Starship Asterisk*

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002724/ wrote:

A Rhea flyby and a cloudy Titan with Tethys in color
By Emily Lakdawalla Oct. 20, 2010
The Planetary Society Blog

<<Cassini took [a Titan image] with a special filter, one that only permits certain infrared wavelengths (near 938 nanometers) to pass through to its detector. At this particular wavelength, methane gas -- an important component of Titan's atmosphere that is opaque in visible wavelengths of light -- is unusually transparent. When viewed through this filter, here's what Titan looked like.



What's so exciting about this photo? Here's an enhanced version, created by dividing the image above by the blue-filter photo. This cancels out some of the blurring due to the atmosphere, making certain features clearer, namely an enormous band of clouds crossing the equatorial regions. There's also some clouds in the mid-southern latitudes, and some at the north pole. I wonder if that north polar cloud is the lakes up there evaporating as the springtime Sun hits them? The stuff evaporating from the northern lakes should, in one theory, wind up precipitating in the relatively dry south. But I am not sure if I am totally up-to-date on my Titan climate theory....

An enhanced view of Titan's cloud bands on October 17, 2010. This image is the ratio of two images taken through methane window and blue filters, which cancels out some of the blurring effect of the atmosphere and reveals surface features (which appear dark) as well as a huge equatorial band of clouds (which appear bright). It also enhances the north polar hood and reveals some clouds in the mid-southern latitudes. Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / composite by Gordan Ugarkovic>>

steveb1965 wrote:Why does the photo looked photo shopped. Large black area next to Dion. looks like something has be removed. maybe a UFO?

Curios wrote:What are the artifacts in this picture? Most noticeably the "finger" like black area to the bottom right of Dione (and above and to the right) and the red/green glow coming very faintly from behind Dione? The more you zoom in, the more weird the picture gets!

Guest wrote:The imaging system on Cassini is the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS); SSI was the imaging system on Galeleo.

planetquinn wrote:In the image, there are some dark areas above and below Dione. Not visible on my higher contrast monitor, but distractingly obvious at a broader range of values. It looks like the dark area was retouched manually.

Curios wrote:What are the artifacts in this picture? Most noticeably the "finger" like black area to the bottom right of Dione (and above and to the right) and the red/green glow coming very faintly from behind Dione? The more you zoom in, the more weird the picture gets!