Northern Summer on Titan

Astronomy Picture of the Day · 2017-06-22 · NASA (public domain)

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Northern Summer on Titan — APOD for 2017-06-22

While yesterday's solstice brought summer to planet Earth's northern hemisphere, a northern summer solstice arrived for ringed planet Saturn nearly a month ago on May 24. Following the Saturnian seasons , its large moon Titan was captured in this Cassini spacecraft image from June 9 . The near-infrared view finds bright methane clouds drifting through Titan's northern summer skies as seen from a distance of about 507,000 kilometers. Below Titan's clouds, dark hydrocarbon lakes sprawl near the large moon's now illuminated north pole.

Astronomy Picture of the Day for 2017-06-22 — image & explanation courtesy of NASA (public domain), mirrored at Tukuk-OS for reading and search convenience.

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