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PIA06980: Lots of Hydrocarbons
This graph shows data acquired by NASA's Cassini spacecraft as it flew by Titan at an altitude of 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) on Oct. 26, 2004 revealing a diversity of hydrocarbons in the high atmosphere above Titan.
 Target Name:  Titan
 Is a satellite of:  Saturn
 Mission:  Cassini-Huygens 
 Spacecraft:  Cassini Orbiter
 Instrument:  Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer 
 Product Size:  1280 x 960 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  University of Michigan 
Ann Arbor 
 Primary Data Set:  Cassini 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA06980.tif (583.9 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA06980.jpg (142.1 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

This graph shows data acquired by Cassini as it flew by Titan at an altitude of 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) on Oct. 26, 2004 -- its closet approach yet to the hazy moon. The data is from Cassini's ion and neutral mass spectrometer, which detects charged and neutral particles in the atmosphere. The graph reveals a diversity of hydrocarbons in the high atmosphere above Titan, including benzene and diacetylene.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The ion and neutral mass spectrometer team is based at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

For latest news about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://www.nasa.gov/cassini. For more information about the mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/University of Michigan

Image Addition Date:
2004-10-27