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Titan Flyby (T-70) – June 21, 2010

The Cassini spacecraft looks at the dark side of Saturn's largest moon. The narrowing circle of light surrounding Titan is produced by sunlight scattering through Titan's atmosphere.
The Cassini spacecraft looks at the dark side of Saturn's largest moon. The narrowing circle of light surrounding Titan is produced by sunlight scattering through Titan's atmosphere.

T-70: The Closest Flyby

Cassini flew to within a mere 880 kilometers (547 miles) of Titan's surface during the T-70 flyby, the lowest Titan flyby in the entire mission. The cloud-skimming altitude and orientation (closest approach was in the dayside ionosphere) made this the absolute top priority flyby for the magnetometer (MAG) team, which is searching for evidence of a possible Titanian magnetic field. The flyby ended on a high note as the ultra violet imaging spectrograph (UVIS) instrument captured a stellar occultation outbound from Titan.

Titan Flyby at a Glance

Date
June 21, 2010

Altitude
547 miles (880 km)

Speed
13,000 mph (5.9 km/sec)