[meteorite-list] Cassini Image: Titan Dunes over Possible Craters

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2007 13:13:06 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <200701252113.NAA14682_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=2461

Titan Dunes over Possible Craters (T23)
January 24, 2007

This radar image of Titan's well-known dunes is distinctive because
it may show an age relationship between different classes of
features on the surface of this frigid world.

Taken by Cassini's radar mapper on Jan. 13, 2007, during a flyby of
Titan, three kinds of terrain can be seen. Throughout the image, the
fine striping has been identified as dunes, possibly made from
organic material and formed by wind activity. Dunes are a common
landform on Titan (see Two Sides of Dunes and Swimming in Dunes).
The bright material at the lower right of the image is interpreted
as being topographically higher than the dunes that go around it,
and several circular features seen at the top center may be craters
that are slowly being buried by the dunes. Since the dunes seem to
lie over the craters, the dune activity probably occurred later in
time.

This image was taken in synthetic aperture mode and has a resolution
of approximately 350 meters (1,150 feet). North is toward the top
left corner of the image, which is approximately 160 kilometers
(100 miles) long by 150 kilometers (90 miles) wide.

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 mission for NASA's Science
Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was
designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument
was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team
members from the United States and several European countries.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm .

Credit: NASA/JPL
Received on Thu 25 Jan 2007 04:13:06 PM PST