Obscured by Saturn Rings

In this image from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, Saturn‘s rings obscure part of Titan‘s colorful visage. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

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The northern part of the moon’s atmosphere visible here includes the north polar hood, a cap of haze looking slightly darker than the rest of the atmosphere and seen near the top of the moon. See PIA08137 to learn more about the north polar hood.

The south polar vortex that first appeared in Titan’s atmosphere in 2012 is visible at the bottom of this view. The south polar vortex was not present earlier in the mission (see PIA08391 and PIA14909). Titan is 3,200 miles (5,150 kilometers) across.

Saturn and its largest moon, Titan, in this NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, show spectacular colors in this image just been released. A giant of a moon appears before a giant of a planet in this natural color view of Titan and Saturn from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

A wide-angle view in today’s package captures Titan passing in front of Saturn, as well as the planet’s changing colors. Upon Cassini’s arrival at Saturn eight years ago, Saturn’s northern winter hemisphere was an azure blue. Now that winter is encroaching on the planet’s southern hemisphere and summer on the north, the color scheme is reversing: blue is tinting the southern atmosphere and is fading from the north.