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

[Ron Baalke]

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