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

The Cassini spacecraft examines Titan's dark and light seasonal hemispheric dichotomy as it images the moon with a filter sensitive to near-infrared light.

The southern hemisphere looks darker than the northern hemisphere using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 889 nanometers. This image also shows Titan's north polar hood (see PIA08137 and PIA11594). See PIA11603 to learn more about the seasonal dichotomy.

This view looks toward the leading hemisphere of Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across). North on Titan is up and rotated 2 degrees to the left.

The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 22, 2010. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (684,000 miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 37 degrees. Image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL/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