Titan and Rhea

Saturn's largest and second largest moons, Titan and Rhea, appear to be stacked on top of each other in this true-color scene from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

The north polar hood can be seen on Titan (3,200 miles or 5,150 kilometers across) appearing as a detached layer at the top of the moon on the top right. See PIA08137 to learn more about Titan's atmosphere and the north polar hood.

This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Rhea (949 miles or 1528 kilometers across). North on Rhea is up and rotated 35 degrees to the right.

Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural-color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 16, 2011, at a distance of approximately 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers) from Rhea and 1.5 million miles (2.5 million kilometers) from Titan. Image scale is 7 miles (11 kilometers) per pixel on Rhea and 9 miles (15 kilometers) on Titan.

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

Note: For more information, see Cassini Sees Saturn and Moons in Holiday Dress.

Titan's South Polar Vortex

The Cassini spacecraft monitors Titan's developing south polar vortex, which is a mass of swirling gas around the pole in the atmosphere of the moon.

The vortex can be seen at the bottom of this view. See PIA14919 to learn more and PIA14920 to watch a short movie of the swirling mass. The moon's northern hood is also visible at the top of this view. See PIA08137 and PIA12775 to learn more about the hood.

This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Titan (3,200 miles, 5,150 kilometers across). North is up and rotated 14 degrees to the left.

The image was taken in visible blue light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 18, 2012. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.9 million miles (3 million kilometers) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 85 degrees. Scale in the original image was 11 miles (18 kilometers) per pixel. The image was contrast enhanced and magnified by a factor of 1.5 to enhance the visibility of features.

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

Light and Dark Titan

Light and dark halves of Titan are visible in this Cassini image which illustrates the seasonal changes in the northern and southern hemispheres. This picture was taken with a spectral filter that is sensitive to absorption of certain wavelengths of light by the methane present in the moon's atmosphere.

See PIA11603 to learn more about this seasonal hemispheric dichotomy. This view looks toward the anti-Saturn side of Titan (3,200 miles, or 5,150 kilometers across). North on Titan is up and rotated 29 degrees to the right. The moon's north polar hood is also visible in the top right of the view (see PIA08137 and PIA11594).

The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on January 31, 2012 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 890 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 130,000 miles (210,000 kilometers) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 24 degrees. Image scale is 8 miles (12 kilometers) per pixel.

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

Titan and Tethys

Saturn's moon Tethys, with its stark white icy surface, peeps out from behind the larger, hazy, colorful Titan in this view of the two moons obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Saturn's rings lie between the two.

The north polar hood can be seen on Titan appearing as a detached layer at the top of the moon here. See PIA08137 and PIA09739 to learn more about Titan's atmosphere and the north polar hood.

Ithaca Chasma, a long series of scarps or cliffs on Tethys, can be seen faintly running north-south on that moon. See PIA10460 to learn more.

This view looks toward the side of Titan (3,200 miles or 5,150 kilometers across) facing away from Saturn and the side of Tethys (660 miles or 1,062 kilometers across) facing Saturn. This view looks toward the northern, sunlit side of the rings from just above the ring plane.

Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 21, 2011, at a distance of approximately 1.4 million miles (2.3 million kilometers) from Titan and 2.4 million miles (3.8 million kilometers) from Tethys. Image scale is 9 miles (14 kilometers) per pixel on Titan and 18 miles (27 kilometers) per pixel on Tethys.

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

Titan

These views from NASA's Cassini spacecraft look toward the south polar region of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, and show a depression within the moon's orange and blue haze layers near the south pole.

The close-up view was captured with the narrow-angle camera. Another view taken a second later with the wide-angle camera is also included here for context.

The moon's high altitude haze layer appears blue here whereas the main atmospheric haze is orange. The difference in color could be due to particle size of the haze. The blue haze likely consists of smaller particles than the orange haze.

The depressed or attenuated layer appears in the transition area between the orange and blue hazes about a third of the way in from the left edge of the narrow-angle image. The moon's south pole is in the upper right of this image. This view suggests Titan's north polar vortex, or hood, is beginning to flip from north to south. See PIA08137 to learn about Titan's north polar hood. To learn about changes since Saturn's August 2009 equinox, see PIA11603 and PIA11667.

The southern pole of Titan is going into darkness as the Sun advances towards the north with each passing day. The upper layer of Titan's hazes is still illuminated by sunlight.

Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were obtained on September 11, 2011 at a distance of approximately 83,000 miles (134,000 kilometers) from Titan. Image scale is 2,581 feet (787 meters) per pixel.

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

Titan, Dione, Pan and Pandora with Saturn's Rings

A quartet of Saturn's moons, from tiny to huge, surround and are embedded within the planet's rings in this Cassini composition.

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is in the background of the image, and the moon's north polar hood is clearly visible. See PIA08137 to learn more about that feature on Titan (3,200 miles, or 5,150 kilometers across). Next, the wispy terrain on the trailing hemisphere of Dione (698 miles, or 1,123 kilometers across) can be seen on that moon which appears just above the rings at the center of the image. See PIA10560 and PIA06163 to learn more about Dione's wisps. Saturn's small moon Pandora (50 miles, or 81 kilometers across) orbits beyond the rings on the right of the image. Finally, Pan (17 miles, or 28 kilometers across) can be seen in the Encke Gap of the A ring on the left of the image.

This view looks toward the northern, sunlit side of the rings from just above the ringplane.

The image was taken in visible blue light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on September 17, 2011. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.3 million miles (2.1 million kilometers) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 27 degrees. Image scale is 8 miles (13 kilometers) per pixel on Dione.

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

Titan's North Polar Hood

The Cassini spacecraft examines Titan's north polar hood, the part of the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon appearing dark at the top of this image.

See PIA09739 and PIA08137 to learn more about Titan's atmosphere. This view looks toward the anti-Saturn side of Titan. North on Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) is up. The southern pole of Titan is going into darkness, with the Sun advancing towards the north with each passing day. See PIA11603 and PIA11667 to learn more about the changing seasons in the Saturnian system. The upper layer of Titan's hazes is still illuminated by sunlight scattered off the planet.

The image was taken in visible violet light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 19, 2011. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 137,000 kilometers (85,000 miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 18 degrees. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.

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

Atmospheric Aspects of Titan

The Cassini spacecraft examines the characteristics of Titan's atmosphere as it peers at Saturn's largest moon using a filter sensitive to visible violet light.

This image shows atmospheric banding around Titan's north pole and reveals hints of the moon's seasonal hemispheric dichotomy near the equator. To learn more about the northern bands, see PIA08868 and PIA08928. See PIA11603 to learn more about the seasonal dichotomy between the northern and southern hemispheres.

This view looks toward the anti-Saturn side of Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across). North on Titan is up and rotated 23 degrees to the left.

The image was taken in visible violet light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 21, 2010. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 170,000 kilometers (106,000 miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 33 degrees. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute