| Piú viste - Titan: The "Foggy" Moon |
Titan-Regions-Shangri_La_and_Xanadu_Region-PIA07752.jpgThe "New World": Shangri-La and Xanadu Region62 visiteOriginal caption:"This mosaic is a HR close-up of two contrasting Regions: dark Shangri-La and bright Xanadu. This view has a resolution of 1 Km (such as 0,6 mile) per pixel and is centered at 2,5° North Lat. and 145° West Long., near the feature called Santorini Facula.
The mosaic is composed of 10 images obtained on Oct. 28, 2005, each processed to enhance surface detail. It is an orthographic projection, rotated so that North on Titan is up".
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Titan-PIA11479.jpgTitan (Natural Colors; credits: Lunar Explorer Italia)62 visiteCaption NASA:"Caption NASA:"This Cassini Spacecraft image affords a view of Titan's South Polar Region: an area home to one of Titan's hydrocarbon "Lake Districts".
Titan's South Pole is illuminated to the right of the Terminator, near the bottom of the visible disk. The dark area near the bottom, in Titan's Mid-Southern Latitudes, is Mezzoramia.
The wider, darker region near the Equator is named Senkyo. A "Lake District" (see also PIA11147) containing what scientists believe are lakes of hydrocarbons has been found surrounding Titan's South Pole.
Lit Terrain seen here is on the Saturn-facing Side of Titan. North on Titan is up and rotated 27° to the right.
The image was taken with the Cassini Spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 15, 2009 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of Near-InfraRed Light centered at 938 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approx. 1,2 MKM (such as about 746.000 miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-Spacecraft, or Phase, Angle of 55°.
Image scale is roughly 7 Km (about 4 miles) per pixel".MareKromium
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Titan-PIA11501.jpgSouth Polar "Tropospheric Cloud Streaks" (Natural Colors; credits: Lunar Explorer Italia)62 visiteCaption NASA:"The Tropospheric Clouds seen in the lower left of the image are located at 45 to 55° South Latitude on Titan, and the streaks of the clouds are oriented East-West.
This view looks toward the South Pole of Titan. The South Pole lies near the Terminator about a quarter of the way inward from the Planet's limb at the bottom of this image. Lit terrain seen here is on the Leading Hemisphere of Titan.
This image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 24, 2009 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of near-InfraRed Light centered at 938 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approx. 1.1 MKM (about 684.000 miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-Spacecraft, or Phase, Angle of 78°. Image scale is 7 Km (a little more than 4 miles) per pixel".MareKromium
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Titan-PIA11526.jpgTitan's "Atmospheric Halo" (Natural Colors; credits: Lunar Explorer Italia)62 visiteCaption NASA:"The Cassini Spacecraft looks down on Titan's North Pole and unveils the moon's upper-most Atmospheric Hazes, creating the appearance of a halo around Saturn's largest moon.
Terrain seen here is on the Trailing Hemisphere of Titan, which is facing Saturn. This view is centered on 54° North Latitude and 251° West Longitude.
Titan's north pole lies on the Terminator, about one-third of the way inward from the top of the image.
The image was taken in Violet Light with the Cassini Spacecraft wide-angle camera on May 21, 2009. The view was obtained at a distance of approx. 147.000 Km (such as about 91.000 miles from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-Spacecraft, or Phase, Angle of 121°.
Image scale is roughly 9 Km (a little les than 6 miles) per pixel".MareKromium
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Titan-PIA11548.jpgCrescent Titan (Natural Colors; credits: NASA/JPL/SSI)62 visiteCaption NASA:"The Cassini Spacecraft looks down on the North Pole of Titan, showing night and day in the Northern Hemisphere of Saturn's largest moon.
This view is centered on terrain at about 49° North Latitude, 243° West Longitude. The North Pole of Titan is rotated about 23° to the left and it lies on the Terminator above and to the left of the center of the image.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this Natural Color view of Titan. The images were obtained with the Cassini Spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 6, 2009 at a distance of approx. 194.000 Km (such as about 121.000 miles) from Titan.
Image scale is roughly 11 Km (a little less than 7 miles) per pixel".MareKromium
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Titan-Fensal_and_Aztlan-PIA07732-PCF-LXTT-IPF-0.jpgFensal and Aztlan (CTX Image-Mosaic - Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga/Lunar Explorer Italia/Italian Planetary Foundation)62 visiteDuring its September 7, 2005, Fly-By of the Saturnian moon Titan, the NASA - Cassini Spacecraft acquired a series of images of a Territory located on the moon's Saturn-facing Hemisphere that were afterwards assembled so to create this small mosaic: once known only as "The H" (because this whole Region looks something like the letter "H", when oriented on its side), the Surface Features visible here now possess provisional names that were assigned to them by the International Astronomical Union (or "IAU", for short).
The Northern Branch of "The H" is now called "Fensal," while the Southern Branch is known as "Aztlan."
Fensal is littered with small "Island-like Landforms" ranging in size from about 5 to 40 Km (such as from approx. 3,1 to a little less than 25 miles) across. These Landforms currently are thought to be Water-Ice Upland Areas (---> kind of small Hills), surrounded by shallower Terrain that is filled-in with dark Particulate Material probably precipitated from the Lower Atmosphere of Titan. In Western Fensal, a few larger Islands can also be seen, like Bazaruto Facula (visible to the right here and containing what seems to be an Impact Crater or, maybe, a Volcanic Edifice). When viewed in images of Shangri-La (another Titanian Region located on the opposite side of Titan as to Fensal and Aztlan), the Island-like Landforms of this size tend to occur in "clusters" (---> groups) with an apparent so-called "Preferred Orientation" (perhaps due to the action of the Dominant Winds blowing over those Territories). The small Islands found in Fensal, instead, appear much more scattered (and most of them appear roughly circular), although a few Islands do have (show) an East-West orientation to their long axis.
Aztlan, on the other hand, appears comparatively devoid of small Island-like Landforms, with only three large Islands located in its Western Reaches, plus only a few smaller Islands. The largest one of these Landforms is called "Sotra Facula" (visible just right of center in the bottom left portion of the mosaic), and measures approx. 240 by 120 Km (such as about 149 to 74,52 miles) across.
The mosaic is centered at 7° North Latitude and 21° West Longitude on Titan and the frames composing it were taken by the NASA - Cassini Spacecraft Narrow-Angle Camera using a filter sensitive to Wavelengths of Near-InfrarRed Light centered at 938 nanometers. They were acquired at distances ranging from approximately 200.600 to 191.800 Km (such as from about 124.572 to 119.108 miles) from Titan. The Mean Resolution in the images forming the mosaic is about 2 Km (such as 1,242 miles) per pixel.
This picture (which is an Original NASA - Cassini Spacecraft b/w image-mosaic published on the NASA - Planetary Photojournal and identified by the n. PIA 07732) has been additionally processed, magnified, contrast enhanced and then colorized, according to an educated guess carried out by Dr Paolo C. Fienga (LXTT-IPF), in Absolute Natural Colors (such as the colors that a human eye would actually perceive if someone were onboard the NASA - Cassini Spacecraft and then looked outside, towards the Saturnian moon Titan), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team. Different colors, as well as different shades of the same color, mean, among others, the existence of different Elements present in the Atmosphere and on the Surface of Titan, each having a different Albedo (---> Reflectivity) and Chemical Composition.
Note: it is possible (but we, as IPF, have no way to be one-hundred-percent sure of such a circumstance), that the actual luminosity of the Clouds and Hazes (as well as the luminosity of the Surface of Titan itself), as seen in this mosaic, would appear, to an average human eye, way lower than it has been shown (or, better yet: interpreted) here.MareKromium
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Titan-Regions-Hotei_Arcus_Region-PIA11839-2.jpgHotei Arcus in InfraRed (False Colors; credits: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)61 visitenessun commentoMareKromium
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Titan_and_Tethys-PIA12528.jpgMutual Event Sequence (Natural Colors; credits: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)61 visiteCaption NASA:"Saturn's moon Tethys with its prominent Odysseus Crater silently slips behind Saturn's largest moon Titan and then emerges on the other side.
Tethys is not actually enshrouded in Titan's Atmosphere. Tethys is more than twice as far from Cassini than Titan in this sequence: Tethys is about 2,2 MKM (such as approx. 1,4 MMs) from Cassini, while Titan is about only 1 MKM (approx. 621.000 miles) away.
These two color views were captured about 18 minutes apart, with the view on the right side taking place first.
These images are part of a so-called "Mutual Event Sequence" in which one moon passes close to or in front of another (from CASSINI point of view). Such observations help scientists refine their understanding of the orbits of Saturn's moons.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this Natural Color view. The images were obtained with the Cassini Spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 26, 2009.
The images were obtained with the Cassini Spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 26, 2009.
Image scale is roughly 6 Km (a little less than 4 miles) per pixel on Titan and apprx. 13 Km (a little more than 8 miles) per pixel on Tethys".
MareKromium
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Titan-MULTIVISION-EB.jpgOne and the Same (by Elisabetta Bonora)61 visitenessun commentoMareKromium
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Titan from Voyager.jpgTitan from Voyager 2 (in HR)60 visiteTitan Data and Statistics
Discovered by = Christiaan Huygens
Date of discovery = 1655
Mass (kg) = 1.35e+23
Mass (Earth = 1) = 2.2590e-02
Equatorial radius = 2.575 Km
Equatorial radius (Earth = 1) = 4.0373e-01
Mean density (gm/cm^3) = 1,88
Mean distance from Saturn = 1.221.850 Km
Rotational period (days) = 15,94542
Orbital period (days) = 15,94542
Mean orbital velocity (km/sec) = 5,58
Orbital inclination = 0,33°
Escape velocity (km/sec) = 2,65
Visual geometric albedo = 0,21
Magnitude (Vo) = 8,28
Mean surface temperature = -178°C
Atmospheric pressure (bars) = 1,5
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Titan-Clouds-White_Clouds-Mosaic.jpgTitan from about 340.000 Km60 visiteCaption originale da "NASA - Picture of the Day" del 26 Ottobre 2004:"What are these surface features on Titan? This planet-sized moon of Saturn had much of its south polar surface imaged during an initial flyby by the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft back in early July. The above image mosaic was digitally stitched together from pictures taken at a very specific color of polarized infrared light, a color not absorbed and little scattered by Titan's methane haze. Visible are light and dark regions that are not yet understood. Surface features as small as 10 Km are resolved from about 340.000 Km away. The white region near Titan's South Pole, left of center, is unusually thick clouds also thought to be composed of methane. Today Cassini will swoop to within 1,500 kilometers above Titan and may return data and images that help humanity better understand this strange world".
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Titan-Full_Disk-PIA06141_modest.jpgTitan (full disk, no haze) from 300.000 up to 650.000 Km60 visiteThe images that comprise the mosaic have been processed to reduce the effects of the atmosphere and to sharpen surface features. The mosaic has been trimmed to show only the illuminated surface and not the atmosphere above the edge of the moon. Pixel scales of the composite images vary from 2 to 4 Km per pixel. Surface features are best seen near the center of the disc, where the spacecraft is looking directly downwards; the contrast becomes progressively lower and surface features become fuzzier toward the outside, where the spacecraft is peering through haze, which washes out surface features. The brighter region on the right side and equatorial region is named Xanadu. Scientists are debating what processes may have created the bizarre surface brightness patterns seen here. The images hint at a young surface with no obvious craters. The exact nature of that activity, whether tectonic, wind-blown, fluvial, marine or volcanic is still unknown.
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