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.
The first image, a 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. This obscuring haze was particularly frustrating for planetary
scientists following the NASA Voyager mission encounters in 1980-81.
Fortunately, Cassini is able to pierce Titan's veil at infrared
wavelengths. A single view of this composite is also available (see
PIA06230).
The second, 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. A single view of this image is also available (see PIA06228).
The third view, which is a 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 single view of this
composite is also available (see PIA06229).
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 (see PIA06139). At that time, clouds
could be seen near Titan's south pole, but in these more recent
observations no clouds are seen.
North on Titan is up and tilted 30 degrees to the right.
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.
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 .