This week, Cassini returns to Titan for its thirty-fifth targeted encounter with Saturn's largest moon: Titan-34. The closest approach to Titan occurs on Thursday, 19 July, at 01:11:20 UT at an altitude of 1332 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 6.2 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach is 1.3° N and the encounter occurs on orbit number 48. This encounter is set up with two manoeuvres: an apoapsis manoeuvre on 8 July, and a Titan approach manoeuvre on 15 July. This is the first inbound Titan encounter since T24, and occurs just under two days before Saturn closest approach.
The ninth of fourteen science archive deliveries for the prime mission was completed on July 1 and is now available through the Planetary Data System (PDS). This delivery is comprised of Cassini science data obtained from July through September, 2006. Also, the first delivery of Cosmic Dust Analyser (CDA)- High Rate Detector (HRD) data was delivered to the PDS Small Bodies Node, and is currently being verified. It is expected to be accessible by the public within the next two months. The last delivery of Huygens data, Descent Imager Spectral Radiometer (DISR) data, is now available at the PDS Atmospheres node.
This view of Titan's surface was taken by the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 13, 2007, when it was approximately 125,000 kilometres away. The image shows Shangri-la -- a large, equatorial dark region revealed by radar observations to be covered in longitudinal dune fields. The bright, circular feature right of centre is a potential impact crater.
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North on Titan is up and rotated about 15 degrees to the right. This view was created by combining multiple images taken using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centred at 938 and 619 nanometers.
This close-up image of Titan was created by combining multiple images taken by the Cassini spaceprobe using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centred at 938 and 619 nanometers. Some processing artefacts remain in the finished image, including the two small, dark circles below and right of centre.
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The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 13, 2007 at a distance of approximately 237,000 kilometres from Titan. Image scale is 3 kilometres per pixel. Due to scattering of light by Titan's hazy atmosphere, the sizes of surface features that can be resolved are a few times larger than the actual pixel scale.
Bright mid-latitude clouds near the bottom of this view hint at the ongoing cycling of methane on Titan. These cloud streaks are near the same latitude as similar clouds observed above different longitudes on Titan. The view is centred on Titan's trailing hemisphere, over the 1,700 kilometre wide bright region known as Adiri. North on Titan is up and rotated 15 degrees to the right.
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This view was created by combining multiple images taken using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centred at 939 and 742 nanometers The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on May 13, 2007 at a distance of approximately 104,000 kilometres from Titan. Image scale is 12 kilometres per pixel. Due to scattering of light by Titan's hazy atmosphere, the sizes of surface features that can be resolved are a few times larger than the actual pixel scale.