Click on the image for movie of
Titan's North Polar Region
This Cassini false-color mosaic shows all synthetic-aperture radar images
to date of Titan's north polar region. Approximately 60 percent of Titan's
north polar region, above 60 degrees north latitude, is now mapped with
radar. About 14 percent of the mapped region is covered by what is
interpreted as liquid hydrocarbon lakes.
Features thought to be liquid are shown in blue and black, and the areas
likely to be solid surface are tinted brown. The terrain in the upper left
of this mosaic is imaged at lower resolution than the remainder of the
image
Most of the many lakes and seas seen so far are contained in this image,
including the largest known body of liquid on Titan. These seas are most
likely filled with liquid ethane, methane and dissolved nitrogen.
Many bays, islands and presumed tributary networks are associated with the
seas. The large feature in the upper right center of this image is at
least 100,000 square kilometers (40,000 square miles) in area, greater in
extent than Lake Superior (82,000 square kilometers or 32,000 square
miles), one of Earth's largest lakes. This Titan feature covers a greater
fraction of the surface, at least 0.12 percent, than the Black Sea,
Earth's largest terrestrial inland sea, at 0.085 percent. Larger seas may
exist, as it is probable that some of these bodies are connected, either
in areas unmapped by radar or under the surface (see PIA08365).
Of the 400 observed lakes and seas, 70 percent of their area is taken up
by large "seas" greater than 26,000 square kilometers (10,000 square
miles).
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.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm.
