Cassini Spacecraft Offers These Dreamy Photos of Saturn’s Moon Prometheus

Saturn’s moon, Titan, had always been puzzling to scientists around the world, but NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has provided some telling images of the body obtained when it flew by it on November 13 this year – Space Daily reports. Cassini’s imaging instruments were able to see through the haze covering Titan in order to reveal its surface, and the nearly infrared wavelengths made imaging the moon possible under the right conditions.

During the flyby, the Cassini probe came within 6,200 miles of Titan, much higher than the usualy distance of around 750 miles.

Cassini is now on its second extended mission, the Cassini Solstice Mission, which will continue until September 2017.

The striking shot which resembles our planet was taken by the Nasa Cassini spacecraft.

The latest image was captured by Cassini in visible light through the narrow-angle camera during a moderately close flyby on December 6, 2015 showing off the pockmarked surface of Prometheus. the view shows off the moon as is visible on the anti-Saturn side. “The view looks toward terrain that is mostly on the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Titan”.

“North on Prometheus is up”, NASA said.

Prometheus is located within Saturn’s narrow ring F, which is in fact visible in the upper section of the picture.

The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 23,000 miles (37,000 kilometres) from Prometheus and at a Sun-Prometheus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 87 degrees.

As the Cassini mission progresses, the spacecraft will monitor Titan’s atmosphere and surface for signs of seasonal change. The blue represents wavelengths centered at 1.3 microns, green represents 2.0 microns, and red represents 5.0 microns, NASA says.

The individual images used to create the composite were taken over wide areas and have a moderate resolution of a few kilometers per pixel.