Fact Sheet
Banishing the Smog
This false-color image from the Cassini spacecraft is the most detailed picture ever seen of the surface of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. A layer of orange "smog" tops Titan's thick, cold atmosphere, hiding the surface from view. But Cassini used infrared filters to peer through the haze and see the surface. The bright white spot at lower right is a patch of methane-ice clouds in the atmosphere. The green areas are made primarily of frozen water, while the yellow areas are rich in hydrocarbons. Cassini's images show no lakes or oceans of liquid methane, which many scientists had expected to see. Cassini will snap much better views of Titan when it flies much closer to the big moon in October. The Huygens probe that Cassini carries will parachute to the surface of Titan in January. [Credit: NASA/JPL/Univ. Arizona]
|