This natural color image shows Titan's upper atmosphere -- an active place
where methane molecules are being broken apart by solar ultraviolet light
and the byproducts combine to form compounds like ethane and acetylene.
The haze preferentially scatters blue and ultraviolet wavelengths of
light, making its complex layered structure more easily visible at the
shorter wavelengths used in this image.
A movie sequence of images, taken around the same time as this color view,
shows movement of the haze layers over the course of a few hours (see
PIA06223).
Lower down in the atmosphere, the haze turns into a globe-enshrouding smog
of complex organic molecules. This thick, orange-colored haze absorbs
visible sunlight, allowing only perhaps 10 percent of the light to reach
the surface. The thick haze is also inefficient at holding in and then
re-radiating infrared (thermal) energy back down to the surface. Thus,
despite the fact that Titan has a thicker atmosphere than Earth, the
thick global haze causes the greenhouse effect there to be somewhat weaker
than it is on Earth.
Images taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera using red,
green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color
view. The images were obtained at a distance of approximately 9,500
kilometers (5,900 miles) from Titan on March 31, 2005. The image scale is
approximately 400 meters (1,300 feet) per pixel.
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.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.