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Hubble Catches Titan Chasing Its Shadow
This movie still shows Titan chasing its shadow across Saturn's disk. The still is from a movie created from images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. It reveals the planet's rings tipped nearly edge-on toward the Earth.
This edge-on alignment happens once every 15 years. The last time this alignment occurred was in 1995 and 1996. The images for the movie were taken Aug. 6, 1995 with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, in blue, green, and red filters.
This true-color image of Saturn shows the bands of clouds that make up the planet's atmosphere. This banded structure is similar to Jupiter's. A thick haze covers the clouds. The moon Tethys is just beneath Saturn's rings on the left. The "thumbnail" images on the far left are frames from the movie that show the moons transiting the planet.
About the Object
- DistanceDistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.The semi-major axis of Saturn's orbit about the sun is 9.5 Astronomical Units (A.U.) or roughly 1.4 billion km.
- DimensionsDimensionsThe physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky.The planet (without rings) has a diameter of roughly 75,000 miles (120,000 km) at the equator.
About the Data
- Data DescriptionData DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.The Hubble images and videos were created from HST data from proposal 6030: M. Tomasko and E. Karkoschka (University of Arizona); and proposal 9354: E. Karkoschka and M. Tomasko (University of Arizona). - InstrumentInstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.HST>WFPC2
- Exposure DatesExposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.August 6, 2005
- FiltersFiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.F336W, F410M, F467M, F588N, FQCH4N-B, and F673N
- Object NameObject NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.Saturn, Titan, Tethys
- Object DescriptionObject DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.Planet, moons
- Release DateMarch 20, 2007
- Science ReleaseSaturn Stars in Three Hubble Movies
- Credits
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Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
