This graph, produced using preliminary altimetry data from Cassini's
radar instrument, shows relative surface heights on Titan. The data were
acquired on Oct. 26, 2004, during Cassini's first close encounter with
Titan, at distances ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 kilometers (3,100 to
6,200 miles). The location observed is near latitude 25 degrees north,
longitude 5 degrees west.
The data show a variation in height of only about 150 meters (490 feet)
over the 400-kilometer-long (250-mile-long) track, indicating that in
this region Titan is remarkably flat. Fine details in the data are likely
to be noise, and not surface features. The area marked "downlink data
dropout" was lost during transmission from the spacecraft to Earth but
will be recovered by a later data replay.
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 instrument
team is based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
For the latest news about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit
http://www.nasa.gov/cassini. For more information about the mission visit
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
