This image was taken with the Cassini Synthetic Aperture Radar instrument
on Oct. 28, 2005.
This was the fourth flyby of Titan during which radar images were
obtained, and this pass considerably expanded the coverage of Titan's
surface.
The swath is about 6,150 kilometers kilometers (3,821 miles) long,
extending from 7 degrees north to 18 degrees south latitude and 179 west
to 320 west longitude.
The spatial resolution of the radar images ranges from about 300 meters
(984 feet) per pixel to about 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) per pixel. It
covers the area where the Huygens probe landed (eastern end of the swath),
giving geologic context for the landing site.
The most ubiquitous features in this swath are "cat scratches," which are
interpreted as longitudinal dunes and were first seen in the February 2005
flyby, see PIA03555.
Also prominent are long, bright ridges, concentrated near the eastern end
of the swath. These may be tectonic in origin, and are seen for the first
time here. No impact craters are seen, indicating a young surface.
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 was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar
instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, 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.
