Cassini returns to southern hemisphere of Titan

NASA'S Cassini spacecraft will return to Titan's southern hemisphere on a flyby today, Jan. 12, plunging to within about 1,050 kilometers (about 670 miles) of the hazy moon's surface.

During this pass, the onboard radar instrument will scan Ontario Lacus, the largest lake in the southern hemisphere, in a quest to learn more about the liquid methane and ethane in the lake and obtain more detailed topographical information about the shoreline.

Titan is the only other body in the solar system besides Earth that is known to have stable liquid on its surface.

This will also be the most southern pass in the mission for the ion and neutral mass spectrometer instrument, which will probe the composition and density of the atmosphere near Titan's south pole. The atmospheric data collected on this pass will be paired with a similar sampling mission near Titan's north pole during the most recent flyby, 16 days earlier.

Cassini last flew by Titan on Dec. 27, 2009 California time, or Dec. 28 Universal Time. Although this latest flyby is dubbed "T65," planning changes early in the orbital tour have made this the 66th targeted flyby of Titan. This flyby also comes two days before the fifth anniversary of the landing of the Huygens probe on the surface of Titan.

 

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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