Map of Xanadu
Oct. 24th, 2004 07:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmcirvinOn Tuesday, Cassini, which is on the inbound leg of its first complete orbit of Saturn, makes its first really close (1200 km) flyby of Titan. Yesterday it took some early pictures from about 1,500,000 km away. NASA hasn't published any processed ones yet, but from the raw image archive I was able to mess with a couple of them to produce a nice hemispheric surface-feature map:
This is the leading hemisphere of Titan in its orbit around Saturn. North is to the right. The bright area in the center is the region informally known as Xanadu; you can just see the west arms of the "Lying H" poking over the horizon at the bottom. The bright spots on the left are clouds; that's the persistent white south polar storm that has been seen in telescopic images from Earth, and on the first Cassini encounter.
I think these pictures are already better than any previously taken of that hemisphere, with better coverage of the northern regions.
This is the leading hemisphere of Titan in its orbit around Saturn. North is to the right. The bright area in the center is the region informally known as Xanadu; you can just see the west arms of the "Lying H" poking over the horizon at the bottom. The bright spots on the left are clouds; that's the persistent white south polar storm that has been seen in telescopic images from Earth, and on the first Cassini encounter.
I think these pictures are already better than any previously taken of that hemisphere, with better coverage of the northern regions.