This radar image of the surface of Saturn's moon Titan was acquired on
October 26, 2004, when the Cassini spacecraft flew approximately 1,200
kilometers (745 miles) above the surface and acquired radar data for the
first time. It reveals a complex geologic surface thought to be composed
of icy materials and hydrocarbons.
A wide variety of geologic terrain types can be seen on the image;
brighter areas may correspond to rougher terrains and darker areas are
thought to be smoother. A large dark circular feature is seen at the
western (left) end of the image, but very few features resembling fresh
impact craters are seen. This suggests that the surface is relatively
young. Enigmatic sinuous bright linear features are visible, mainly
cutting across dark areas.
The image is about 150 kilometers (93 miles) wide and 250 kilometers (155
miles) long, and is centered at 50 N, 82 W in the northern hemisphere of
Titan, over a region that has not yet been imaged optically. The smallest
details seen on the image are about 300 meters (984 feet) across.
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.
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.
For the latest news about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit
http://www.nasa.gov/cassini. For more information about the mission visit
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
