A bright Red Spot on Titan (2)

This dramatic color (but not true color) image was taken during the April 16, 2005, encounter with Titan. North is to the right. In the center it shows the dark lanes of the "H"-shaped feature discovered from Earth and first seen by Cassini last July shortly after it arrived in the Saturn system. At the southwestern edge of the "H" feature, near Titan's limb, is an area roughly 500 Km across. That area is 50% brighter when viewed using light with a wavelength of 5 microns, than the bright continent-sized area known as Xanadu. At wavelengths shorter than 5 microns, the spot is not unusually bright. The strange spectral character of this enigmatic feature has left the Team with 4 possibilities for its source: the spot could be a surface coloration, a mountain range, a cloud or a hot spot. The hot spot hypothesis will be tested during a Titan flyby on July 2, 2006, when the visual and infrared spectrometer will take nighttime images of this area. If it is hot, it will glow at night.