Evolution of the atmosphere of Titan

Eso_eso0505d_1024

eso_eso0505d February 24th, 2005

Credit: ESO

Image of Titan's atmosphere at 2.12 microns as observed with NACO on the VLT at three different epochs from 2002 till now. Titan's atmosphere exhibits seasonal and meteorological changes which can clearly be seen here : the North-South asymmetry - indicative of changes in the chemical composition in one pole or the other, depending on the season - is now clearly in favour of the North pole. Indeed, the situation has reversed with respect to a few years ago when the South pole was brighter. Also visible in these images is a bright feature in the South pole, found to be presently dimming after having appeared very bright from 2000 to 2003. The differences in size are due to the variation in the distance to Earth of Saturn and its planetary system.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0505d/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Titan
Subject - Solar System
Planet > Satellite

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red VLT (NACO) Infrared (Near-IR) 2.1 µm
Spectrum_base
Red
Eso_eso0505d_1280
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ID
eso0505d
Subject Category
A.1.4  
Subject Name
Titan
Credits
ESO
Release Date
2005-02-24T00:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0505d/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Very Large Telescope
Instrument
NACO
Color Assignment
Red
Band
Infrared
Bandpass
Near-IR
Central Wavelength
2120
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
Equinox
Reference Value
Reference Dimension
1804.0, 601.0
Reference Pixel
Scale
Rotation
Coordinate System Projection:
Quality
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
http://www.eso.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
eso0505d
Metadata Date
2009-01-20T10:47:17+01:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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