This image taken on Oct. 24, 2004, reveals Titan's bright
"continent-sized" terrain known as Xanadu. It was acquired with the
narrow angle camera on Cassini's imaging science subsystem through a
spectral filter centered at 938 nanometers, a wavelength region at which
Titan's surface can be most easily detected. The surface is seen at a
higher contrast than in previously released imaging science subsystem
images due to a lower phase angle (Sun-Titan-Cassini angle), which
minimizes scattering by the haze.
The image shows details about 10 times smaller than those seen from
Earth. Surface materials with different brightness properties (or
albedos) rather than topographic shading are highlighted. The image
has been calibrated and slightly enhanced for contrast. It will be
further processed to reduce atmospheric blurring and to optimize mapping
of surface features. The origin and geography of Xanadu remain mysteries
at this range. Bright features near the south pole (bottom) are clouds.
On Oct. 26, Cassini will acquire images of features in the central-left
portion of this image from a position about 100 times closer.
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 and its two onboard cameras,
were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based
at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit,
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page,
http://ciclops.org.
