Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

 

NASA recently published an exquisite image of Saturn's largest moon, Titan (5,150 km across), obtained by the Cassini spacecraft.

 

The ultraviolet image shows Titan's stratosphere, which rotates about the Titan faster than the moon's axial rotation. Titan shows distinct east-west banded pattern.

 

This view is reminiscent of Titan's giant parent planet, which shows a banded appearance in visible light.

 

Titan's halo is also distinctively visible. It is a detached, high-altitude global layer of haze. It is often prominent in ultraviolet images.

 

The image was obtained by the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera, on 25 December 2006, at a distance of approximately 1.3 million km from Titan. The Sun-Titan-spacecraft angle was 123°. Image scale is 8 km per pixel.

 

Further reading

Cassini-Huygens Mission

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm

Titan's polar clouds

http://www.bibalex.org/Eclipse2006/News_Details.aspx?id=196

Methane lakes on Titan

http://www.bibalex.org/Eclipse2006/News_Details.aspx?id=183

 

 

Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem

Senior Astronomy Specialist