A possible scenario for the internal structure of Titan, which includes a global subsurface ocean beneath an icy outer shell, as inferred by radio science data collected by the Cassini spacecraft.
A particularly strong jet stream churns through Saturn's northern hemisphere in this false-color view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
Clouds associated with the jet stream can be seen in the upper right about a third of the way down from the top of this image. The jet stream clouds appear like a thin, bright orange line here. Moving west and closer to the center of the image, the feature drops south. Farther to the west of this discontinuity, or drop, a blurrier form of the jet stream clouds continues to move along the latitude circle.
See PIA14917 for a closer view and to learn how eddies, or rotating storms, give the jet stream its shape and speed.
The winds of Saturn's jet streams are zonal, meaning they move eastward or westward at particular latitudes. This jet stream is located at about 42 degrees north latitude, and has been visible on Saturn since the days of NASA's Voyager spacecraft (see PIA00027). In the Voyager days, this jet stream had an undulating appearance, leading scientists to dub it the "ribbon wave" (see PIA01378). The planet's atmosphere is always changing, and the jet stream now looks nothing like a ribbon.
Saturn's atmosphere and its rings are shown here in a false color composite made from three images taken in near infrared light through filters that are sensitive to varying degrees of methane absorption. Red and orange colors in this view indicate clouds that are deep in the atmosphere. Yellow and green colors, most noticeable near the top of the view, indicate intermediate clouds. White and blue indicate high clouds and haze.
The white clouds of the equatorial region appear oversaturated because the image was specially processed to bring out the wave.
The rings, in the upper left and lower left of the image, appear bright blue because they are outside of the atmosphere and not affected by methane absorption. This view looks toward the northern, unilluminated side of the rings from about 36 degrees above the ring plane.
The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on January 13, 2008 using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of near-infrared light. The image filtered at 890 nanometers is projected as blue. The image filtered at 728 nanometers is projected as green, and the image filtered at 752 nanometers is projected as red.
The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 810,000 miles (1.3 million kilometers) from Saturn and at a sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 55 degrees. Image scale is 46 miles (74 kilometers) per pixel.
The Cassini spacecraft looks toward the dark side of Saturn's largest moon and captures the halo-like ring produced by sunlight scattering through the periphery of Titan's atmosphere.
A detached, high-altitude global haze layer encircles Titan. See PIA07774 to learn more. This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Titan (3,200 miles, or 5,150 kilometers across). North on Titan is up and rotated 29 degrees to the left.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on January 30, 2012. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 123,000 miles (197,000 kilometers) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 162 degrees. Image scale is 7 miles (12 kilometers) per pixel.
The Cassini spacecraft watches Saturn's small moon Epimetheus orbiting beyond the planet's rings.
See PIA09813 and PIA06226 for closer views of this moon. Epimetheus (70 miles, or 113 kilometers across) orbits beyond the thin F ring near the bottom center of this view and is farther from the spacecraft than the rings are here. This view looks toward the southern, unilluminated side of the rings from about 1 degree below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on December 30, 2011. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.5 million miles (2.4 million kilometers) from Epimetheus. Image scale is 9 miles (14 kilometers) per pixel.
The Cassini spacecraft takes a close look at a row of craters on Saturn's moon Tethys during the spacecraft's April 14, 2012, flyby of the moon.
Three large craters are visible along the terminator between day and night on Tethys (660 miles, or 1,062 kilometers across). The larger Odysseus crater also can be seen in profile on the right of the image. Odysseus Crater is 280 miles (450 kilometers) across. See PIA07693 for a closer view of Odysseus.
This view looks toward the area between the leading hemisphere and the anti-Saturn side of Tethys. North on Tethys is up and rotated 25 degrees to the right.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 14, 2012. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 12,000 miles (20,000 kilometers) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 66 degrees. Image scale is a half mile (1 kilometer) per pixel.
Photo credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
