This map illustrates the planned imaging coverage for the Descent
Imager/Spectral Radiometer, onboard the European Space Agency's Huygens
probe during the probe's descent toward Titan's surface on Jan. 14, 2005.
The Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer is one of two NASA instruments on
the probe.
The colored lines delineate regions that will be imaged at different
resolutions as the probe descends. On each map, the site where Huygens
is predicted to land is marked with a yellow dot. This area is in a
boundary between dark and bright regions.
This map was made from the images taken by the Cassini spacecraft cameras
on Oct. 26, 2004, at image scales of 4 to 6 kilometers (2.5 to 3.7 miles)
per pixel. The images were obtained using a narrow band filter centered
at 938 nanometers -- a near-infrared wavelength (invisible to the human
eye) at which light can penetrate Titan's atmosphere to reach the surface
and return through the atmosphere to be detected by the camera. The images
have been processed to enhance surface details. Only brightness variations
on Titan's surface are seen; the illumination is such that there is no
shading due to topographic variations.
For about two hours, the probe will fall by parachute from an altitude of
160 kilometers (99 miles) to Titan's surface. During the descent the
camera on the probe and five other science instruments will send data
about the moon's atmosphere and surface back to the Cassini spacecraft
for relay to Earth. The Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer will take
pictures as the probe slowly spins, and some these will be made into
panoramic views of Titan's surface.
This map shows the expected coverage by the Descent Imager/Spectral
Radiometer side-looking imager and two downward-looking imagers -- one
providing medium-resolution and the other high-resolution coverage. The
planned coverage by the medium- and high-resolution imagers is the
subject of the second map PIA06173.
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 Science Mission
Directorate, 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. The Descent
Imager/Spectral team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson,
Ariz.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit,
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page,
http://ciclops.org.