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Science 13 May 2005:
Vol. 308. no. 5724, pp. 992 - 995
DOI: 10.1126/science.1109763
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Reports

Titan's Magnetic Field Signature During the First Cassini Encounter

Heiko Backes,1* Fritz M. Neubauer,1 Michele K. Dougherty,2 Nicholas Achilleos,2 Nicolas André,3 Christopher S. Arridge,2 Cesar Bertucci,2 Geraint H. Jones,4 Krishan K. Khurana,5 Christopher T. Russell,5 Alexandre Wennmacher1

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.

1 Institut für Geophysik und Meteorologie, Universität zu Köln, Albertus Magnus Platz, 50678 Cologne, Germany.
2 Space and Atmospheric Physics, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK.
3 Centre d'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France.
4 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109–8099, USA.
5 Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095–1567, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: backes{at}geo.uni-koeln.de

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