Mon, Aug 02, 2004
Latest From Cassini...
Encircled in purple stratospheric haze, Saturn's largest moon,
Titan, appears as a softly glowing sphere in this colorized image
taken on July 3, 2004, one day after Cassini's first flyby of that
moon. Titan has a dense atmosphere composed primarily of nitrogen
with a few percent methane. The atmosphere can undergo
photochemical processes to form hazes.
Images like this one reveal some of the key steps in the
formation and evolution of Titan's haze. The process is thought to
begin in the high atmosphere, at altitudes above 400 kilometers
(250 miles), where ultraviolet light breaks down methane and
nitrogen molecules. The products are believed to react to form more
complex organic molecules containing carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen
that can combine to form the very small particles seen as haze.
This ultraviolet view of Titan has been falsely colored. The
main body is colored pale orange as seen in true color images.
Above the orange disc are two distinct layers of atmospheric haze
that have been brightened and falsely colored violet to enhance
their visibility. It is not currently understood why there are two
separate haze layers. This and other questions await answers as the
four-year Cassini tour continues, with many more planned fly-bys of
Titan. The upcoming October 2004 flyby of Titan will be 30 times
closer than that of July 2.
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 Cassini-Huygens mission for
NASA's Office of Space Science, 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 (CO).
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