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APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Mountains of Titan
Explanation: Peering through the thick, hazy atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, an infrared camera onboard the Cassini spacecraft recorded this view of the tallest mountains ever seen on Titan . Captured during a flyby in late October, the high resolution, false-color mosaic shows a mountain range about 150 kilometers long and about 1.5 kilometers high - likened to the Sierra Nevada mountain range of the western United States, planet Earth . Along Titan's mountain ridges lie bright deposits, thought to be methane snow or other organic material. The icy mountains of Titan were probably formed like Earth's mid-ocean ridges, from material welling up to fill gaps created as surface tectonic plates spread apart.
| Date | December 14, 2006 |
|---|---|
| Credit | Credit: VIMS Team , U. Arizona , ESA , NASA |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |