PIA09856 - Spectacular
vistas of Saturn and its moon
continue to be recorded by the Cassini spacecraft.
Launched from Earth in
1997, robotic Cassini
entered orbit around
Saturn in 2004 and has revolutionized much of humanity's knowledge of
Saturn, its expansive and
complex
rings, and it many
old
and battered moons.
Soon after reaching Saturn,
Cassini
released the
Huygen's
probe which landed on
Titan,
Saturn's largest moon, and send back
unprecedented
pictures from below
Titan's opaque cloud decks.
Recent
radar images of
Titan from Cassini indicate flat regions that are likely lakes of
liquid methane, indicating a
complex
weather system where it likely
rains
chemicals similar to gasoline. Pictured
above, magnificent Saturn and enigmatic Titan were imaged
together in true color by Cassini earlier this year.
TEXT: APOD