Click on the image for movie of
Titan Lakes Movie
This animation shows a mosaic of imagery from Cassini's radar instrument
obtained during three flybys of Titan's north pole: T16 (July 22, 2006),
T18 (Sept. 23, 2006) and T19 (Oct. 9, 2006).
The most striking discovery from these flybys was the near-polar
hydrocarbon lakes, which are far darker than the surrounding terrain.
Ranging in size from a few kilometers up to about 100 kilometers (62
miles) in diameter, they are most likely the result of increased rainfall
and decreased evaporation at the cold higher latitudes. Scientists will be
looking for signs of change in lake shape in future flybys covering the
same area, which may indicate changes in lake level.
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.
