Tethys Behind Titan
Explanation:
What's that behind Titan? It's another of Saturn's moons:
Tethys.
The robotic
Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn
captured
the heavily cratered Tethys
slipping behind
Saturn's atmosphere-shrouded
Titan late last year.
The largest crater on
Tethys,
Odysseus, is easily visible on the distant moon.
Titan shows not only its thick and opaque
orange
lower atmosphere,
but also an unusual upper layer of
blue-tinted haze.
Tethys,
at about 2 million kilometers distant, was twice as far from
Cassini as was Titan when the
above image was taken.
In 2004, Cassini released the
Hyugens probe
which landed on Titan and provided humanity's
first
views of the
surface of the Solar System's only known
lake-bearing moon.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
