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Full Version: T74 Flyby (February 18, 2011 / Rev 145)
Unmanned Spaceflight.com > Outer Solar System > Saturn > Cassini Huygens > Titan
Juramike
T74 website link: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/flybys/titan20110218/
Mongo
From the link:

This is a post-dusk, upstream, high altitude 'blind' flyby that will be useful to characterize the background magnetic field in which Titan sits. The Cassini plasma spectrometer (CAPS) will observe Titan's plasma interaction as the moon moves from south to north of Saturn's solar-wind-warped magnetodisk from one solstice to the next. Radio science (RSS) will conduct a collaborative observation with CAPS. The RSS instrument team has two related goals: measure the fluid and dynamic Love number of Titan and determine Titan's geoid. The determination of the fluid Love number is the only way to find out with confidence whether Titan has a liquid ocean. The determination of the geoid is crucial to understanding the internal structure of Titan through correlative analysis of the gravity and Radar planetary radii data.

Sounds like a very important flyby for the internal Titanology investigators.
titanicrivers
Spoke a little too soon in my last post! There were good NAC views on Feb 19th afterall. Below shows the corner of N00168165 from 249k Km image and compares with a raw image from July 2009 (N00138516, also from 249K km) showing a possible albedo difference where they overlap. While not compelling the Feb 19 image suggests darkening of lower half of bright region and hints at some tiny circular dark areas.
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titanicrivers
The Feb 19th NAC image is compared with the projected 12/20/2010 NAC image dark albedo change below. There is reasonable correspondence with the 12/20 darkening and the darker right lower border of the Feb 19th image.
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titanicrivers
Side by side enhanced views of the overlapping areas in the 2011 and 2009 images of Senkyo. Arrows point to darkened shapes suggestive of playa.
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titanicrivers
Potential extent of the S Senkyo albedo change as of Dec 20, 2010 (left). By Feb 19th Cassini imaged the northern edge of the dark triangular area (right). Could be wrong, but it appears to be a series of partially filled playa.

edit: I realized the scale of the images posted were in error and so have replaced the previous figure with the one below that more accurately shows the Dec 20 albedo change and extent and subsequent Feb 19th image that provided a limited view of the northern edge of the region showing what may be a series of partially wet playa compatible with a deluge from the 'arrow' storm of T72.
Click to view attachment
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