NASA’s Cassini spacecraft recently caught sight of sunlight reflecting off hydrocarbon seas on the surface of Saturn’s large moon, Titan. This is the first image to capture sunlight reflecting off both the polar seas in a single frame.
The sunlight in question is observable near the 11 o’clock position in upper left hand of the image. It’s reflecting off the a body of water located just south of Titan’s largest seas, Kraken Mare, and north of an island archipelago separating the two seas. The liquid in question is comprised of methane and ethane.
This type of sunlight, known as a specular point, appears extremely saturated under Cassini’s Visual and Infrared Map Spectrometer (VIMS) instrument, the same instrument that mapped Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. Because of its intense brightness, the glint was visible through haze at wavelengths measuring 1.3 microns.
The area seen to the right of the sun glint, noticeable by its high resolution, is a network of channels that connect Kraken Mare to the Ligeia Mare, another large sea that’s appears to be covered a congregation of arrow-shaped clouds in the northern reaches of the image.
Due take not that these are not the color visible to the human eye, as the image was photographed in near infrared. In visible light, the image would appear as nothing but haze. To download the full resolution image, click here .
Source: NASA
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