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Radar Image Shows Titan's Surface Live And In "Color"

Saturn's moon Titan shows a sharp contrast between its smooth and rough edges in this new false-color radar image. Image Credit: NASA/JPL.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 08, 2004
Saturn's moon Titan shows a sharp contrast between its smooth and rough edges in this new false-color radar image.

Titan's surface lies beneath a thick coat of hazy clouds, but Cassini's radar instrument can peer through to show finer surface features. Scientists have added color to emphasize finer details on Titan, as shown in the image.

Brighter areas may correspond to rougher terrains, slopes facing the radar, or different materials. The pink colors enhance smaller details on the surface, while the green color represents smoother areas.

Winding linear features that cut across dark areas may be ridges or channels, although their nature is not yet understood. A large dark circular feature is seen at the western (top left) end of the image, but very few features on Titan resembling fresh impact craters are seen.

The area shown is in the northern hemisphere of Titan and is about 150 kilometers (93 miles) wide by 300 kilometers (186 miles) long.

The image is a part of a larger strip created from data taken on Oct. 26, 2004, when the Cassini spacecraft flew approximately 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) above Titan's surface.

The radar instrument works by bouncing radio signals off Titan's surface and timing their return. This is similar to timing the returning echo of your voice across a canyon to tell how wide the canyon is. Approximately 1 percent of Titan's surface was mapped during the Oct. 26 flyby.

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Titan: The Day Of Descent
Paris, France (ESA) Nov 05, 2004
When ESA's Huygens probe plunges into the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, on 14 January 2005, telescopes on Earth will be watching the remote world. Observations of Titan from Earth will help to understand the global condition of the atmosphere, while Huygens is passing through a tiny section of it.



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