Images from the magnetospheric imaging instrument and the ion and neutral
camera onboard the Cassini spacecraft reveal aspects of the interactions
between Saturn's dynamic population of hot energetic ions and the clouds
of cold neutral atoms. Future observations may further explain the
relationships between these interactions.
The most recent image of Titan reveals the emission of high-speed neutral
atoms from a globular region approximately 70,000 kilometers (43,496
miles) in diameter, clearly centered on Titan. It is only 1/25 as bright
as the region seen toward dawn during Saturn orbit insertion, even though
Cassini is now closer to Titan. There is an extended emission region
around the Titan cloud, but it is much dimmer than the Titan cloud itself
and even dimmer compared to the emission seen in the dawn direction at
orbit insertion. In this image, the X marks the direction toward the Sun;
the Y marks the direction toward Saturn's dawn; and the Z marks Saturn's
rotation axis. The dot in the center marks 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 Office of Space
Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and
assembled at JPL. The magnetospheric imaging instrument team is based at
Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, Md.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit,
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini Magnetospheric Imaging
Instrument home page, http://sd-www.jhuapl.edu/CASSINI/.
