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SATURN DAILY
Cassini Sees Sunny Seas on Titan
by Staff Writers
Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 31, 2014


This near-infrared, color view from Cassini shows the sun glinting off of Titan's north polar seas. Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech, Univ. Arizona and Univ. Idaho. For a larger version of this image please go here.

As it soared past Saturn's large moon Titan recently, NASA's Cassini spacecraft caught a glimpse of bright sunlight reflecting off hydrocarbon seas.

In the past, Cassini had captured, separately, views of the polar seas and the sun glinting off them, but this is the first time both have been seen together in the same view.

The image is available here.

Also in the image:

+ An arrow-shaped complex of bright methane clouds hovers near Titan's north pole. The clouds could be actively refilling the lakes with rainfall.

+ A "bathtub ring," or bright margin, around Kraken Mare -- the sea containing the reflected sunglint -- indicates that the sea was larger at some point, but evaporation has decreased its size.

Titan's seas are mostly liquid methane and ethane. Before Cassini's arrival at Saturn, scientists suspected that Titan might have bodies of open liquid on its surface.

Cassini found only great fields of sand dunes near the equator and lower latitudes, but located lakes and seas near the poles, particularly in the north.

The new view shows Titan in infrared light. It was obtained by Cassini's Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on Aug. 21.


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SATURN DAILY
NASA Identifies Ice Cloud Above Cruising Altitude on Titan
Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 29, 2014
NASA scientists have identified an unexpected high-altitude methane ice cloud on Saturn's moon Titan that is similar to exotic clouds found far above Earth's poles. This lofty cloud, imaged by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, was part of the winter cap of condensation over Titan's north pole. Now, eight years after spotting this mysterious bit of atmospheric fluff, researchers have determined th ... read more


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