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Titan Flyby (T-82): Up Close in Infrared

The Cassini spacecraft examines Titan's north polar hood, the part of the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon appearing dark at the top of this image. The image was taken in visible violet light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 19, 2011.
The Cassini spacecraft examines Titan's north polar hood, the part of the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon appearing dark at the top of this image. The image was taken in visible violet light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 19, 2011.

T-82: Up Close in Infrared

During this close Titan flyby, the composite infrared spectrometer (CIRS) performed a wide variety of observations, including limb sounding, and mapping of surface and atmospheric temperatures. Far-infrared limb sounding near closest approach reached the most northerly latitude of the Solstice Mission (75 degrees North) until 2015, providing insights into the transition of the northern polar circulation from spring to summer, and included a search for possible condensates. The Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) rode-along to detect clouds to monitor climatic changes after the equinox.T-82 was a dusk sector equatorial flyby across Titan's magnetic tail. Similar in geometry, but at a lower altitude (2,363 miles, or 3,803 kilometers) than T-78, Cassini was able to provide a better characterization of the magnetotail by providing samples at different radial distances from the moon at a fixed local time.

Titan Flyby at a Glance

Date
Feb. 19, 2012

Altitude
2,363 miles (3,803 km)

Speed
13,000 mph (5.8 km/sec)