Sunglint South of Titan's Kraken Mare

This near-infrared, color mosaic from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows the sun glinting off of Titan's north polar seas. While Cassini has captured, separately, views of the polar seas (see PIA17470) and the sun glinting off of them (see PIA12481 and PIA18433) in the past, this is the first time both have been seen together in the same view.

The sunglint, also called a specular reflection, is the bright area near the 11 o'clock position at upper left. This mirror-like reflection, known as the specular point, is in the south of Titan's largest sea, Kraken Mare, just north of an island archipelago separating two separate parts of the sea.

This particular sunglint was so bright as to saturate the detector of Cassini's Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) instrument, which captures the view. It is also the sunglint seen with the highest observation elevation so far -- the sun was a full 40 degrees above the horizon as seen from Kraken Mare at this time -- much higher than the 22 degrees seen in PIA18433. Because it was so bright, this glint was visible through the haze at much lower wavelengths than before, down to 1.3 microns.

The southern portion of Kraken Mare (the area surrounding the specular feature toward upper left) displays a "bathtub ring" -- a bright margin of evaporate deposits -- which indicates that the sea was larger at some point in the past and has become smaller due to evaporation. The deposits are material left behind after the methane & ethane liquid evaporates, somewhat akin to the saline crust on a salt flat.

The highest resolution data from this flyby -- the area seen immediately to the right of the sunglint -- cover the labyrinth of channels that connect Kraken Mare to another large sea, Ligeia Mare. Ligeia Mare itself is partially covered in its northern reaches by a bright, arrow-shaped complex of clouds. The clouds are made of liquid methane droplets, and could be actively refilling the lakes with rainfall.

The view was acquired during Cassini's August 21, 2014, flyby of Titan, also referred to as "T104" by the Cassini team.

The view contains real color information, although it is not the natural color the human eye would see. Here, red in the image corresponds to 5.0 microns, green to 2.0 microns, and blue to 1.3 microns. These wavelengths correspond to atmospheric windows through which Titan's surface is visible. The unaided human eye would see nothing but haze, as in PIA12528.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/University of Idaho

Note: For more information, see PIA18433: Sunglint on a Hydrocarbon Lake and Cassini Sees Sunny Seas on Titan.

Saturn

Saturn's many cloud patterns, swept along by high-speed winds, look as if they were painted on by some eager alien artist.

With no real surface features to slow them down, wind speeds on Saturn can top 1,100 mph (1,800 kph), more than four times the top speeds on Earth.

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 29 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 4, 2014 using a spectral filter which preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 752 nanometers.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers) from Saturn. Image scale is 68 miles (109 kilometers) per pixel.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Saturn's North Polar Hexagon

The giant planet Saturn is mostly a gigantic ball of rotating gas, completely unlike our solid home planet. But Earth and Saturn do have something in common: weather, although the gas giant is home to some of the most bizarre weather in our Solar System, such as the swirling storm shown in this Cassini view.

Known as “the hexagon”, this weather feature is an intense, six-sided jet stream at Saturn’s north pole. Spanning some 30,000 km across, it hosts howling 320 km/h winds that spiral around a massive storm rotating anticlockwise at the heart of the region.

Numerous small vortices rotate in the opposite direction to the central storm and are dragged around with the jet stream, creating a terrifically turbulent region. While a hurricane on Earth may last a week or more, the hexagon has been raging for decades, and shows no signs of letting up.

This false-color image of the hexagon was made using ultraviolet, visible and infrared filters to highlight different regions.

The dark center of the image shows the large central storm and its eye, which is up to 50 times bigger than a terrestrial hurricane eye. The small vortices show up as pink-red clumps. Towards the lower right of the frame is a white-tinted oval storm that is bigger than any of the others — this is the largest of the vortices at some 3500 km across, twice the size of the largest hurricane ever recorded on Earth.

The darker blue region within the hexagon is filled with small haze particles, whereas the paler blue region is dominated by larger particles. This divide is caused by the hexagonal jet stream acting as a shepherding barrier — large particles cannot enter the hexagon from the outside.

These large particles are created when sunlight shines onto Saturn’s atmosphere, something that only started relatively recently in the northern hemisphere with the beginning of northern spring in August 2009.

Cassini will continue to track changes in the hexagon, monitoring its contents, shape and behavior as summer reaches Saturn’s northern hemisphere in 2017.

An animated version is available here.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Hampton University

Mimas and Ring Shadow

As if trying to get our attention, Mimas is positioned against the shadow of Saturn's rings, bright on dark. As we near summer in Saturn's northern hemisphere, the rings cast ever larger shadows on the planet.

With a reflectivity of about 96 percent, Mimas (246 miles, or 396 kilometers across) appears bright against the less-reflective Saturn.

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 10 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 13, 2014 using a spectral filter which preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 752 nanometers.

The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers) from Saturn and approximately 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Mimas. Image scale is 67 miles (108 kilometers) per pixel at Saturn and 60 miles (97 kilometers) per pixel at Mimas.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Saturn From Above

Saturn reigns supreme, encircled by its retinue of rings.

Although all four giant planets have ring systems, Saturn's is by far the most massive and impressive. Scientists are trying to understand why by studying how the rings have formed and how they have evolved over time.

Also seen in this image is Saturn's famous north polar vortex and hexagon.

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 37 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on May 4, 2014 using a spectral filter which preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 752 nanometers.

The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2 million miles (3 million kilometers) from Saturn. Image scale is 110 miles (180 kilometers) per pixel.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Note: For more information, see Supreme Saturn.

Saturn's North Polar Vortex

Like a giant eye for the giant planet, Saturn's great vortex at its north pole appears to stare back at Cassini as Cassini stares at it.

Measurements have sized the "eye" at a staggering 1,240 miles (2,000 kilometers) across with cloud speeds as fast as 330 miles per hour (150 meters per second). For color views of the eye and the surrounding region, see PIA14946 and PIA14944.

The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 2, 2014 using a combination of spectral filters which preferentially admit wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 748 nanometers.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.4 million miles (2.2 million kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 43 degrees. Image scale is 8 miles (13 kilometers) per pixel.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Saturn's North Polar Vortex and Rings

The Cassini spacecraft captures three magnificent sights at once: Saturn's north polar vortex and hexagon along with its expansive rings.

The hexagon, which is wider than two Earths, owes its appearance to the jet stream that forms its perimeter. The jet stream forms a six-lobed, stationary wave which wraps around the north polar regions at a latitude of roughly 77 degrees North.

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 37 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 2, 2014 using a spectral filter which preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 752 nanometers.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.4 million miles (2.2 million kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 43 degrees. Image scale is 81 miles (131 kilometers) per pixel.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Water's Early Journey in a Solar System

The building blocks of comets, and apparently Saturn's largest moon, Titan, formed under similar conditions in the disk of gas and dust that formed the sun.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope observed a fledgling solar system like the one depicted in this artist's concept, and discovered deep within it enough water vapor to fill the oceans on Earth five times. This water vapor starts out in the form of ice in a cloudy cocoon (not pictured) that surrounds the embryonic star, called NGC 1333-IRAS 4B (buried in center of image). Material from the cocoon, including ice, falls toward the center of the cloud. The ice then smacks down onto a dusty pre-planetary disk circling the stellar embryo (doughnut-shaped cloud) and vaporizes. Eventually, this water might make its way into developing planets.

Illustration credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Note: For more information, see Titan's Building Blocks Might Pre-date Saturn.

Titan

Only a sharp and careful eye can make out the subtle variations in Titan's clouds when viewed in visible light. However, these subtle features sometimes become more readily apparent when imaged at other wavelengths of light. This infrared image clearly reveals a band around the Titan's north pole.

Cassini scientists are regularly monitoring Titan, hoping to understand more about Titan's dense atmosphere and clouds.

This view looks toward the leading side of Titan. North on Titan is up and rotated 31 degrees to the left. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on January 26, 2014 using a spectral filter which preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 889 nanometers.

The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.5 million miles (2.4 million kilometers) from Titan. Image scale is 9 miles (14 kilometers) per pixel.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Crescent Titan and Its South Polar Vortex

Titan's polar vortex stands illuminated where all else is in shadow. Scientists deduce that the vortex must extend higher into Titan's atmosphere than the surrounding clouds because it is still lit in images like this. Although the south polar region is now in winter, the Sun can still reach high features like the vortex.

Titan (3,200 miles, or 5,150 kilometers across) is Saturn's largest moon. For a color image of the south polar vortex on Titan, see PIA14919. For a movie of the vortex, see PIA14920.

This view looks toward the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Titan. North on Titan is up and rotated 32 degrees to the right. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on February 3, 2014 using a spectral filter which preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 742 nanometers.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 134,000 miles (215,000 kilometers) from Titan. Image scale is 8 miles (13 kilometers) per pixel.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Titanic Crescents

Titan's south polar vortex mimics the moon itself, creating an elegant crescent within a crescent. Situated above the surrounding polar atmosphere, the raised walls along the sunward side of the vortex just catch the grazing sunlight, creating a crescent of its own. Titan (3,200 miles, or 5,150 kilometers across) is Saturn's largest moon and possesses a dense and dynamic atmosphere. For a color image of the south polar vortex on Titan, see PIA14919. For a movie of the vortex, see PIA14920.

This view looks toward the trailing hemisphere of Titan. North on Titan is up. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on December 1, 2013 using a spectral filter which preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 939 nanometers.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 108,000 miles (174,000 kilometers) from Titan. Image scale is 6 miles (10 kilometers) per pixel.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Saturn and Shadows

Saturn's rings cast shadows on the planet, except their shadows appear to be inside out! The edge of the outermost A ring can be seen at the top left corner of the image. Moving towards the bottom of the page, one can see the faint Cassini Division, the opaque B ring and the innermost C ring, which contains several ringlets that appear dark against Saturn in this geometry. The bottom half of the image features the shadows of these rings in reverse order superposed against the disk of the planet: the C ring, the B ring, the Cassini Division and the inner half of the A ring.

This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 28 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on December 2, 2013 using a spectral filter which preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 752 nanometers.

The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 750,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 57 degrees. Image scale is 45 miles (72 kilometers) per pixel.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Saturn

Saturn's winds race furiously around the planet, blowing at speeds in excess of 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) per hour at the equator. As they do so, they form distinct belts and zones which encircle the planet's pole, as well as its famous hexagon. These zonal winds spin off swirls and eddies, which are significant storms in their own right.

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 51 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on December 27, 2013 using a spectral filter which preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 752 nanometers.

The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.3 million miles (2 million kilometers) from Saturn. Image scale is 75 miles (120 kilometers) per pixel.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Northern Lakes on Titan

The Cassini spacecraft peers down though layers of haze to glimpse the lakes of Titan's northern regions.

Titan (3,200 miles, or 5,150 kilometers across) has a hydrological cycle similar to Earth's, but instead of water, Titan's lakes and seas are filled with liquid methane and ethane.

Lit terrain seen here is on the leading hemisphere of Titan. North on Titan is up. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on January 1, 2014 using a spectral filter which preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 939 nanometers.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 114,000 miles (183,000 kilometers) from Titan. Image scale is 7 miles (11 kilometers) per pixel.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Crescent Saturn

Saturn, which appears as only a thin, lit crescent, broken only by the shadows of its rings, poses gracefully for the Cassini spacecraft cameras.

This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 42 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on September 20, 2013 using a spectral filter which only admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 752 nanometers.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.4 million miles (2.3 million kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 142 degrees. Image scale is 84.5 miles (136 kilometers) per pixel.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Saturn's Auroras

Ultraviolet and infrared images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft and Hubble Space Telescope show active and quiet auroras at Saturn's north and south poles.

Saturn's auroras glow when energetic electrons dive into the planet's atmosphere and collide with hydrogen molecules. Sometimes a blast of fast solar wind, composed of mostly electrons and protons, creates an active aurora at Saturn, as occurred on April 5 and May 20, 2013.

The first set of images, as seen in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum by Hubble, shows an active aurora dancing around Saturn's north pole on April 5. The movie then shows a relatively quiet time between April 19 to 22 and between May 18 and 19. The aurora flares up again in Hubble images from May 20. This version, shown in false-color, has been processed to show the auroras more clearly.

A second set of ultraviolet images shows a closer view of an active north polar aurora in white. This set comes from Cassini ultraviolet imaging spectrograph observations on May 20 and 21.

The last set of images, in the infrared, shows a quiet southern aurora (in green) in observations from Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer on May 17. Saturn's inner heat glows in red, with dark areas showing where high clouds block the heat.

Video credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Colorado/Central Arizona College and NASA/ESA/University of Leicester and NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Lancaster University

Note: For more information, see PIA17668: Saturn's Colorful Aurora, NASA Spacecraft Get a 360-Degree View of Saturn's Auroras and PIA17669: Pulses from the Sun.

Saturn

Just as Saturn's famous hexagonal shaped jet stream encircles the planet's north pole, the rings encircle the planet, as seen from Cassini's position high above. Around and around everything goes!

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 43 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on November 23, 2013 using a spectral filter that preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 752 nanometers.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.6 million miles (2.5 million kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 97 degrees. Image scale is 93 miles (150 kilometers) per pixel.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Saturn's Rings - Opposition Surge

Although it may look to our eyes like other images of the rings, this infrared image of Saturn's rings was taken with a special filter that will only admit light polarized in one direction. Scientists can use these images to learn more about the nature of the particles that make up Saturn's rings.

The bright spot in the rings is the "opposition surge" where the Sun-Ring-Spacecraft angle passes through zero degrees. Ring scientists can also use the size and magnitude of this bright spot to learn more about the surface properties of the ring particles. To learn more about the surge, see PIA08247.

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 19 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on August 18, 2013 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 705 nanometers.

The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 712,000 miles (1.1 million kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-rings-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 7 degrees. Image scale is 43 miles (68 kilometers) per pixel.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Titan

Titan's atmosphere puts on a display with the detached haze to the north (top of image) and the polar vortex to the south.

Titan (3,200 miles, or 5,150 kilometers across) is Saturn's largest moon. For a color image of the south polar vortex on Titan, see PIA14919. For a movie of the vortex, see PIA14920.

This view looks toward the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Titan. North on Titan is up and rotated 24 degrees to the left. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on August 20, 2013 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 889 nanometers.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.6 million miles (2.5 million kilometers) from Titan. Image scale is 9 miles (15 kilometers) per pixel.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Saturn's North Polar Hurricane in Infrared

The vortex at Saturn's north pole -- seen here in the infrared -- takes on the menacing look of something from the imagination of Edgar Allan Poe. But really, of course, it's just another example of the amazing, mesmerizing meteorology on Saturn.

The eye of the immense cyclone is about 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) wide, 20 times larger than most on Earth. For another view of the vortex, see PIA14946.

This view is centered on clouds at 89 degrees north latitude, 109 degrees west longitude. North is up and rotated 33 degrees to the left. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 14, 2013 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 750 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 476,000 miles (766,000 kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 45 degrees. Image scale is 3 miles (5 kilometers) per pixel.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute