Galerie de photos de Titan, satellite de la planète Saturne

<h1>PIA06157: Close Up on Titan's Mid-Latitude Clouds</h1><div class="PIA06157" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Images taken during Cassini's second close approach to Titan in December 2004 have captured detailed views of the moon's intermittent clouds. </p><p>The clouds seen here are at about 38 degrees south latitude on Titan. The clouds across the middle of the frame extend about 250 kilometers (155 miles). The image scale is about .6 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> 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/PIA06157" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06157: Close Up on Titan's Mid-Latitude Clouds sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06157: Close Up on Titan's Mid-Latitude Clouds sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06157: Close Up on Titan's Mid-Latitude Clouds
<h1>PIA08204: From Cloudy to Clear</h1><div class="PIA08204" lang="en" style="width:746px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>During a recent flyby of Titan, the Cassini spacecraft looked beyond the utterly overcast moon and spied clear, distant Rhea in the blackness.</p><p>Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) is two-and-a-half times smaller than Earth and much less massive. This circumstance causes its atmosphere to extend to much higher altitudes above the surface than does Earth's. The Cassini spacecraft is unable to fly much closer than about 1000 kilometers (600 miles) above Titan's surface -- much closer, and the spacecraft would experience excessive torques from the atmosphere that could interfere with its ability to track the target. By contrast, the International Space Station orbits Earth at an altitude of about 350 kilometers (220 miles).</p><p>The bright, fresh crater on Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) appears near the center of the moon's crescent.</p><p>The image was taken in visible-light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on May 20, 2006, at a distance of approximately 53,000 kilometers (33,000 miles) from Titan and 873,000 kilometers (543,000 miles) from Rhea. Image scale is 320 meters (1,050 feet) per pixel on Titan and 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel on Rhea.</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/PIA08204" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08204: From Cloudy to Clear sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08204: From Cloudy to Clear sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08204: From Cloudy to Clear
<h1>PIA06240: Land of Lakes?</h1><div class="PIA06240" 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’s south pole reveals the intriguing dark feature named Ontario Lacus and a host of smaller features dotting the south polar region.</p><p>The true nature of this feature, seen here at left of center, is not yet known with absolute certainty. However, the feature’s darkness, the shore-like smoothness of its perimeter, and its presence in an area where frequent convective storm clouds have been observed by Cassini and Earth-based astronomers made it the best candidate for an open body of liquid on Titan when this image was taken in June 2005.</p><p>This interpretation has been strengthened by the sighting of features having similar morphologies in Titan’s northern polar region during the flyby of Titan in late February (see <a href="/catalog/PIA08365">PIA08365</a>). The possibility that these northern features, the sizes of small seas, are either completely or partially filled with liquid hydrocarbons is significantly strengthened by Cassini radar data that overlap portions of the Imaging Science Subsystem-observed northern bodies, (see <a href="/catalog/PIA09182">PIA09182</a>).</p><p>Previously, scientists had speculated that Ontario Lacus might simply be 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. However, the strong likelihood that the northern polar features are lakes and seas has made imaging scientists more confident that Ontario Lacus, and the smaller dark features dotting the southern polar region of Titan, also hold liquid. If correct, this new revelation would mean that each pole on Titan is a large wetlands area.</p><p>The feature is named for Lake Ontario because its shape and length are similar, though the Titan feature is much wider. In actual surface area, the feature is roughly the size of Lake Victoria. However, if the relative sizes of Titan and Earth are accounted for, Ontario Lacus covers roughly the same fraction of Titan as does the Black Sea on Earth. </p><p>A red cross below the center in the scene marks the pole. The brightest features seen here are methane clouds. A movie sequence showing the evolution of bright clouds in the region during the same flyby is also available (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06241">PIA06241</a>).</p><p>This view is a composite of three narrow-angle camera images, taken over several minutes during Cassini's distant June 6, 2005, flyby. The images were combined to produce a sharper view of Titan’s surface. The images were taken using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of polarized infrared light. The images were acquired from approximately 450,000 kilometers (279,000 miles) from Titan. Resolution in the scene is approximately 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel. The view has been contrast enhanced to improve the overall visibility of surface features.</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/PIA06240" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06240: Land of Lakes? sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06240: Land of Lakes? sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06240: Land of Lakes?
<h1>PIA06995: Follow the Arrow</h1><div class="PIA06995" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>As Cassini scientists work to understand the newly-exposed surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, they have found an interesting arrowhead-shaped feature, shown in the center of this synthetic aperture radar image.</p><p>The feature is approximately 30 kilometers (19 miles) across, and it is formed from two straight lines that intersect. Looking more closely, one can distinguish other linear features that seem to follow the left side of the "arrow" and perhaps interact in some way with a dark spot. Straight lines may represent fractures or faults in the icy crust, or they may form from material that has flowed or has been shaped by wind, either recently or in the distant past. </p><p>The area shown is about 115 kilometers (71 miles) wide and 170 kilometers (106 miles) high and is located near 52 degrees north latitude and 73 degrees west longitude. This radar image is part of a larger strip of data acquired on Oct. 26, 2004, as Cassini passed Titan at a distance of 1,200 kilometers (746 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, D.C. The radar instrument team is based at JPL, working with team members from the United States and several European countries. In particular, the radar antenna assembly was a contribution of the Italian Space Agency.</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/PIA06995" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06995: Follow the Arrow sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06995: Follow the Arrow sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06995: Follow the Arrow
<h1>PIA08113: Mercator Projection of Huygens's View</h1><div class="PIA08113" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p><a href="/figures/PIA08113_fig1.jpg"></a><br />Annotated Mercator<br />Projection of Huygens's View</p><p>This poster shows a flattened (Mercator) projection of the Huygens probe's view from 10 kilometers altitude (6 miles). The images that make up this view were taken on Jan. 14, 2005, with the descent imager/spectral radiometer onboard the European Agency's Huygens probe.<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/PIA08113" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08113: Mercator Projection of Huygens's View sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08113: Mercator Projection of Huygens's View sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08113: Mercator Projection of Huygens's View
<h1>PIA06621: Titan's Mask</h1><div class="PIA06621" lang="en" style="width:627px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Surface details on Titan are just visible in this Cassini view acquired through clear spectral filters, which permit wavelengths of light from the infrared through the ultraviolet portion of the spectrum to reach the camera's detector. Also of note are bands in the atmosphere over Titan's extreme northern latitudes.</p><p>The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 26, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Titan. The image scale is 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel. Contrast was enhanced in the image to aid visibility. </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/PIA06621" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06621: Titan's Mask sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06621: Titan's Mask sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06621: Titan's Mask
<h1>PIA06186: A Clear View of Titan's Surface</h1><div class="PIA06186" lang="en" style="width:554px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Titan's surface and atmospheric features are shown here in this processed, visible-light image taken by Cassini.</p><p>Cassini's visible-light spectral filter is sensitive to a broad range of light, from ultraviolet to near-infrared. Imaging scientists normally use a narrow-band filter centered at 938 nanometers to look at Titan's surface and cloud features (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06154">PIA06154</a>). Most images of Titan taken between flybys are in visible light and are used to navigate the spacecraft. Views like these demonstrate that the surface, as well atmospheric features (such as the haze banding seen near the northern limb of Titan), can indeed be seen through this filter. </p><p>Although the clear filter is not the best way to view the surface, this observation demonstrates that with sufficient processing, this filter can be used to keep track of cloud features during periods between flybys in order to provide a better understanding of the evolution of Titan's atmosphere as the moon nears spring in the northern hemisphere.</p><p>This image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Feb. 10, 2004 from a distance of 2.5 million kilometers (1.6 million miles). The image scale is 15 kilometers (9.5 miles) per pixel. The image was strongly enhanced to bring out surface features. Features on the eastern side of this image will be observed at 20 times this resolution during a flyby in late March.</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/PIA06186" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06186: A Clear View of Titan's Surface sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06186: A Clear View of Titan's Surface sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06186: A Clear View of Titan's Surface
<h1>PIA08741: Shorefront Property, Anyone?</h1><div class="PIA08741" lang="en" style="width:460px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This lake is part of a larger image taken by the Cassini radar instrument during a flyby of Saturn's moon Titan on Sept. 23, 2006. It shows clear shorelines that are reminiscent of terrestrial 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>Centered near 74 degrees north, 65 degrees west longitude, this lake is roughly 20 kilometers by 25 kilometers (12 to 16 miles) across. It features several narrow or angular bays, including a broad peninsula that on Earth would be evidence that the surrounding terrain is higher and confines the liquid. Broader bays, such as the one seen at right, might result when the terrain is gentler, as for example on a beach.</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/PIA08741" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08741: Shorefront Property, Anyone? sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08741: Shorefront Property, Anyone? sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08741: Shorefront Property, Anyone?
<h1>PIA08221: Titan's Kiss</h1><div class="PIA08221" lang="en" style="width:463px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Saturn's two largest moons meet in the sky in a rare embrace. Smog-enshrouded Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) glows to the left of airless Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across).</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 3.6 million kilometers (2.2 million miles) from Rhea and 5.3 million kilometers (3.3 million miles) from Titan. The Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle is 157 degrees on Rhea. Image scale is 22 kilometers (13 miles) per pixel on Rhea and 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/PIA08221" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08221: Titan's Kiss sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08221: Titan's Kiss sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08221: Titan's Kiss
<h1>PIA07732: Monitoring "Fensal-Aztlan"</h1><div class="PIA07732" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>During its Sept. 7, 2005, flyby of Titan, Cassini acquired images of territory on the moon's Saturn-facing hemisphere that were assembled to create this mosaic.</p><p>Once known only as "the H" because the region looks something like the letter on its side, features in this region now possess provisional names assigned by the International Astronomical Union (see: <a href="http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/">http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/</a>). The northern branch of the H is now called "Fensal," while the southern branch is known as "Aztlan."</p><p>Fensal is littered with small "islands" ranging in size from 5 to 40 kilometers (3 to 25 miles) across. These landforms currently are thought to be water ice upland areas, surrounded by shallower terrain that is filled-in with dark particulate material from the atmosphere. A few larger islands are also seen, like Bazaruto Facula (near right, containing a dark crater), and several islands in western Fensal. When viewed in images of Shangri-La (on the other side of Titan), island-like landforms of this size tend to occur in clusters with apparent preferred orientations. The small islands in Fensal appear much more scattered (and most appear roughly circular), although a few islands do have an east-west orientation to their long axis.</p><p>Aztlan, on the other hand, appears comparatively devoid of small islands, with three large islands in its western reaches, plus only a few smaller islands. The largest of these islands is called "Sotra Facula" (just right of center in the bottom left mosaic frame), and measures 240 by 120 kilometers (149 to 75 miles) across.</p><p>The territory covered by this mosaic is similar to that seen in <a href="/catalog/PIA06222">PIA06222</a>, which is composed of images from Cassini's March 2005 Titan flyby. However, the gaps between the images in this mosaic are smaller and fewer than in the earlier mosaic.</p><p>The mosaic is centered on a region at 7 degrees north latitude, 21 degrees west longitude on Titan.</p><p>These Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera images were taken using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 938 nanometers. They were acquired at distances ranging from approximately 200,600 to 191,800 kilometers (124,600 to 119,200 miles) from Titan. Resolution in the images is about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) per pixel. Each image has been strongly enhanced to improve the visibility of surface features.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>. 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/PIA07732" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07732: Monitoring "Fensal-Aztlan" sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07732: Monitoring "Fensal-Aztlan" sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07732: Monitoring "Fensal-Aztlan"
<h1>PIA06172: Go Huygens!</h1><div class="PIA06172" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This map illustrates the planned imaging coverage for the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer, onboard the European Space Agency's Huygens probe during the probe's descent toward Titan's surface on Jan. 14, 2005. The Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer is one of two NASA instruments on the probe.</p><p>The colored lines delineate regions that will be imaged at different resolutions as the probe descends. On each map, the site where Huygens is predicted to land is marked with a yellow dot. This area is in a boundary between dark and bright regions. </p><p>This map was made from the images taken by the Cassini spacecraft cameras on Oct. 26, 2004, at image scales of 4 to 6 kilometers (2.5 to 3.7 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. Only brightness variations on Titan's surface are seen; the illumination is such that there is no shading due to topographic variations.</p><p>For about two hours, the probe will fall by parachute from an altitude of 160 kilometers (99 miles) to Titan's surface. During the descent the camera on the probe and five other science instruments will send data about the moon's atmosphere and surface back to the Cassini spacecraft for relay to Earth. The Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer will take pictures as the probe slowly spins, and some these will be made into panoramic views of Titan's surface.</p><p>This map shows the expected coverage by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer side-looking imager and two downward-looking imagers -- one providing medium-resolution and the other high-resolution coverage. The planned coverage by the medium- and high-resolution imagers is the subject of the second map <a href=”/catalog/PIA06173”>PIA06173</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 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 imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. 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> 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/PIA06172" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06172: Go Huygens! sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06172: Go Huygens! sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06172: Go Huygens!
<h1>PIA06604: Fantastic Planet</h1><div class="PIA06604" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Saturn's biggest and brightest moons are visible in this portrait by Cassini.</p><p>Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) is Saturn's largest moon and appears at the lower left. Note that some details in the moon's smoggy atmosphere are visible here. Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) is the planet's second largest moon and is seen above center. Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across) has the brightest surface in the solar system, reflecting nearly all of the sunlight that falls upon it. Enceladus is just above the rings, left of center.</p><p>Titan was on the far side of the planet at the time of this exposure, while the other moons were on the near side, much closer to Cassini.</p><p>Also seen here are details in the cloud bands of Saturn's mostly hydrogen atmosphere, variations in brightness across the dazzling rings and magnificent ring shadows cast upon the northern hemisphere.</p><p>The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Feb. 5, 2005, at a distance of approximately 3.4 million kilometers (2.1 million miles) from Saturn through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 728 nanometers. The image scale is 200 kilometers (124 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> 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/PIA06604" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06604: Fantastic Planet sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06604: Fantastic Planet sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06604: Fantastic Planet
<h1>PIA08925: Northern View</h1><div class="PIA08925" lang="en" style="width:385px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>From high above Titan's northern hemisphere, the Cassini spacecraft takes an oblique view toward the mid-latitude dark regions that gird the giant moon. </p><p>The view looks toward terrain centered at 45 degrees north latitude on Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across).</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 view was acquired on March 10, 2007 at a distance of approximately 255,000 kilometers (158,000 miles) from Titan. Image scale is 30 kilometers (19 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/PIA08925" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08925: Northern View sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08925: Northern View sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08925: Northern View
<h1>PIA06219: Cassini’s T4 Flyby</h1><div class="PIA06219" 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 the haze-covered moon on March 31, 2005. At closest approach, the spacecraft is expected to pass approximately 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles) above the moon’s surface.</p><p>The colored lines delineate the regions that will be imaged at different resolutions. Images from this encounter will include the eastern portion of territory observed by Cassini’s radar instrument in October 2004 and February 2005. This will be the Cassini cameras' best view to date of this area of Titan.</p><p>The higher resolution (red) box at the northwestern edge of the covered region targets the area observed by Cassini's synthetic aperture radar at the closest approach point of the February flyby. The Cassini visual and infrared mapping spectrometer experiment will also be targeting this area during the March 31 flyby, yielding coverage of the same part of Titan's surface by three different instruments.</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 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 that wavelength, 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 35 degrees north latitude. </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/PIA06219" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06219: Cassini’s T4 Flyby sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06219: Cassini’s T4 Flyby sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06219: Cassini’s T4 Flyby
<h1>PIA06087: Receding Titan</h1><div class="PIA06087" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>A day after entering orbit around Saturn, Cassini sped silently past Titan, imaging the moon's south polar region. This natural color image represents Cassini's view only about two hours after closest approach to the moon.</p><p>The superimposed coordinate system grid in the accompanying image at right illustrates the geographical regions of the moon that are illuminated and visible, as well as the orientation of Titan -- lines of longitude converge on the South Pole above the center of the image. The yellow curve marks the position of the boundary between day and night on Titan.</p><p>Images taken through blue, green and red filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were obtained using the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera on July 2, 2004, from a distance of about 347,000 kilometers (216,000 miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase angle of 62 degrees. This view is an improvement in resolution of nearly a factor of four over the previously released natural color view of Titan (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06081">PIA06081</a>). The image scale is 21 kilometers (13 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/PIA06087" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06087: Receding Titan sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06087: Receding Titan sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06087: Receding Titan
<h1>PIA06109: Titan's Mottled Surface</h1><div class="PIA06109" lang="en" style="width:635px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Shown here is a mosaic of Titan's south polar region acquired as Cassini passed by at a range of 339,000 kilometers (210,600 miles) on July 2. These images were acquired through special filters designed to see through the thick haze and atmosphere. The surface features become more blurry toward the limb, where the light reflected off the surface must pass through more atmosphere before reaching the camera. The bright spots near the bottom represent a field of clouds near the south pole. There are many strange dark and bright patterns on Titan's surface -- linear, sinuous and circular -- whose origins are not yet understood. The smallest features detected on the surface are about 10 kilometers (6 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 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/PIA06109" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06109: Titan's Mottled Surface sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06109: Titan's Mottled Surface sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06109: Titan's Mottled Surface
<h1>PIA09007: Ring of Twilight</h1><div class="PIA09007" lang="en" style="width:712px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This celestial circle of light is produced by the glow of sunlight scattered through the periphery of Titan's atmosphere as the Sun is occulted by Titan. It is the sum of all the sunsets and sunrises taking place on Titan at once.</p><p>The intriguing structure of Titan's north polar "hood" can be seen at upper left. A thin, detached, high-altitude global haze layer encircles the moon.</p><p>North on Titan (5,150 kilometers, 3,200 miles across) is up and rotated 23 degrees to the left.</p><p>The image was taken in visible blue light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 29, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 210,000 kilometers (131,000 miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 167 degrees. Image scale is 12 kilometers (8 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/PIA09007" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA09007: Ring of Twilight sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA09007: Ring of Twilight sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA09007: Ring of Twilight
<h1>PIA06107: Eyes on Xanadu</h1><div class="PIA06107" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This image taken on Oct. 24, 2004, reveals Titan's bright "continent-sized" terrain known as Xanadu. It was acquired with the narrow angle camera on Cassini's imaging science subsystem through a spectral filter centered at 938 nanometers, a wavelength region at which Titan's surface can be most easily detected. The surface is seen at a higher contrast than in previously released imaging science subsystem images due to a lower phase angle (Sun-Titan-Cassini angle), which minimizes scattering by the haze. </p><p>The image shows details about 10 times smaller than those seen from Earth. Surface materials with different brightness properties (or albedos) rather than topographic shading are highlighted. The image has been calibrated and slightly enhanced for contrast. It will be further processed to reduce atmospheric blurring and to optimize mapping of surface features. The origin and geography of Xanadu remain mysteries at this range. Bright features near the south pole (bottom) are clouds. On Oct. 26, Cassini will acquire images of features in the central-left portion of this image from a position about 100 times closer.</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/PIA06107" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06107: Eyes on Xanadu sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06107: Eyes on Xanadu sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06107: Eyes on Xanadu
<h1>PIA10514: Saturn's View of Titan</h1><div class="PIA10514" lang="en" style="width:791px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The Cassini spacecraft looks through Titan's thick atmosphere to reveal bright and dark terrains on the Saturn-facing side of the planet's largest moon. North is up.</p><p>The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 11, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 938 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 2.222 million kilometers (1.381 million miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 10 degrees. Image scale is 13 kilometers (8 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/PIA10514" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA10514: Saturn's View of Titan sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA10514: Saturn's View of Titan sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA10514: Saturn's View of Titan
<h1>PIA09180: Titan: Larger and Larger Lakes</h1><div class="PIA09180" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This radar image, obtained by Cassini's radar instrument during a near-polar flyby on Feb. 22, 2007, shows a big island smack in the middle of one of the larger lakes imaged on Saturn's moon Titan. This image offers further evidence that the largest lakes are at the highest latitudes. </p><p>The island is about 90 kilometers (62 miles) by 150 kilometers (93 miles) across, about the size of Kodiak Island in Alaska or the Big Island of Hawaii. The island may actually be a peninsula connected by a bridge to a larger stretch of land. As you go farther down the image, several very small lakes begin to appear, which may be controlled by local topography. </p><p>This image was taken in synthetic aperture mode at 700 meter (2,300 feet) resolution. North is toward the left. The image is centered at about 79 north degrees north and 310 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/PIA09180" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA09180: Titan: Larger and Larger Lakes sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA09180: Titan: Larger and Larger Lakes sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA09180: Titan: Larger and Larger Lakes
<h1>PIA10219: Flowing Liquids on Titan</h1><div class="PIA10219" lang="en" style="width:519px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This synthetic aperture radar image was obtained by the Cassini spacecraft on its pass by Titan's south pole on Dec. 20, 2007. This image is centered near 76.5 south, 32.5 west and covers an area of 620 kilometers by 270 kilometers (385 miles by 170 miles). </p><p>Abundant evidence for flowing liquids is seen in this image, from sinuous, wide river channels to shorter, more chaotic drainage patterns. The extremely dissected, rugged terrain in the southern portion of the image has been very eroded by flowing liquids, probably from a combination of methane rainstorms and sapping (subsurface methane rising to erode the surface). The broad valleys seen in the southern portion of the image are particularly intriguing, as they appear to be flat-floored, filled with smooth material, and in places have sharply defined, relatively straight sides. Valleys such as this can be formed by tectonic processes, such as rifting, or by erosional processes, caused by flowing liquid or ice.</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">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10219" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA10219: Flowing Liquids on Titan sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA10219: Flowing Liquids on Titan sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA10219: Flowing Liquids on Titan
<h1>PIA06089: Hazy All Over</h1><div class="PIA06089" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Following its first flyby of Titan, Cassini gazed back at the smog-enshrouded moon's receding crescent. This natural color view was seen by the spacecraft about one day after closest approach. The slight bluish glow of Titan's haze is visible along the limb.</p><p>The superimposed coordinate system grid in the accompanying image at right illustrates the geographical regions of the moon that are illuminated and visible, as well as the orientation of Titan -- lines of longitude converge on the South Pole near the moon's eastern limb. The yellow curve marks the position of the boundary between day and night on Titan.</p><p>Images taken through blue, green and red filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera on July 3, 2004, from a distance of about 790,000 kilometers (491,000 miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase angle of 115 degrees. The image scale is 47 kilometers (29 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/PIA06089" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06089: Hazy All Over sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06089: Hazy All Over sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06089: Hazy All Over
<h1>PIA06439: Titan's Surface #2</h1><div class="PIA06439" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Images recorded by the European Space Agency's Huygens probe descent imager/spectral radiometer between 4 and 0.3 miles (7 and 0.5 kilometers) were assembled to produce this panoramic mosaic. The probe ground track is indicated as points in white. North is up. The ridge near the centre is cut by a dozen darker lanes or channels. The landing site is marked with an "X" near the continuation of one of the channels.</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. </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/PIA06439" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06439: Titan's Surface #2 sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06439: Titan's Surface #2 sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06439: Titan's Surface #2
<h1>PIA02146: An Infrared Movie of Titan</h1><div class="PIA02146" lang="en" style="width:402px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This movie of Titan shows data taken with Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer during the last three flybys of Titan. The flybys took place on Oct. 28, 2005, Dec. 26, 2005, and Jan. 15, 2006. </p><p>These false-color images were taken at wavelengths of 1.6 microns shown in blue, 2.01 microns in green and 5 microns in red. </p><p>The viewing geometry of the December flyby is roughly on the opposite hemispheres of the flybys in October and January. There are several important features shown by the movie. First, the globe of Titan exhibits two major types of terrain. One is very bright, and a darker one seems to be concentrated near the equator. Titan also has two very bright regions, the large one known as Tui Reggio, and the other as Hotei Arcus. These regions are thought to be surface deposits, probably of volcanic origin, and may be water and/or carbon dioxide frozen from the vapor. The December flyby data show that the western margins of Tui Reggio have a complex flow-like structure consistent with eruptive phenomena. The reddish feature at the south pole is Titan's south polar cloud system, which was very bright during the December flyby. During the October and January flybys it is barely visible, indicating that the atmosphere over titan's south pole is very dynamic. </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/PIA02146" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02146: An Infrared Movie of Titan sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02146: An Infrared Movie of Titan sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02146: An Infrared Movie of Titan
<h1>PIA07368: Impact Crater with Ejecta Blanket</h1><div class="PIA07368" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This image shows a crater, approximately 60 kilometers (37 miles) in diameter, on the very eastern end of the radar image strip taken by the Cassini orbiter on its third close flyby of Titan on Feb. 15. </p><p>The appearance of the crater and the extremely bright (hence rough) blanket of material surrounding it is indicative of an origin by impact, in which a hypervelocity comet or asteroid, in this case, roughly 5-10 kilometers (3-6 miles) in size, slammed into the surface of Titan. </p><p>The bright surrounding blanket is debris, or ejecta, thrown out of the crater. The asymmetric appearance of this ejecta blanket could be an effect of atmospheric winds associated with the impact itself. Although clearly formed by impact, the feature lacks a central peak, suggesting that it has been eroded or otherwise modified after formation. Rainfall, wind erosion, and softening of the solid material in which the crater formed are all possible processes that might have altered this impact feature.</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/PIA07368" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07368: Impact Crater with Ejecta Blanket sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07368: Impact Crater with Ejecta Blanket sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07368: Impact Crater with Ejecta Blanket
<h1>PIA07597: Faint Southern Clouds</h1><div class="PIA07597" lang="en" style="width:465px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This clear-filter view of Saturn's moon Titan reveals a region of cloud activity at high southern latitudes. Titan is 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles) across.</p><p>Cassini observations have generally been consistent with Earth-based observations that indicate the south-polar fields of clouds that had been observed frequently in 2004 haven't been present in 2005.</p><p>This image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 31, 2005, at a distance of approximately 3.3 million kilometers (2 million miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 70 degrees. The image scale is 20 kilometers (12 miles) per pixel. North on Titan is up and rotated about 20 degrees to the left. The view has been mildly enhanced to make the cloud feature more easily visible.</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>. 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/PIA07597" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07597: Faint Southern Clouds sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07597: Faint Southern Clouds sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07597: Faint Southern Clouds
<h1>PIA07230: Composite of Titan's Surface Seen During Descent</h1><div class="PIA07230" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This composite was produced from images returned yesterday, January 14, 2005, by the European Space Agency's Huygens probe during its successful descent to land on Titan. It shows a full 360-degree view around Huygens. The left-hand side, behind Huygens, shows a boundary between light and dark areas. The white streaks seen near this boundary could be ground 'fog,' as they were not immediately visible from higher altitudes. </p><p>As the probe descended, it drifted over a plateau (center of image) and was heading towards its landing site in a dark area (right). From the drift of the probe, the wind speed has been estimated at around 6-7 kilometers (about 4 miles) per hour.</p><p>These images were taken from an altitude of about 8 kilometers (about 5 miles) with aresolution of about 20 meters (about 65 feet) per pixel. The images were taken by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer, 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.For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm </a>. </p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07230" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07230: Composite of Titan's Surface Seen During Descent sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07230: Composite of Titan's Surface Seen During Descent sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07230: Composite of Titan's Surface Seen During Descent
<h1>PIA06222: Titan Mosaic -- East of Xanadu</h1><div class="PIA06222" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>During a close flyby of Titan on March 31, 2005, Cassini's cameras got their best view to date of the region east of the bright Xanadu Regio. This mosaic consists of several frames taken by the narrow-angle camera (smaller frames) put together with an image taken by the wide-angle camera filling in the background. It reveals new detail of dark expanses and the surrounding brighter terrain.</p><p>Some of the features seen here are reminiscent of those seen elsewhere on Titan, but the images also reveal new features, which Cassini scientists are working to understand.</p><p>In the center of the image (and figure A at bottom) lies a bright area completely surrounded by darker material. The northern boundary of the bright "island" is relatively sharp and has a jagged profile, resembling the now-familiar boundary on the western side of Xanadu (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06159">PIA06159</a>). The profile of the southern boundary is similar. However, streamers of bright material extend southeastward into the dark terrain. At the eastern end of the bright "island" lies a region with complex interconnected dark and bright regions (see figure B).</p><p>To the south, the bright terrain is cut by fairly straight dark lines. Their linearity and apparently angular intersections suggest a tectonic influence, similar to features in seen in the bright terrain west of Xanadu (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06158">PIA06158</a>).</p><p>The camera's near-infrared observations cover ground that was also seen by Cassini's synthetic aperture radar in October 2004 and February 2005. Toward the northeastern edge of the dark material a dark, circular spot in the middle of a bright feature (see figure C) is an approximately 80-kilometer-wide (50-mile) crater identified in the February 2005 radar data (see <a href="/catalog/PIA07368">PIA07368</a> for the radar image). </p><p>The resolution of this new image is lower but sufficient to reveal important similarities and differences between the two observations. Part of the crater floor is quite dark compared to the surrounding material at near-infrared wavelengths. This observation is consistent with the hypothesis that the dark material consists of complex hydrocarbons that have precipitated from the atmosphere and collected in areas of low elevation. At radar wavelengths the crater floor is much more uniform and there also are brightness differences seen by these two instruments outside of the crater. Such comparisons give Cassini scientists important clues about the roughness and composition of the surface material on Titan.</p><p>Another interesting comparison is the "dark terrain" with small bright features as seen by the radar (see <a href="/catalog/PIA07367">PIA07367</a>) and the essentially inverted pattern (bright with small dark features) seen by the imaging science subsystem cameras. In the mosaic, this area is in the top left narrow-angle camera image.</p><p>Within the bright terrain at the top of the mosaic, just left of center, lies a very intriguing feature: a strikingly dark spot from which diffuse dark material appears to extend to the northeast. The origin of this feature is not yet known, but it, too, lies within the radar image; Cassini scientists will thus be able to study it using these complementary observations.</p><p>The mosaic is centered on a region at 1 degree north latitude, 21 degree west longitude on Titan.</p><p>The Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera images were taken using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of polarized infrared light and were acquired at distances ranging from approximately 148,300 to 112,800 kilometers (92,100 to 70,100 miles) from Titan. Resolution in the images is about 1 to 2 kilometers (0.6 to 1.2 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> 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/PIA06222" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06222: Titan Mosaic -- East of Xanadu sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06222: Titan Mosaic -- East of Xanadu sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06222: Titan Mosaic -- East of Xanadu
<h1>PIA08448: Titan's Land-o-Lakes</h1><div class="PIA08448" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The Cassini spacecraft's Titan Radar Mapper instrument imaged this area atop Xanadu, the bright area of Titan, on April 30, 2006. The picture is roughly 150 kilometers (93 miles) wide by 400 kilometers (249 miles) long, and shows features as small as 350 meters (1148 feet). Chains of hills or mountains are revealed by the radar beam, which is illuminating their northern sides (in this image, north is up). Interspersed between the chains of hills are darker areas where topographic features are absent or partly buried. The darkest areas could contain liquids, which tend to reflect the radar beam away from Cassini in the absence of winds, making the area appear quite dark. At Titan's icy conditions, these liquids would be methane and/or ethane. Stubby drainage features can be see faintly between the chains of hills, suggesting flow of the liquid across parts of the region. </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/PIA08448" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08448: Titan's Land-o-Lakes sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08448: Titan's Land-o-Lakes sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08448: Titan's Land-o-Lakes
<h1>PIA07237: 'Islands' on a Dark Plain</h1><div class="PIA07237" lang="en" style="width:311px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>A single image from the Huygens Descent Imager/ Spectral Radiometer (DISR) instrument of a dark plain area on Titan, seen during descent to the landing site, that indicates flow around bright 'islands.' The areas below and above the bright islands may be at different elevations. </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/PIA07237" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07237: 'Islands' on a Dark Plain sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07237: 'Islands' on a Dark Plain sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07237: 'Islands' on a Dark Plain