Cassini Mission to Saturn and its Moons 

NASA / JPL

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Titan Surface

NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) false color image showing dark plains on the surface of Titan. Titan is one of the 36 known moons orbiting the planet Saturn. Surface features shown are approximately 3 miles (5 km) from the Huygens probe's landing site. The image was obtained from digital data gathered as the Huygens module descended from orbit to Titan's surface on 14 Jan 2005.

 The above image was released by the JPL on 01 December 2005.

The false color image is a stereo representation of Titan's surface showing changes in altitude with changing color. The resolution is approximately  45 ft/pixel (14 m/pixel).

The blue color depicts the lowest altitude and red has the greatest altitude.

The red ridges  in the center are approx. 150 ft (50 m) high

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Next Encounter:  Titan Flyby  26 Dec 2005

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From UA News Services, 520-621-1877, Writer - Agnieszka Baier

This article is from a news release dated  07 Dec   2002.  The article is quoted from the News Release Disseminated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

December 7, 2002  Reference Titan ( A Saturn Moon )

"Enshrouded in an atmosphere impenetrable to the visible light, Saturn's largest moon has never revealed its surface. No one has been able to see through the orange-brown atmospheric haze and admire the unknown world below."

"Still, researchers know that Titan is a planet-size organic reactor where "building blocks" of life are being generated as they might have been created 4 billion years ago on Earth."

"In some ways, Titan resembles early Earth. Its dense atmosphere is mostly composed of nitrogen and some methane. Scientists once believed that early Earth's atmosphere was reducing like Titan's and that it allowed fast assembly of long organic molecules. Today many argue that Earth's primordial atmosphere contained nitrogen and a lot of carbon dioxide."

"This type of atmosphere is neutral for oxidation and reduction reactions and does not allow an easy and direct formation of long chains of organic molecules," says University of Arizona planetary sciences Professor Jonathan I. Lunine. "Some particular circumstances may be required to create them.

Although there isn't much carbon dioxide on Titan, if we see that complex organic molecules are created on Titan, it would be a very important lesson about the early Earth and the environment in which life originated."

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Contact Information

Jonathan Lunine

520-621-2789 jlunine@lpl.arizona.edu

"Titan has organics, but in what form and how much is not clear.

 These molecules are generated in the atmosphere and over time

 are deposited on the moon's surface. Until recently, researchers

 have been very careful in their speculations about what might be

 happening after these molecules get to the surface of Titan,"

 Lunine says."

"The atmospheric pressure at Titan's surface is 50 percent higher

than on Earth, which is pressure comparable with pressure at the

bottom of a 10-foot-deep swimming pool. Titan's thick

atmosphere protects the surface and organics from harmful

cosmic rays and ultraviolet radiation."

"The NASA Cassini spacecraft launched in 1997 with the

 mission to study Saturn and its moons will reach its target in

 2004. It carries the European

Space Agency's Huygens probe,

which will descend through Titan's

atmosphere and land on the surface.

The Cassini-Huygens mission will

conduct a 4-year survey of Titan's

surface and atmosphere through

remote sensing and in-situ techniques."

"The Cassini mission has the potential to teach us as much about

Titan as we know about Mars today. We will learn about the

surface composition, find out more about the atmosphere, and

see what the surface looks like. The Cassini orbiter will measure

the shape of Titan's gravitational field, which will help determine

the nature of Titan's interior," Lunine says."

"Titan will be full of surprises. One of them will be organic

chemistry processes on the surface. It would be interesting to see

what their products might be," he adds.  "I also hope that

Cassini-Huygens will tell us if there are places on Titan where the

organic molecules look different, and therefore, might be

modified over time. Particularly exciting would be finding out if

there are any variations in the apparent organic composition that

are correlated with impact carters or sites of volcanism. If that

turns out to be true, these should be the places to visit in the

future," he says."

"Could Titan host primitive life? "It is not the right place, it is

 too cold," Lunine says."   NASA / JPL

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