Using its radar system, the Cassini spacecraft has imaged new lakes on
Titan.
The large dark patch seen on this image, at high latitudes surrounding
Titan's north pole, is most likely a hydrocarbon lake. Several dark
channels can be seen; the longest one at the left meanders over almost 100
kilometers (62 miles), and appears to drain into the lake. Some dark
channels are remarkably straight, suggesting possible faulting in the
subsurface. The bright landforms jutting into the lake indicate that old,
eroded landforms may have flooded. For a different radar view from the
same flyby see PIA01943.
This radar image was acquired by the Cassini radar instrument in synthetic
aperture mode on Oct. 9, 2006. The image is centered near 73 degrees north
latitude, 343 degrees west longitude, and measures about 300 kilometers by
140 kilometers (190 miles by 90 miles). Smallest details in this image are
about 500 meters (1,640 feet) across.
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 radar instrument team is based at JPL, 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.
