The six close-up views of Titan's surface shown here are composed of
images acquired by the Cassini spacecraft during flybys in October (see
PIA06158) and December (see PIA06159) of 2004. These close-up views illustrate
that a variety of processes have shaped the surface of Titan, just as
diverse geologic processes are responsible for what we see on Earth's
surface.
Image (a) shows a prominent bright-dark boundary near the western edge of
the Xanadu region which exhibits a sharp, angular edge between the
materials. Three bright, discontinuous circles can be seen (two near the
top of the image and another near the lower left). These may be large
impact craters; the upper two are approximately 30 kilometers (18.6 miles)
in diameter and the lower one is approximately 50 kilometers (30 miles)
in diameter. Titan's thick atmosphere will screen out small projectiles,
but if the surface were as old as Titan itself, it should have many more
craters of these sizes. Therefore, Cassini scientists think that, like
Earth's surface, Titan's surface has been modified more recently by other
geologic processes. However, such processes on Titan may take much longer
than on Earth, acting over hundreds of millions of years.
Image (b) shows bright features that appear to be streamlined as if were
they formed by winds in Titan's atmosphere moving from west to east. The
landing site of the Huygens probe is in the upper left corner of this
image (see PIA07239).
Image (c) shows a bright feature surrounded by dark material. Several
long, dark and narrow lines running through the bright area may be larger
examples of the dark channels seen by the Huygens probe (see PIA07236).
These lines are on the order of 2 kilometers (1 mile) wide, and tens of
kilometers long.
Image (d) shows dark material within the bright area to the west of
Xanadu. The linear nature of these features suggests that they may have
formed by faulting. They may be dark due to modification by other surface
processes occurring on Titan, in the same way that on Earth, fault-lines
can be enhanced by erosion and/or deposition of material by water and
wind.
Image (e) shows brightness variations in the region southeast of the
Huygens landing site. The features indicated by arrows exhibit shapes
that are similar to drainage patterns seen on Earth and Mars, where the
source of the liquid is underground springs rather than rainfall.
Image (f) shows a region near the northwestern edge of Xanadu where the
boundary between the bright and dark materials is quite complicated. Here
some of the bright patches appear as if they represent thin surface plates
that have been broken apart and spread apart over underlying dark
material.
The white bars above each image are 200 kilometers (124 miles) long.
Imaging Titan through its thick atmosphere is a challenge, and the narrow,
straight lines within the images are seams between individual images that
have not been completely removed. North is to the top of each frame.
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 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.