This is a perspective view of the surface of Saturn's moon Titan near the
Huygens probe landing site that includes the bright-dark boundary between
the bright highlands and lower dark plains. This provides stereo coverage
with a resolution of about 50 feet per pixel (roughly 15 meters) and a
convergence angle of approximately 15 degrees. The perspective image is
color-coded in altitude with blue lowest and red highest. The total relief
is approximately 500 feet (roughly 150 meters) and the area covered is
about 0.6 by 2 miles (1 by 3 kilometers). The valleys exhibiting dark
drainages in the brighter higher, terrains have steep sides ranging up to
approximately 30 degrees.
A stereo pair of images (insert) was acquired from the Huygens descent
imager/spectral radiometer. The left image was acquired from 9 miles (14.8
kilometers) above the surface with the high resolution imager; the right
from 4 miles (6.7 kilometers) altitude with the medium resolution imager.
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.
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.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
