthetic aperture mode. </p><p>The most striking landforms are the lakes: dark patches, some circular, some irregular, many with apparently steep rims, over much of the terrain north of 70 degrees latitude. The most convincing lake forms occur at the narrowest, central part of the scene, which is at the highest latitudes. Here they have short, stubby channels leading into them, and brighter areas within that indicate either dried-up lakes or that we are seeing through a transparent liquid.</p><p>The image also shows the considerable variation in the kinds of surface features found at different latitudes. Beginning at the left (20 degrees north by 142 degrees west) and heading north, a circular feature about 75 kilometers (47 miles) in diameter is seen, which could be either an impact crater or a volcanic caldera. Other less distinct circular forms are seen next, possibly including some dried lakes, followed by some ridge-like terrain with dark meandering channels or valleys. The dark lakes begin to appear next (at about 70 degrees north), with more distinct lakes in the middle of the scene, where the swath is closest to the pole and starts to descend to the south. Farther on, apparently dry lakes and canyons begin to dominate, and the region becomes more complex and etched. At the extreme right end, dunes similar to those seen previously mingle with brighter features. The swath ends at 13 degrees north by 347 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/PIA09112" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA09112: Titan (T16) Viewed by Cassini's Radar - July 22, 2006 sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA09112: Titan (T16) Viewed by Cassini's Radar - July 22, 2006 sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA09112: Titan (T16) Viewed by Cassini's Radar - July 22, 2006
<h1>PIA07009: Cat Scratches</h1><div class="PIA07009" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This image is a portion of the swath acquired by the Cassini Titan radar mapper on Feb. 15, 2005, on the mission's second opportunity to image the surface with radar. </p><p>The frame, measuring about 300 kilometers (186 miles) from top to bottom, shows an area near the northeast corner of the large optically bright region named Xanadu. </p><p>Running across the image are a series of roughly parallel, mostly east-west dark linear features that join and separate, which are not seen in the previous radar images. They may be formed by the action of eastward-flowing winds, or geologic processes acting on the crust itself. In places they cut through adjacent terrain, while elsewhere the lineaments seem to be interrupted by brighter material, appearing again on the other side. Seams between radar segments are visible as horizontal, sawtooth-shaped lines.</p><p>Bright material in radar images may be rough or sloped toward the radar (which is observing from the top in this frame). Also, some of what is seen may in fact be below the surface, revealed as the radio waves penetrate overlying, radar-transparent material. </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/PIA07009" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07009: Cat Scratches sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07009: Cat Scratches sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07009: Cat Scratches
<h1>PIA08968: Strange New World</h1><div class="PIA08968" lang="en" style="width:504px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Peering through Titan's thick haze, the Cassini spacecraft glimpses boundaries between bright and dark terrain on the moon's trailing hemisphere. The bright terrain at bottom is in northwestern Adiri.</p><p>North on Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) is up and rotated about 15 degrees to the right.</p><p>This view was created by combining multiple images taken using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 938 and 619 nanometers. Some processing artifacts remain in the finished image, including the two small, dark circles below and right of center.</p><p>The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 13, 2007 at a distance of approximately 237,000 kilometers (147,000 miles) from Titan. Image scale is 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel. Due to scattering of light by Titan's hazy atmosphere, the sizes of surface features that can be resolved are a few times larger than the actual pixel scale.</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/PIA08968" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08968: Strange New World sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08968: Strange New World sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08968: Strange New World
<h1>PIA06228: Cassini's Views of Titan: Monochrome View</h1><div class="PIA06228" lang="en" style="width:757px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This image composite was created with images taken during the Cassini spacecraft's closest flyby of Titan on April 16, 2005. Cassini's cameras have numerous filters that reveal features above and beneath the shroud of Titan's atmosphere.</p><p>This monochrome view shows what Titan looks like at 938 nanometers, a near-infrared wavelength that allows Cassini to see through the hazy atmosphere and down to the surface. The view was created by combining three separate images taken with this filter, in order to improve the visibility of surface features. The variations in brightness on the surface are real differences in the reflectivity of the materials on Titan.</p><p>North on Titan is up and tilted 30 degrees to the right.</p><p>These images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera on April 16, 2005, at distances ranging from approximately 173,000 to 168,200 kilometers (107,500 to 104,500 miles) from Titan and from a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 56 degrees. Resolution in the images is approximately 10 kilometers 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 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>p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06228" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06228: Cassini's Views of Titan: Monochrome View sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06228: Cassini's Views of Titan: Monochrome View sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06228: Cassini's Views of Titan: Monochrome View
<h1>PIA09115: Titan Dunes over Possible Craters (T23)</h1><div class="PIA09115" lang="en" style="width:569px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This radar image of Titan's well-known dunes is distinctive because it may show an age relationship between different classes of features on the surface of this frigid world. </p><p>Taken by Cassini's radar mapper on Jan. 13, 2007, during a flyby of Titan, three kinds of terrain can be seen. Throughout the image, the fine striping has been identified as dunes, possibly made from organic material and formed by wind activity. Dunes are a common landform on Titan (see <a href="/catalog/PIA09111">PIA09111</a> and <a href="/catalog/PIA08738">PIA08738</a>). The bright material at the lower right of the image is interpreted as being topographically higher than the dunes that go around it, and several circular features seen at the top center may be craters that are slowly being buried by the dunes. Since the dunes seem to lie over the craters, the dune activity probably occurred later in time.</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 160 kilometers (100 miles) long by 150 kilometers (90 miles) wide. </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/PIA09115" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA09115: Titan Dunes over Possible Craters (T23) sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA09115: Titan Dunes over Possible Craters (T23) sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA09115: Titan Dunes over Possible Craters (T23)
<h1>PIA06192: Zoomed in Xanadu</h1><div class="PIA06192" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This image shows one of the closest views of Xanadu Regio, a large bright region on Titan's surface, which also can be seen in a more distant view taken earlier (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06185">PIA06185</a>).</p><p>In this close-up view, brightness variations can be seen within Xanadu. The bright material on Titan is thought to be more water-ice rich, while darker regions may indicate areas where more hydrocarbon-rich material has collected. It is not clear from the patterns seen here what processes caused them. However, this image is just a single piece of a larger 5 by 5-frame mosaic that covers the western part of Xanadu and the dark area that lies farther to the west. When the complete mosaic is assembled, larger-scale patterns may be identified that will help to reveal the processes that have shaped Titan's surface.</p><p>The area shown here is approximately 700 kilometers (435 miles) across, centered at roughly 16 south, 133 west on Titan.</p><p>Three narrow-angle camera images taken with the Cassini spacecraft in wavelengths of infrared light centered at 938 nanometers were combined to create this view. The images were acquired during a close encounter with Titan on Feb. 15, 2005, at a distance of approximately 114,000 kilometers (71,000 miles) from Titan, which corresponds to a image scale of 680 meters (2,231 feet) per pixel. As a result of scattering within Titan's atmosphere, the scale of surface features that can actually be resolved at this range is several kilometers. The Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle was 20 degrees when these images were acquired.</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/PIA06192" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06192: Zoomed in Xanadu sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06192: Zoomed in Xanadu sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06192: Zoomed in Xanadu
<h1>PIA08399: Map of Titan - October 2007</h1><div class="PIA08399" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This global digital map of Titan was created using images taken by the Cassini spacecraft imaging science subsystem.</p><p>The images were taken using a filter centered at 938 nanometers, allowing researchers to examine albedo (or inherent brightness) variations across the surface of Titan. Due to the scattering of light by Titan's dense atmosphere, no topographic shading is visible in these images.</p><p>The map is an equidistant projection and has a scale of 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) per pixel. Actual resolution varies greatly across the map, with the best coverage (close to the map scale) near the center and edges of the map and the worst coverage on the trailing hemisphere (centered around 270 degrees west longitude).</p><p>Imaging coverage in the northern polar region is only just beginning to improve, and will continue to do so over the next couple of years, as Titan approaches vernal equinox in August 2009 and the north pole comes out of shadow. Large, dark and presumably liquid-hydrocarbon-filled seas are becoming visible at high latitudes (see also <a href="/catalog/PIA08365">PIA08365</a>).</p><p>The mean radius of Titan used for projection of this map is 2,575 kilometers (1,600 miles). Until a control network is created for Titan, the moon is assumed to be spherical. </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/PIA08399" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08399: Map of Titan - October 2007 sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08399: Map of Titan - October 2007 sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08399: Map of Titan - October 2007
<h1>PIA08188: Titan on the Side</h1><div class="PIA08188" lang="en" style="width:761px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Saturn's largest moon, Titan, peeks out from under the planet's rings of ice.</p><p>This view looks toward Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) from slightly beneath the ringplane. The dark Encke gap (325 kilometers, or 200 miles wide) is visible here, as is the narrow F ring.</p><p>Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 28, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Titan. Image scale is 11 kilometers (7 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/PIA08188" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08188: Titan on the Side sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08188: Titan on the Side sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08188: Titan on the Side
<h1>PIA06204: Scrutinizing Titan's Surface</h1><div class="PIA06204" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The six close-up views of Titan's surface shown here are composed of images acquired by the Cassini spacecraft during flybys in October (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06158">PIA06158</a>) and December (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06159">PIA06159</a>) of 2004. These close-up views illustrate that a variety of processes have shaped the surface of Titan, just as diverse geologic processes are responsible for what we see on Earth's surface.</p><p>Image (a) shows a prominent bright-dark boundary near the western edge of the Xanadu region which exhibits a sharp, angular edge between the materials. Three bright, discontinuous circles can be seen (two near the top of the image and another near the lower left). These may be large impact craters; the upper two are approximately 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) in diameter and the lower one is approximately 50 kilometers (30 miles) in diameter. Titan's thick atmosphere will screen out small projectiles, but if the surface were as old as Titan itself, it should have many more craters of these sizes. Therefore, Cassini scientists think that, like Earth's surface, Titan's surface has been modified more recently by other geologic processes. However, such processes on Titan may take much longer than on Earth, acting over hundreds of millions of years.</p><p>Image (b) shows bright features that appear to be streamlined as if were they formed by winds in Titan's atmosphere moving from west to east. The landing site of the Huygens probe is in the upper left corner of this image (see <a href="/catalog/PIA07239">PIA07239</a>).</p><p>Image (c) shows a bright feature surrounded by dark material. Several long, dark and narrow lines running through the bright area may be larger examples of the dark channels seen by the Huygens probe (see <a href="/catalog/PIA07236">PIA07236</a>). These lines are on the order of 2 kilometers (1 mile) wide, and tens of kilometers long.</p><p>Image (d) shows dark material within the bright area to the west of Xanadu. The linear nature of these features suggests that they may have formed by faulting. They may be dark due to modification by other surface processes occurring on Titan, in the same way that on Earth, fault-lines can be enhanced by erosion and/or deposition of material by water and wind.</p><p>Image (e) shows brightness variations in the region southeast of the Huygens landing site. The features indicated by arrows exhibit shapes that are similar to drainage patterns seen on Earth and Mars, where the source of the liquid is underground springs rather than rainfall.</p><p>Image (f) shows a region near the northwestern edge of Xanadu where the boundary between the bright and dark materials is quite complicated. Here some of the bright patches appear as if they represent thin surface plates that have been broken apart and spread apart over underlying dark material.</p><p>The white bars above each image are 200 kilometers (124 miles) long. Imaging Titan through its thick atmosphere is a challenge, and the narrow, straight lines within the images are seams between individual images that have not been completely removed. North is to the top of each frame. </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/PIA06204" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06204: Scrutinizing Titan's Surface sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06204: Scrutinizing Titan's Surface sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06204: Scrutinizing Titan's Surface