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Four days before Cassini's epic dive into the atmosphere of Saturn, which ended its pioneering 13-year mission, the spacecraft took a last look at Titan, the gas giant's biggest moon. The encounter was immortalized forever in an intriguing photo, which reinforces the enigma around this strange moon of Saturn.
"Titan is a fascinating place that fascinates us with some of its mysteries," said Elizabeth Turtle, a scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab.
As the Inquisitr Previously reported, the 1,600-mile-wide moon – which is half the moon and ranks among the largest natural satellites in the solar system – is shrouded in a hazy atmosphere that hides its surface features, hiding them from our view .
But in this last snapshot of Titan, Cassini managed to cross the moon's atmosphere and capture a unique view of her North Pole.
According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which designed and built Cassini, the image reveals an important clue to the moon's atmosphere, indicating an unexpected difference between the southern and northern summer on Titan .
Taken on September 11, 2017 by the Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) – more precisely its narrow-angle camera, sensitive to near-infrared wavelengths – the photo shows the seas and lakes of the north of Titan.
Unlike those found on Earth, Titan's seas and lakes are filled with liquid hydrocarbons, mostly methane and ethane. Inquisitr reported last year, shortly after the Cassini mission ended in a burst of literal glory on September 15, 2017.
"Cassini's final image of the northern lakes and seas of the mysterious moon leaves us with more questions than answers," writes JPL. Twitter September 13
Titini's last photo on Cassini was taken on September 11, 2017, four days before the spaceship crashed into Saturn's atmosphere.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI
The left side of the photo is dominated by Kraken Mare, the largest body of liquid known on Titan. Named after the legendary sea monster, Kraken Mare stretches for 1200 kilometers (730 miles) and would be larger than the Caspian Sea on Earth.
The center of the photo is occupied by Titan's two other large methane seas, the Punga Mare (390 kilometers wide) and the Ligeia Mare (500 kilometers).
These are not the same as those seen on the Moon of the Earth, which earned their nickname after being confused with real seas. Closer to home, lunar maria actually represents dark volcanic plains, the Inquisitr recently reported.
The left side of Cassini's photo is populated by numerous methane lakes, which are supplied with liquid hydrocarbons by precipitation and underground streams, notes JPL.
But while the seas and lakes of methane are certainly captivating landscapes, what is striking about this image of Cassini is a small detail that says a lot about the weather of the Titan.
Captured nearly 140,000 kilometers from Titan, the photo shows some small clouds between Punga Mare and Ligeia Mare. This contrasts sharply with the richer cloud activity observed by Cassini during the southern summer and pictured in July 2004, above the South Pole of the Moon (images available on the JPL website here and here).
"We were expecting more symmetry between south and north of summer," Turtle said. "In fact, many years ago, atmospheric models predicted summer clouds over northern latitudes. The fact that they still have not appeared before the end of the mission tells us something interesting about the methane cycle and the weather of Titan. "
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