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Emily Lakdawalla • Oct 18, 2009

Fun for Sunday: Titan and Tethys pas de deux

Checking in on Cassini's raw images this weekend, there are several nice shots to play with, including the many frames from which I tossed together this cute animation. Saturn's icy moons are so bright and crisp, Titan always appears like a fuzzy dark blob next to them. I like how you can see just a little bit of Tethys rotation over the course of this animation.

Tethys and Titan mutual event
Tethys and Titan mutual event Cassini watched icy Tethys pass in front of dimmer, fuzzy Titan on 17 October 2009.Image: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI / animation by Emily Lakdawalla

I can't decide which is cooler; the animation above, or a still taken from it. Here's a version of a still by Gordan Ugarkovic, artificially colorized. The original animation didn't contain any frames shot through color filters, but all he had to do was to paint Titan with a smoggy orange color.

Tethys and Titan
Tethys and Titan Cassini captured a grayscale animation of Tethys crossing in front of Titan on 17 October 2009. In this version, Gordan Ugarkovic has colored in Titan based on its color as seen in previous Cassini photos.Image: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI / colorization by Gordan Ugarkovic

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