Phases of Titan
Filed under pretty pictures, explaining image processing, amateur image processing, Saturn's moons, Titan, Cassini
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The angle from the Sun, to a moon, to the observer is called "phase angle." This montage shows Saturn's moon Titan as seen by Cassini through a clear filter at a variety of phase angles. At high phases, sunlight is forward-scattered through the atmosphere, making it brighten in a ring shape around the moon. The images have been resized to a constant pixel scale and rotated so that the terminator is up-and-down; the images sample a variety of latitudes and longitudes.
NASA / JPL / SSI / montage by Emily Lakdawalla

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Original image data dated on or about October 27, 2009
Pretty pictures and awe-inspiring science.
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