This sequence of images illustrates the evolution of a field of clouds
near Titan's south pole over a period of almost five hours. The images
were acquired on July 2, 2004, by NASA's Cassini spacecraft at ranges of
364,000 to 339,000 kilometers (226,170 to 210,600 miles). These bright
clouds, believed to be composed of methane, appear in generally the same
area where Earth-based astronomers have previously detected clouds.
Cassini also saw clouds in this region during its approach to Saturn.
The pixel scale of these images ranges from 2.2 to 2.0 kilometers per
pixel (1.4 to 1.2 miles per pixel). The smallest features that can be
discerned in the clouds are roughly 10 kilometers ( 6 miles) across.
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.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit,
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page,
http://ciclops.org.
