CICLOPS: Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS
This Side of Paradise

Named for other-worldly paradises, Titan's Shangri-La and Adiri became home to the Huygens probe in 2005. The craft touched down on the border between the lowland dunes of Shangri-La and the higher terrains of Adiri.

This image shows the opposite side of the moon from Huygen's home, the side which always faces Saturn. The dark regions of Senkyo and Aaru comprise the center of the image.

Like Shangri-La and Adiri, these regions' namesakes reflect heavenly aspirations. The Egyptian fields of Aaru were paradise for the god Osiris. Senkyo is the Japanese realm of aloofness and serenity free from worldly cares.

North is up in this image. Senkyo is the equatorial region to the right of the center of the image. Aaru is above Senkyo.

The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 12, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 938 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2.361 million kilometers (1.467 million miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 35 degrees. Image scale is 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel.

The Cassini Equinox Mission is a joint United States and European endeavor. 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 imaging team consists of scientists from the US, England, France, and Germany. The imaging operations center and team lead (Dr. C. Porco) are based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini Equinox Mission visit http://ciclops.org, http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Released: January 27, 2009 (PIA 10565)
Image/Caption Information 		  This Side of Paradise
PIA 10565
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