20 August 2007
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
NASA recently published a fascinating image of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. The image was acquired by the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft on 29 June 2007. Titan (5,150 km across) shone as a glowing ring, as it was occulting (eclipsing) the Sun.
This ring of light highlights all sunrises and sunsets occurring simultaneously on Titan. It is due to the scattering of sunlight in Titan's atmosphere....
The intriguing structure of Titan's north polar "hood" is visible at upper left. A thin, detached, high-altitude global haze layer envelopes the giant moon.
The image was taken in blue light with Cassini's wide-angle camera. The spacecraft was approximately 210,000 km from Titan.
Further Reading
The Cassini-Huygens Mission
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm
Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem
Senior Astronomy Specialist