This radar image of Titan's well-known dunes is distinctive because it may
show an age relationship between different classes of features on the
surface of this frigid world.
Taken by Cassini's radar mapper on Jan. 13, 2007, during a flyby of Titan,
three kinds of terrain can be seen. Throughout the image, the fine
striping has been identified as dunes, possibly made from organic material
and formed by wind activity. Dunes are a common landform on Titan (see
PIA09111 and PIA08738). The bright material at the lower right of the
image is interpreted as being topographically higher than the dunes that
go around it, and several circular features seen at the top center may be
craters that are slowly being buried by the dunes. Since the dunes seem to
lie over the craters, the dune activity probably occurred later in time.
This image was taken in synthetic aperture mode and has a resolution of
approximately 350 meters (1,150 feet). North is toward the top left corner
of the image, which is approximately 160 kilometers (100 miles) long by
150 kilometers (90 miles) wide.
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.
