In this image taken by the Cassini radar system, a previously unseen style
of lakes is revealed. The lakes here assume complex shapes and are among
the darkest seen so far on Titan.
The lake at the left is reminiscent both in form and scale of the flooded
drainage system, Lake Powell in Utah and Arizona. However, the Titan lake
has been filled with liquid methane and ethane rather than water. In the
lake at right, older terrain may have been deeply cut by river valleys
before it was flooded by the embaying lake. For a different radar view
from the same flyby see PIA01942.
This radar image was acquired Oct. 9, 2006, and is centered near 80
degrees north latitude, 357 degrees west longitude. It measures about 310
kilometers by 100 kilometers (190 miles by 62 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.
