May 16, 2005 Scientists on Huygens' Descent Imager Spectral
Radiometer (DISR) experiment have generated new views of
Saturn's giant moon, Titan. The European Space Agency's Huygens
probe descended onto Titan on January 14, 2005. The University
of Arizona-led DISR team released mosaics made from raw,
unprocessed images days after Huygens landed, but they continue
processing the data. The team now has produced the first
enhanced mosaic images. They used special image projection
techniques in combining a series of images taken as Huygens
rotated on its axis 20 kilometers, or 12.4 miles, above Titan's
surface. The images are online at the DISR Web site. and the
European Space Agency Web site. DISR took a series of
photographs of the moon's surface in sets of three, or triplets,
as Huygens descended through Titan's atmosphere. The images
partially overlap because the probe rotated during the descent
and because the fields-of-view of different cameras overlapped.
Scientists used physical features seen in more than