- Original Caption Released with Image:
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This image of Saturn's moon Titan from the Synthetic Aperture Radar
instrument on the Cassini spacecraft shows Shikoku Facula, a region that
is bright in both radar and visible wavelengths. This radar image was
taken on April 30, 2006. For a visible-light image of Shikoku Facula see
PIA07752.
A circular feature with a radar-dark interior, probably an impact crater,
is seen near the top of the image and is about 35 kilometers (22 miles) in
diameter. Numerous linear dark features are seen running across the image,
mostly on the right-hand side. These features were seen on other radar
images (see PIA08425 and PIA03567) and interpreted as dune fields. Bright,
ridge-like features mainly on the lower half of the image may be
topographically high regions. Radar-dark, thin, sinuous features, which
may be channels draining from the bright to the dark regions, are seen
below the circular feature.
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.
- Image Credit:
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NASA/JPL
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