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File:Two Halves of Titan.png

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Two_Halves_of_Titan.png (600 × 600 pixels, file size: 108 KB, MIME type: image/png)

Summary

Description
English: Seasonal changes in the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon are captured in this natural-colour image which shows Titan with a slightly darker top half and a slightly lighter bottom half. Titan's atmosphere has a seasonal hemispheric dichotomy, and this image was taken shortly after Saturn's August 2009 equinox. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural-colour view. Scientists have found that the winter hemisphere typically appears to have more high-altitude haze, making it darker at shorter wavelengths (ultraviolet through blue) and brighter at infra-red wavelengths. The switch between dark and bright occurred over the course of a year or two around the last equinox. Scientists are studying the mechanism responsible for this change, and will monitor the dark-light difference as it flip-flops now that the 2009 equinox has signalled the coming of spring and then summer in the northern hemisphere. Although this hemispheric boundary appears to run directly east-west near the equator, its position is not level with latitude and is actually offset from the equator by about 10 degrees of latitude. This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Titan (5150 kilometres across). North on Titan is up. The images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of approximately 174,000 kilometres from Titan. Image scale is 10 kilometres per pixel.


Deutsch: Dieses Bild zeigt jahreszeitliche Unterschiede in der Farbe der Atmosphäre von Saturns größtem Mond Titan mit etwas dunklerer nördlicher Hälfte und etwas hellerer südlicher Hälfte. Dieses Bild wurde im August 2009 von der NASA Sonde Cassini aufgenommen und gibt die Echtfarben wieder, entstanden aus der Kombination von Bildern mit Rot-, Grün- und Blaufiltern. Forscher haben herausgefunden dass die Winter-Hemisphäre in der Regel einen stärkeren Dunstschleier in den oberen Teilen der Atmosphäre zeigt und daher dunkler in kürzeren Wellenlängen des Lichtes (Ultraviolet bis Blau) wirkt und heller im infraroten Bereich.

Der Wechsel zwischen dunkleren und helleren Hemisphären fand über einen Zeitraum von ein bis zwei Jahren statt und hängt mit der Tag-und-Nacht-Gleiche Saturns zusammen, findet also zweimal je Saturnjahr statt. Die Grenze zwischen hellerer und dunklerer Hälfte verläuft nicht direkt am Äquator, sondern ist etwa 10 Breitengrade versetzt.

Das Bild zeigt die Seite Titans, die dem Saturn zugewandt ist. Norden ist oben, aufgenommen aus einer Entfernung von 174.000 Kilometern. Maßstab des Bildes ist etwa 10 Kilometer pro Pixel.
Date
Source

[http://ciclops.org/view/5810/Two_Halves_of_Titan or http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA11603

This image or video was catalogued by Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: PIA11603.

This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing.
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Author NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Licensing

Public domain This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)
Warnings:

Captions

Titan (moon)

Items portrayed in this file

depicts

25 August 2009

File history

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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current12:34, 14 July 2015Thumbnail for version as of 12:34, 14 July 2015600 × 600 (108 KB)JorisvSrv: only black is cropped away
11:08, 14 July 2015Thumbnail for version as of 11:08, 14 July 2015796 × 798 (290 KB)Crisco 1492Reverted to version as of 05:14, 30 December 2010; too tight crop damages composition
02:19, 9 January 2011Thumbnail for version as of 02:19, 9 January 2011600 × 600 (108 KB)AntonsusiCrop canvas of no interest
05:14, 30 December 2010Thumbnail for version as of 05:14, 30 December 2010796 × 798 (290 KB)Materialscientistcrop whitespace
15:15, 16 October 2009Thumbnail for version as of 15:15, 16 October 20091,024 × 1,024 (298 KB)Originalwana{{Information |Description={{en|1=Seasonal changes in the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon are captured in this natural colour image which shows Titan with a slightly darker top half and a slightly lighter bottom half. Titan's a

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