Titan's surface revealed


 
Titan's surface revealed
 
 
5 July 2004
 
Piercing the layer of smog enshrouding Titan, these images from the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens spacecraft reveal an exotic surface covered with a variety of materials in the southern hemisphere.
 
Using near-infrared light, these images taken by the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer reveal the surface with unusual clarity. This colour image shows a false-colour combination of three previous images taken with different colour filters.

The yellow areas correspond to the hydrocarbon-rich regions, while the green areas are the icier regions. Here, the methane cloud appears white, as it is bright in all three wavelengths. A circular feature that may be a crater is visible in the north.
  
 
 
Titan - Infrared views of the surface at three wavelengths
 
 
 
 

At Saturn and Titan

 •  At Saturn and Titan (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/index.html)

Related articles

 •  Life on Titan? (http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM696HHZTD_index_0.html)
 •  Cassini-Huygens enters orbit around the ringed planet (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMAMG25WVD_Expanding_0.html)
 •  Cassini-Huygens mission facts (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEMVOZ1VQUD_0.html)
 •  Solving the puzzles of Saturn and Titan (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEM3782VQUD_0.html)

Related links

 •  NASA JPL Cassini-Huygens site (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm)
 •  Italian Space Agency (ASI) (http://www.asi.it)
 •  Music2Titan.com (http://music2titan.com)