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Bytram writes:

Phys.org reports: Success! Cassini Flies by Titan, Collects Intel on Mysterious Lakes

NASA's Cassini mission flew past Titan early Wednesday morning, successfully completing a complex maneuver that will help scientists better understand one of the solar system's most intriguing moons.

Beginning around midnight, a team of scientists and engineers guided the spacecraft into an orbit that allowed them to bounce a radio signal off the surface of Titan toward Earth, where it was received by a land-based telescope array 1 billion miles away.

"We are essentially using Titan as a mirror," said Essam Marouf of San Jose State University, who's a member of the Cassini radio science team. "And the nature of the echo can tell us about the nature of Titan's surface, whether it is liquid or solid, and the physical properties of the material."

NASA used the same approach in an earlier mission and are using this fly-by to gather additional information about the surface of Titan, specifically in the region between the Titan lakes Ligea Mare and Kraken Mare. The data-collection period lasted nearly 12 hours. Data is currently being analyzed and researchers hope to report early results next week.