In this artist's rendition of the surface of Saturn's largest moon Titan, a very chaotic scene appears. The violent storm that struck Titan is illustrated here with busts of lightning, swirled clouds and rain, which made this image appealing to select for an apod post. The evidential source for this drawing came from images of Titan taken by the Cassini spacecraft as Titan undergoes its seasonal storms that darken its surface periodically. Cassini measured the distance of the storm to be about 750 miles in length east to west and 930 miles long northwest to southwest by taking an image with a narrow angled camera filtered for infrared light at nearly 808.000 miles away from Titan. Scientists speculate that the source for this unusual rain on such a inhospitable moon (it is estimated that the dry climate of this area of Titan is similar to that of the Southwestern portion of the United States) is from methane wetting the surface since it is also an astounding - 179 degrees Celsius on Titan which would make liquid water impossible as an option.
No comments:
Post a Comment