This area imaged by the Cassini radar system during the spacecraft's third
close flyby of Titan on Feb. 15, 2005, is just to the east of the Circus
Maximus impact feature (see PIA07365).
The white lines could be channels in which fluid flowed from the slopes
of Circus Maximus toward the bright area in the upper right. Areas that
appear bright at radar wavelengths may be rough or inclined toward the
direction of illumination. The bright area in this image could have
received outflows of debris from the channels, making the surface appear
radar bright. In this sense, the area may resemble somewhat the rubble
strewn plains in the region where the Huygens probe landed. The fluid
carrying the debris was most likely liquid methane, given the extremely
cold ambient conditions at the surface of Titan.
The longest channel in the feature is approximately 200 kilometers long
(124 miles). The seams running across the image are an effect of the
matching of the different radar beams to assemble the full image.
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 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.
