Galerie de photos de Titan, satellite de la planète Saturne

<h1>PIA06984: 'Black Cat' on Titan</h1><div class="PIA06984" lang="en" style="width:683px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p><a href="/figures/PIA06984_fig1.jpg"></a><br>Figure 1</p><p>This radar image of the surface of Saturn's moon Titan was acquired on October 26, 2004, when the Cassini spacecraft flew approximately 1,600 kilometers (994 miles) above the surface and acquired radar data for the first time.</p><p>Brighter areas may correspond to rougher terrains and darker areas are thought to be smoother. This image highlights some of the darker terrain, which the Cassiniteam has dubbed "Si-Si the Cat." This nickname was chosen after a team member'sdaughter, Si-Si, pointed out that the dark terrain has a cat-like appearance. Theinterconnected dark spots are consistent with a very smooth or highly absorbingsolid, or could conceivably be liquid.</p><p>The image is about 250 kilometers (155 miles) wide by 478 kilometers (297 miles) long, and is centered at 50 N, 54 W in the northern hemisphere of Titan, over a region that has not yet been imaged optically. The smallest details seen on the image vary from about 300 meters (984 feet) to 1 kilometer (.62 mile).</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/PIA06984" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06984: 'Black Cat' on Titan sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06984: 'Black Cat' on Titan sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06984: 'Black Cat' on Titan
<h1>PIA09034: Exposing Titan's Surface</h1><div class="PIA09034" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p><a href="/archive/PIA09034.gif"></a><br />Click on the image for movie of<br />Exposing Titan's Surface</p><p>This image is a composite of several images taken during two separate Titan flybys on Oct. 9 (T19) and Oct. 25 (T20). </p><p>The large circular feature near the center of Titan's disk may be the remnant of a very old impact basin. The mountain ranges to the southeast of the circular feature, and the long dark, linear feature to the northwest of the old impact scar may have resulted from tectonic activity on Titan caused by the energy released when the impact occurred.</p><p>The Oct. 9 images form the background globe for context, and the most recent images from the Oct. 25 flyby are overlaid. The Oct. 9 images were taken at an average distance of about 30,000 kilometers (18,000 miles). The Oct. 25 images were taken at a distance of 12,000 kilometers (7,200 miles). The images were taken at wavelengths of 1.3 microns shown in blue, 2 microns shown in green, and 5 microns shown in red.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona where this image was produced.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/</a>. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team homepage is at <a href="http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu">http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09034" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA09034: Exposing Titan's Surface sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA09034: Exposing Titan's Surface sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA09034: Exposing Titan's Surface
<h1>PIA07367: Dark Terrain</h1><div class="PIA07367" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Although most of the region observed by the Cassini radar instrument in the February close flyby of Titan is very different from the regions imaged in October, the area shown in this image appears quite similar. </p><p>Running about 300 kilometers (186 miles) from top to bottom, the image shows a complex of bright hills and ridges surrounded by a dark plain. In radar imaging, large dark expanses are either relatively smooth, or absorb radio waves effectively, or both. Seen more faintly in the dark plains are subtle features, the origins of which are unclear. These features have some resemblance to the features seen in the October flyby that were characterized as "cryovolcanic" meaning flows of warm ice, or mixtures of liquid water and ammonia (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06993">PIA06993</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 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/PIA07367" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07367: Dark Terrain sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07367: Dark Terrain sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07367: Dark Terrain
<h1>PIA09739: Titan's Hazes</h1><div class="PIA09739" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Titan's detached, high-altitude haze layer encircles its smoggy globe in this ultraviolet view, which also features the moon's north polar hood. The northern hemisphere is currently in its Winter season.</p><p>Titan is 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles) across.</p><p>The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 2, 2007 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (816,000 miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 20 degrees. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09739" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA09739: Titan's Hazes sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA09739: Titan's Hazes sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA09739: Titan's Hazes
<h1>PIA09033: Large Tectonic Complex</h1><div class="PIA09033" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This image set was taken at a distance of 15,000 kilometers (9,300 miles) from Titan and shows two views of an area riddled by mountain ranges that were probably produced by tectonic forces. </p><p>Near the bottom of the right image, a band of bright clouds is seen. These clouds are probably produced when gaseous methane in Titan's atmosphere cools and condenses into methane fog as Titan's winds drive air over the mountains. It was once thought that these recurring clouds were produced by volcanic activity on Titan, but this image calls that idea into question.</p><p>These views were obtained during an Oct. 25 flyby designed to obtain the highest-resolution infrared views of Titan yet. Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer resolved surface features as small as 400 meters (1,300 feet). The images were taken at wavelengths of 1.3 microns shown in blue, 2 microns shown in green, and 5 microns shown in red.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona where this image was produced.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/</a>. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team homepage is at <a href="http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu">http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09033" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA09033: Large Tectonic Complex sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA09033: Large Tectonic Complex sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA09033: Large Tectonic Complex
<h1>PIA06141: Hovering Over Titan</h1><div class="PIA06141" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>A mosaic of nine processed images recently acquired during Cassini's first very close flyby of Saturn's moon Titan on Oct. 26, 2004, constitutes the most detailed full-disc view of the mysterious moon.</p><p>The view is centered on 15 degrees South latitude, and 156 degrees West longitude. Brightness variations across the surface and bright clouds near the south pole are easily seen. </p><p>The images that comprise the mosaic have been processed to reduce the effects of the atmosphere and to sharpen surface features. The mosaic has been trimmed to show only the illuminated surface and not the atmosphere above the edge of the moon. The Sun was behind Cassini so nearly the full disc is illuminated. Pixels scales of the composite images vary from 2 to 4 kilometers per pixel (1.2 to 2.5 miles per pixel).</p><p>Surface features are best seen near the center of the disc, where the spacecraft is looking directly downwards; the contrast becomes progressively lower and surface features become fuzzier towards the outside, where the spacecraft is peering through haze, a circumstance that washes out surface features.</p><p>The brighter region on the right side and equatorial region is named Xanadu Regio. Scientists are actively debating what processes may have created the bizarre surface brightness patterns seen here. The images hint at a young surface with, no obvious craters. However, the exact nature of that activity, whether tectonic, wind-blown, fluvial, marine, or volcanic is still to be determined.</p><p>The images comprising this mosaic were acquired from distances ranging from 650,000 kilometers (400,000 miles) to 300,000 kilometers (200,000 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 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/PIA06141" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06141: Hovering Over Titan sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06141: Hovering Over Titan sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06141: Hovering Over Titan
<h1>PIA07701: Titanic Complexity</h1><div class="PIA07701" lang="en" style="width:743px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This view of Titan reveals structure in the moon's complex atmosphere. The geometry of the Cassini spacecraft's view of Titan during this flyby was similar to that of Voyager 1's pass in 1980.</p><p>The image was taken in visible violet light and shows the detached high haze layer that envelops Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across), with additional complexity to its structure in the far north. Some of this atmospheric structure is also visible in a color view (see <a href="/catalog/PIA07700">PIA07700</a>) taken at about the same time.</p><p>The image was taken in visible violet light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 26, 2005, at a distance of approximately 194,000 kilometers (121,000 miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 29 degrees. The image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07701" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07701: Titanic Complexity sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07701: Titanic Complexity sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07701: Titanic Complexity
<h1>PIA06520: Smog Moon</h1><div class="PIA06520" lang="en" style="width:758px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Smog-enshrouded Titan shows itself to be a featureless orb in this Cassini image taken in visible light. There is no sign here of the streaky clouds seen near the moon's south pole in previous Cassini images of the opposite hemisphere. Titan's diameter is 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles).</p><p>Although Titan's atmosphere blocks any view of its surface at visible wavelengths, Cassini is equipped with powerful cameras that can peer through the obscuring haze.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Sept. 17, 2004, at a distance of 8.3 million kilometers (5.2 million miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 72 degrees. The image scale is 50 kilometers (31 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 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>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/PIA06520" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06520: Smog Moon sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06520: Smog Moon sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06520: Smog Moon
<h1>PIA07238: Water Ice and Methane Springs</h1><div class="PIA07238" lang="en" style="width:315px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>A single Huygens Descent Imager/ Spectral Radiometer (DISR) instrument image shows two new features on the surface of Titan. A bright linear feature suggests an area where water ice may have been extruded onto the surface. Also visible are short, stubby dark channels that may have been formed by 'springs' of liquid methane rather than methane 'rain.'</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/PIA07238" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07238: Water Ice and Methane Springs sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07238: Water Ice and Methane Springs sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07238: Water Ice and Methane Springs
<h1>PIA06224: Titan's High Hazes</h1><div class="PIA06224" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Titan's high haze layers are amazing. Cassini captured this detailed view of the relatively faint haze in Titan's upper atmosphere as it receded from its close encounter on March 31, 2005. Similar examples of such complex structures in Titan's haze have been observed previously by Cassini.</p><p>These observations will help reveal the processes responsible for forming the numerous layers observed and how the structure and behavior of the layers change on daily and seasonal time scales.</p><p>The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers and at a distance of 102,320 kilometers (63,579 miles) from Titan. Image scale is about 600 meters (1,970 feet) 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/PIA06224" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06224: Titan's High Hazes sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06224: Titan's High Hazes sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06224: Titan's High Hazes
<h1>PIA08964: Titan's Cocoon</h1><div class="PIA08964" lang="en" style="width:506px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Sunlight scatters through Titan's atmosphere, illuminating high hazes and bathing the entire moon in a soft glow.</p><p>This high phase angle view of Titan was acquired from 21 degrees below the smoggy moon's equator. The thin, detached haze layer that extends all the way around Titan is faintly visible.</p><p>North on Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) is up.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on May 12, 2007 at a distance of approximately 305,000 kilometers (190,000 miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 146 degrees. Image scale is 18 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08964" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08964: Titan's Cocoon sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08964: Titan's Cocoon sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08964: Titan's Cocoon
<h1>PIA07236: Mosaic of River Channel and Ridge Area on Titan</h1><div class="PIA07236" lang="en" style="width:600px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This mosaic of three frames from the Huygens Descent Imager/ Spectral Radiometer (DISR) instrument provides unprecedented detail of the high ridge area including the flow down into a major river channel from different sources. </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/PIA07236" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07236: Mosaic of River Channel and Ridge Area on Titan sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07236: Mosaic of River Channel and Ridge Area on Titan sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07236: Mosaic of River Channel and Ridge Area on Titan
<h1>PIA06148: Encountering Titan Again</h1><div class="PIA06148" 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 the Cassini spacecraft during the spacecraft's second close flyby of Titan on Dec. 13, 2004.</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, and to make movies of the evolution of clouds over time scales of hours. Other areas have been specifically targeted for moderate and high resolution mosaicking of surface features. These include the site where the European Space Agency's Huygens probe is predicted to touch down in mid-January (marked with the yellow X), part of the bright region named Xanadu (easternmost extent of the coverage area), and a boundary between dark and bright regions. The map shows only brightness variations on Titan's surface. (The illumination is such that there is 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 the actual pixel scale labeled on the map.</p><p>The December encounter is similar in geometry to the first close Titan flyby in October (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06116">PIA06116</a>), so Cassini scientists have taken advantage of this to retarget some of the same areas in order to look for changes and to cover new territory as well. This is the reason for the rather irregular shape of the green outline.</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 from 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) that can penetrate Titan's atmosphere to the surface. The images have been processed to enhance surface details. </p><p>It is currently northern winter on Titan, so Titan's high northern latitudes are not illuminated, resulting in the jagged upper boundary. Clouds near the south pole (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06110">PIA06110</a>) have also been removed (south of minus 75 degrees). </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/PIA06148" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06148: Encountering Titan Again sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06148: Encountering Titan Again sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06148: Encountering Titan Again
<h1>PIA07231: Varied Terrain</h1><div class="PIA07231" lang="en" style="width:305px;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 the boundary between the lighter-colored uplifted terrain, marked with what appear to be drainage channels, and darker lower areas. </p><p>These images were taken from an altitude of about 8 kilometers (about 5 miles) and a resolution 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/PIA07231" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07231: Varied Terrain sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07231: Varied Terrain sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07231: Varied Terrain
<h1>PIA06223: Titan's Shifting Hazes</h1><div class="PIA06223" lang="en" style="width:720px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This fascinating movie from Cassini shows the changing shapes of features in the outer haze layers of Titan's atmosphere.</p><p>The original movie was created from 36 images taken over the course of three hours as Cassini receded from Titan, following its flyby on March 31, 2005. These observations were made about four and a half to eight hours after Cassini's closest approach. Additional frames were inserted between the 36 Cassini images in order to smooth the movement of the atmosphere -- a scheme called interpolation -- for a total of 71 frames in the released movie.</p><p>The most obvious changes in this movie occur in the bright layers in the middle of the arc, near the one o'clock position, where hazy filaments appear to flow and merge. Near the 12 o'clock position there is wave motion from right to left.</p><p>The changing features represent a great deal of dynamic activity high in this cold, hazy atmosphere. They resemble the activity observed during Cassini's first Titan encounter. </p><p>The images for this movie were taken by the Cassini wide-angle camera on April 1, 2005, using a filter sensitive to visible violet light and were acquired at distances ranging from approximately 99,000 to 155,000 kilometers (62,000 to 96,000 miles) from Titan. Resolution in the images changes from 6 to 9 kilometers (4 to 6 miles) per pixel during the movie. The frames have been scaled so that Titan does not appear to shrink in size as Cassini moves away. </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/PIA06223" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06223: Titan's Shifting Hazes sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06223: Titan's Shifting Hazes sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06223: Titan's Shifting Hazes
Saturne_Titan_Huygens_6.jpg
Saturne_Titan_Huygens_6.jpg
<h1>PIA07774: Titan's Halo</h1><div class="PIA07774" lang="en" style="width:760px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>With its thick, distended atmosphere, Titan's orange globe shines softly, encircled by a thin halo of purple light-scattering haze.</p><p>Images taken using blue, green and red spectral filters were used to create this enhanced-color view; the color images were combined with an ultraviolet view that makes the high-altitude, detached layer of haze visible. The ultraviolet part of the composite image was given a purplish hue to match the bluish-purple color of the upper atmospheric haze seen in visible light.</p><p>Small particles that populate high hazes in Titan's atmosphere scatter short wavelengths more efficiently than longer visible or infrared wavelengths, so the best possible observations of the detached layer are made in ultraviolet light.</p><p>The images in this view were taken by the Cassini narrow-angle camera on May 5, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Titan and at a sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 137 degrees. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov</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/PIA07774" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07774: Titan's Halo sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07774: Titan's Halo sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07774: Titan's Halo
<h1>PIA08449: Complex Terrain</h1><div class="PIA08449" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This complex area of hilly terrain and erosional channels is located atop Xanadu, the continent-sized region on Saturn's moon Titan. The image was captured by the Cassini Titan Radar Mapper on April 30, 2006. It shows details as small as 350 meters (1148 feet). Each side of the picture covers 200 kilometers (124 miles).</p><p>Chains of hills or mountains are located near the bottom of the image, appearing bright on their north side (toward the top in this image). Extending further north is a drainage region where liquids flowed, eroding the presumably water-ice bedrock of Xanadu. Careful inspection reveals a series of faint drainage channels, some of which appear to empty into the dark region near the top of the image. Liquid methane might be fed from springs within Xanadu or by occasional rainfall suspected to occur on Titan. There is evidence for this rainfall in images taken by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer camera on the Huygens probe as it landed, well to the west of this area, on January 14, 2005 (see <a href="/catalog/PIA07238">PIA07238</a>). </p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the United States and several European countries.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08449" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08449: Complex Terrain sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08449: Complex Terrain sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08449: Complex Terrain
<h1>PIA10218: Radar Images Titan's South Pole</h1><div class="PIA10218" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This synthetic aperture radar image was obtained by the Cassini spacecraft on its recent pass by Titan's south pole on Dec. 20, 2007. </p><p>This portion of the (T39) swath is of the region extending from about 84 degrees south to the south pole, with a length of approximately 760 kilometers (470 miles) and width of 150 to 170 kilometers (90 to 100 miles). The polar projection of this image is at 128 pixels per degree, or approximately 351 meters per pixel (1,150 feet per pixel), and the radar illumination is from the lower left with incidence angles from about 22 to 38 degrees.</p><p>This image covers the south pole of Titan, which can be seen as a region of broad smooth valleys surrounded by rugged terrain. Also seen in this image are two features interpreted as lakes, the larger of which may correspond to dark features first identified by the imaging science subsystem in June 2005 (See <a href="/catalog/PIA06240">PIA06240</a>). Their very dark appearance in the radar image indicates that they are probably filled with liquid methane. Other apparently empty lake basins are seen elsewhere in the radar swath. Based on this swath, there appear to be fewer lakes near the south pole than seen in a typical region near the north pole (for example, see <a href="/catalog/PIA10008">PIA10008</a>). Since Titan is currently in its late summer season in the southern hemisphere, this interpretation is consistent with a previously proposed theory that methane fills the lakes during the winter and evaporates during the summer, leaving them dry until the next fall.</p><p>Intensity in this colorized image is proportional to how much radar brightness is returned, or more specifically, the logarithm of the radar backscatter cross-section. The colors are not a representation of what the human eye would see. The lakes, darker than the surrounding terrain, are emphasized here by tinting regions of low backscatter in blue. Radar-brighter regions are shown in tan.</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/PIA10218" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA10218: Radar Images Titan's South Pole sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA10218: Radar Images Titan's South Pole sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA10218: Radar Images Titan's South Pole
<h1>PIA06438: Titan's Surface</h1><div class="PIA06438" 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 11 and 5 miles (17 and 8 kilometers) were assembled to produce this panoramic mosaic. The probe ground track is indicated as points in white. North is up. Narrow dark linear markings, interpreted as channels, cut through the brighter terrain. The complex channel network implies precipitation (likely as methane "rain") and possibly springs. The circle indicates the outline of the low-altitude panorama shown in <a href="/catalog/PIA06439">PIA06439</a>).</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/PIA06438" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06438: Titan's Surface sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06438: Titan's Surface sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06438: Titan's Surface
<h1>PIA02147: An Infrared Map of Titan</h1><div class="PIA02147" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This global infrared map of Titan was composed with data from Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer taken during the last two Titan flybys, on Dec. 26, 2005, and Jan. 15, 2006. </p><p>The map was constructed from false-color images taken at wavelengths of 1.6 microns shown in blue, 2.01 microns in green, and 5 microns in red. All three images are of reflected sunlight. </p><p>The viewing geometry of the December flyby is roughly on the opposite hemisphere of the flyby in January. There are several important features to note in the map. 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, located at approximately 25 degrees south latitude and 130 degrees west longitude, and the other as Hotei Arcus, at 20 degrees south latitude and 80 degrees west longitude. These regions are thought to be surface deposits, probably of volcanic origin, and may be water and/or carbon dioxide frozen from the volcanic vapor. 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. The impact crater Sinlap is clearly visible at approximately latitude 13 degrees north and longitude 16 degrees west. The poorly resolved regions between longitudes of 30 degrees and 150 degrees east will be filled in during subsequent flybys.</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/PIA02147" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02147: An Infrared Map of Titan sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02147: An Infrared Map of Titan sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02147: An Infrared Map of Titan
<h1>PIA01393: Night side of Titan</h1><div class="PIA01393" lang="en" style="width:200px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;">Voyager 2 obtained this wide-angle image of the night side of Titan on Aug. 25 at a high phase angle of 154` and a range of 907,000 kilometers (563,000 miles). Green and violet images were combined to make this photograph. The result is a view of the extended atmosphere of this satellite of Saturn, the bright orangish ring being caused by the atmosphere's scattering of the incident sunlight. The bluish outer ring is further evidence of scattering by the submicron size particles that extend several hundred kilometers above the main clouds. This type of photograph is a direct indication of Titan's extensive atmosphere. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena.<br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01393" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA01393: Night side of Titan sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA01393: Night side of Titan sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA01393: Night side of Titan
<h1>PIA09181: Titan Features and Interactions</h1><div class="PIA09181" lang="en" style="width:640px;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 dunes surrounding a bright feature on Saturn's moon Titan. </p><p>Dunes have been previously seen on Titan, so far concentrated near the equator. They are thought to be composed of small hydrocarbon or water ice particles-- probably about 250 microns in diameter, similar to sand grains on Earth. These are formed into dunes by the prevailing west-to-east surface winds. Because of the shape and length of the dunes, they are probably "longitudinal" (lying in the same direction as the average wind) rather than transverse dunes, which form across the wind and are more common on Earth.</p><p>There are several kinds of interaction between the dunes and the brighter features in this image. At the left, the dunes seem to be covering the bright material, while at the center and right, they seem to be terminated against it. At the lower center and lower right, they flow around it (see also <a href="/catalog/PIA08738">PIA08738</a> and <a href="/catalog/PIA08454">PIA08454</a>). These various interactions will help us to determine the nature of both of these features.</p><p>This image was taken in synthetic aperture mode at 700-meter (2,300-foot) resolution. North is toward the left. The image is centered at about 3.5 degrees south latitude and 37.3 degrees west longitude. </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/PIA09181" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA09181: Titan Features and Interactions sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA09181: Titan Features and Interactions sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA09181: Titan Features and Interactions
<h1>PIA09869: Violet Titan</h1><div class="PIA09869" lang="en" style="width:684px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The Cassini spacecraft peers at the smooth globe of Titan, wrapped in its photochemical haze.</p><p>The moon's thin, detached, high-altitude haze layer is best viewed at shorter wavelengths of light, as in this violet light image and ultraviolet views (see <a href="/catalog/PIA08868">PIA08868</a>). </p><p>North on Titan (5,150 kilometers, 3,200 miles across) is up.</p><p>The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Feb. 22, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 214,000 kilometers (133,000 miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 119 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">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/PIA09869" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA09869: Violet Titan sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA09869: Violet Titan sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA09869: Violet Titan
<h1>PIA06081: Titan in Natural Color</h1><div class="PIA06081" lang="en" style="width:446px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Despite the views of the surface of Saturn's Titan moon provided by the Cassini spacecraft, the moon remains inscrutable to the human eye. Images taken with the narrow angle camera using red, green and blue color filters were combined to create this view.</p><p>In true-color images taken in visible wavelengths, Titan's photochemical smog, rich in organic material, gives the moon a smooth, featureless, orange glow. </p><p>The Cassini orbiter carries specially designed spectral filters that can pierce Titan's veil. Furthermore, its piggybacked Huygens probe will descend through the atmosphere in early 2005, giving an up-close-and-personal look at this mysterious orange moon.</p><p>The images making up this color view were obtained at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 67 degrees, and from a distance of approximately 13.1 million kilometers (8.2 million miles) on June 10, 2004. The image scale is approximately 79 kilometers (49 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/PIA06081" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06081: Titan in Natural Color sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06081: Titan in Natural Color sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06081: Titan in Natural Color
<h1>PIA05407: Two-Tone Titan</h1><div class="PIA05407" lang="en" style="width:640px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Cassini's finely-tuned vision reveals hazes high in the skies over Titan in this narrow angle camera image taken by the Cassini spacecraft on May 22, 2004. Here the northern hemisphere is notably brighter than the southern hemisphere. This trait was noticed in images returned by the Voyager spacecraft, but the effect is presently reversed, North to South, as Titan is currently experiencing opposite seasons from those during the Voyager epoch 23 years ago.</p><p>The image was taken from a distance of 21.7 million kilometers (13.5 million miles) from Saturn through a filter sensitive to strong absorption by methane gas (centered at 889 nanometers). The image scale is 129 kilometers (80 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/PIA05407" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA05407: Two-Tone Titan sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA05407: Two-Tone Titan sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA05407: Two-Tone Titan
<h1>PIA06173: Go Huygens!</h1><div class="PIA06173" 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><p>This map shows the planned coverage by the medium- and high-resolution. <a href="/catalog/PIA06173">PIA06173</a> shows 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.</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/PIA06173" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06173: Go Huygens! sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06173: Go Huygens! sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06173: Go Huygens!
<h1>PIA08137: Haze Layers on Titan</h1><div class="PIA08137" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This composite of 24 images from the Cassini spacecraft shows multiple layers in Titan's stratospheric haze. The most prominent layer is located about 500 kilometers (300 miles) above the surface and is seen at all latitudes, encircling the moon. The material in this layer is probably a condensed substance, possibly water ice.</p><p>Several other layers are most apparent in the north polar hood (at top), but this view also shows some at other latitudes. The mechanisms that produce these layers are not understood, but waves in the atmosphere are thought to play a significant role. </p><p>The images in this composite were taken over a period of 23 minutes. The images were processed to enhance fine detail and then were combined to create this view. North on Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) is up.</p><p>The images were taken in visible light with the narrow-angle camera on Jan. 27, 2006 at a distance of approximately 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 155 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">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/PIA08137" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08137: Haze Layers on Titan sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08137: Haze Layers on Titan sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08137: Haze Layers on Titan
<h1>PIA08958: Bright to Dark</h1><div class="PIA08958" lang="en" style="width:504px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This Cassini spacecraft view shows the interesting north-south asymmetry in Titan's atmosphere, which is thought to be a seasonal effect.</p><p>North on Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) is up and rotated 30 degrees to the right.</p><p>The image was taken using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 889 nanometers. The view was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 4, 2007 at a distance of approximately 3 million kilometers (1.9 million miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 54 degrees. Image scale is 18 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08958" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08958: Bright to Dark sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08958: Bright to Dark sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08958: Bright to Dark
<h1>PIA06218: Cassini's April 16 Flyby of Titan</h1><div class="PIA06218" 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 smog-enshrouded moon on April 16, 2005. At closest approach, the spacecraft is expected to pass approximately 1,025 kilometers (640 miles) above the moon's surface.</p><p>The colored lines delineate the regions that will be imaged at differing resolutions. </p><p>Images from this encounter will add to those taken during the March 31, 2005, flyby and improve the moderate resolution coverage of this region. The imaging coverage will include the eastern portion of territory observed by Cassini's radar instrument in October 2004 and February 2005, and will provide a way to compare the surface as viewed by the different instruments. Such comparisons (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06222">PIA06222</a>) will provide insight into the nature of Titan's surface.</p><p>The higher-resolution (yellow boxes) have been spread out around a central mosaic in order to maximize coverage of this region by the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer which will be observing simultaneously with the cameras of the imaging science subsystem.</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 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 this 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>. 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/PIA06218" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA06218: Cassini's April 16 Flyby of Titan sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA06218: Cassini's April 16 Flyby of Titan sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA06218: Cassini's April 16 Flyby of Titan