Titan's Magnetic Field Signature During the First Cassini Encounter

BACKES, HEIKO; NEUBAUER, FRITZ M.; DOUGHERTY, MICHELE K.; ACHILLEOS, NICHOLAS; ANDRÉ, NICOLAS; ARRIDGE, CHRISTOPHER S.;; BERTUCCI, CESAR; JONES, GERAINT H.; KHURANA, KRISHAN K.; RUSSELL, CHRISTOPHER T.; WENNMACHER, ALEXANDRE

SCIENCE

AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE

Año: 2005

0036-8075

The magnetic field signature obtained by Cassini during its first close encounter with Titan on 26 October 2004 is presented and explained in terms of an advanced model. Titan was inside the saturnian magnetosphere. A magnetic field minimum before closest approach marked Cassini's entry into the magnetic ionopause layer. Cassini then left the northern and entered the southern magnetic tail lobe. The magnetic field before and after the encounter was approximately constant for ~20 Titan radii, but the field orientation changed exactly at the location of Titan's orbit. No evidence of an internal magnetic field at Titan was detected.