PIA00733: Titan's Brighter Southern Hemisphere


Titan’s Brighter Southern Hemisphere

Caption:

Titan, the largest of Saturn's 14 known satellites, shows little more than the upper layers of clouds covering the moon in this Voyager 1 picture, taken on November 4, 1980 at a range of 12 million kilometers (7,560,000 miles). The orange colored haze, believed to be composed of photochemically produced hydrocarbons, hides Titan's solid surface from the Voyager cameras. Some weak shadings in the clouds are becoming visible. However, note that the satellite's southern (lower) hemisphere is brighter than the northern. It is not known whether these subtle shadings are on the surface or are due to clouds below a high haze layer.

Background Info:

The Voyager project is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA.

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Titan
System Saturn
Target Type Satellite
Mission Voyager
Instrument Host Cassini Orbiter Voyager 1
Host Type Orbiter Flyby Spacecraft
Instrument Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS)
Detector
Extra Keywords Atmosphere, Color, Haze
Acquisition Date
Release Date 1997-09-25
Date in Caption 1980-11-04
Image Credit NASA/JPL
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00733
Identifier PIA00733