Fri, Feb 18, 2005
That's One Big Hole
A giant impact crater the size of Iowa was spotted on Saturn's
moon Titan by NASA's Cassini radar instrument during Tuesday's
Titan flyby.
Cassini flew within 1,577 kilometers (980 miles) of Titan's
surface and its radar instrument took detailed images of the
surface. This is the third close Titan flyby of the mission, which
began in July 2004, and only the second time the radar instrument
has examined Titan. Scientists see some things that look familiar,
along with scenes that are completely new.
"It's reassuring to look at two parts of Titan and see similar
things," said Dr. Jonathan Lunine, Cassini interdisciplinary
scientist from the University of Arizona, Tucson. "At the same
time, there are new and strange things."
This flyby is the first time that Cassini's radar and the
imaging camera overlapped. This overlap in coverage should be able
to provide more information about the surface features than either
technique alone. The 440-kilometer-wide (273-mile) crater
identified by the radar instrument was seen before with Cassini's
imaging cameras, but not in this detail.
A second radar image released today shows features nicknamed
"cat scratches". These parallel linear features are intriguing, and
may be formed by winds, like sand dunes, or by other geological
processes.
On Thursday, Cassini conducted its first close flyby of Saturn's
icy moon Enceladus (en-SELL-uh-duss) at a distance of approximately
1,180 kilometers (730 miles). Enceladus is one of the most
reflective objects in the solar system, so bright that its surface
resembles freshly fallen snow.
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