CICLOPS: Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS
Titan Mosaic: December 2004

Titan Mosaic: December 2004
PIA 06159
Avg Rating: 10/10

Full Size 1952x2157:
JPEG 246 KB
TIFF 4.2 MB

Half Size 976x1078:
JPEG 79 KB
TIFF 1.1 MB
   This mosaic of images taken at 28 footprints shows the regional coverage taken during Cassini's second encounter of Titan on December 13, 2004.

Cutting through the middle of the image is a sharp boundary between the bright region known as Xanadu Regio on the right and dark terrain to the left. This mosaic includes some areas seen at regional scales in October 2004 (see PIA 06124) as well as additional areas to the north and east not seen during that flyby. Among the new features seen in this mosaic is a strangely shaped bright features near the center of the mosaic as well as clouds near the bottom of the mosaic (see PIA 06110).

The northern portion of the bright/dark boundary appears to be more complex than the arcing and sharp boundary seen further to the south. Cassini scientists continue to examine images such as this to determine the cause of this terrain.

The images in this mosaic have been processed to enhance surface features and sharpen albedo boundaries. All images were taken at a special filter in the near-infrared at 938 nanometers that provides the camera's best view of Titan's surface features. The images making up this mosaic were taken at distances ranging from 80,900 to 42,400 kilometers (50,300 to 26,300 miles) and have pixel scales ranging from 930 to 475 meters (3,050 to 1,560 feet). This mosaic is scaled to 1.2 kilometers (0.75 miles) per pixel and is centered at 5 degrees south latitude, 138 degrees west longitude on Titan. Black areas on this mosaic represent areas where images were not taken during this observation or were not returned from Cassini.

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 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-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Released: December 16, 2004 (PIA 06159)
Image/Caption Information