NASA's Cassini spots bright methane clouds, hydrocarbon seas on Saturn's moon Titan

The image shows Cassini spoting bright methane clouds drifting in the summer skies of Saturn's moon Titan, along with dark hydrocarbon lakes and seas clustered around the north pole.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

New Delhi: NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured Saturn's moon Titan, revealing methane clouds and hydrocarbon seas.

The image shows Cassini spotting bright methane clouds drifting in the summer skies of Saturn's moon Titan, along with dark hydrocarbon lakes and seas clustered around the north pole.

The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 9, 2017, using a spectral filter that preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 938 nanometers.

This image was at a distance of about 315,000 miles (507,000 kilometers) from Titan.

Compared to earlier in Cassini's mission, most of the surface in the moon's northern high latitudes is now illuminated by the sun, says NASA.

Summer solstice in the Saturn system occurred on May 24, 2017.

The spacecraft recently made its eighth dive between Saturn and its rings, documenting the planetary system up close as it prepares for its Grand Finale plunge into the gas giant on September 15.