Cassini's three views of Titan
Sun Apr 24, 2005 at 10:32 UTC
These three views of Titan from the Cassini spacecraft illustrate how different the same place can look in different wavelengths of light. Cassini's cameras have numerous filters that reveal features above and beneath the shroud of Titan's atmosphere.
All of these images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera on April 16, 2005, at distances ranging from approximately 173,000 to 168,200 kilometers (107,500 to 104,500 miles) from Titan and from a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 56 degrees. Resolution in the images approximately 10 kilometers per pixel.
North on Titan is up and tilted 30 degrees to the right.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
This image composite was created with images taken during the Cassini spacecraft's closest flyby of Titan on April 16, 2005. Cassini's cameras have numerous filters that reveal features above and beneath the shroud of Titan's atmosphere.
This monochrome view shows what Titan looks like at 938 nanometers, a near-infrared wavelength that allows Cassini to see through the hazy atmosphere and down to the surface. The view was created by combining three separate images taken with this filter, in order to improve the visibility of surface features. The variations in brightness on the surface are real differences in the reflectivity of the materials on Titan.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
This false-color composite was created by combining two infrared images (taken at 938 and 889 nanometers) with a visible light image (taken at 420 nanometers). Green represents areas where Cassini is able to see down to the surface. Red represents areas high in Titan's stratosphere where atmospheric methane is absorbing sunlight. Blue along the moon's outer edge represents visible violet wavelengths at which the upper atmosphere and detached hazes are better seen.
A similar false-color image showing the opposite hemisphere of Titan was created from images taken during Cassini's first close flyby of the smoggy moon in October 2004. At that time, clouds could be seen near Titan's south pole, but in these more recent observations no clouds are seen.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
This natural color composite is a combination of images taken through three filters that are sensitive to red, green and violet light. It shows approximately what Titan would look like to the human eye: a hazy orange globe surrounded by a tenuous, bluish haze. The orange color is due to the hydrocarbon particles which make up Titan's atmospheric haze.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
