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Hovering Over Titan

Latest image of Titan available as desktop

Successful Huygens Test: Last Before Separation
Paris, France (ESA) Nov 24, 2004- ESA's Huygens probe is in good health and has passed its sixteenth 'In-Flight Checkout'. This in-flight checkout procedure is the last one planned before separation of the Huygens probe from Cassini in December this year.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 24, 2004
A mosaic of nine processed images recently acquired during Cassini's first very close flyby of Saturn's moon Titan on Oct. 26, 2004, constitutes the most detailed full-disc view of the mysterious moon.

The view is centered on 15 degrees south latitude, and 156 degrees west longitude. Brightness variations across the surface and bright clouds near the south pole are easily seen.

The images that comprise the mosaic have been processed to reduce the effects of the atmosphere and to sharpen surface features. The mosaic has been trimmed to show only the illuminated surface and not the atmosphere above the edge of the moon.

The Sun was behind Cassini, so nearly the full disc is illuminated. Pixel scales of the composite images vary from 2 to 4 kilometers per pixel (1.2 to 2.5 miles per pixel).

Surface features are best seen near the center of the disc, where the spacecraft is looking directly downwards; the contrast becomes progressively lower and surface features become fuzzier toward the outside, where the spacecraft is peering through haze, which washes out surface features.

The brighter region on the right side and equatorial region is named Xanadu Regio. Scientists are actively debating what processes may have created the bizarre surface brightness patterns seen here.

The images hint at a young surface with no obvious craters. However, the exact nature of that activity, whether tectonic, wind-blown, fluvial, marine or volcanic is still to be determined. The images comprising this mosaic were acquired from distances ranging from 650,000 kilometers (400,000 miles) to 300,000 kilometers (200,000 miles).

Related Links
Cassini-Huygens mission at JPL
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Saturn's Rhea - A Real Shiner
Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 23, 2004
Saturn's moon Rhea shows off the moon equivalent of a black eye - a bright, rayed crater near its eastern limb. Rhea is about half the size of Earth's moon. At 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across, it is the second-largest moon orbiting Saturn.



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