This natural color composite was taken during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini-Huygens" class="extiw" title="en:Cassini-Huygens">Cassini</a> spacecraft's April 16, 2005, flyby of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon)" class="extiw" title="en:Titan (moon)">Titan</a>. It is a combination of images taken through three filters that are sensitive to red, green and violet light. It shows approximately what Titan would look like to the human eye: a hazy orange globe surrounded by a tenuous, bluish haze. The orange color is due to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hydrocarbon" class="extiw" title="en:hydrocarbon">hydrocarbon</a> particles which make up Titan's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/atmosphere" class="extiw" title="en:atmosphere">atmospheric</a> haze. This obscuring haze was particularly frustrating for planetary scientists following the NASA <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_program" class="extiw" title="en:Voyager program">Voyager</a> mission encounters in 1980-81. Fortunately, Cassini is able to pierce Titan's veil at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/infrared" class="extiw" title="en:infrared">infrared</a> wavelengths (see PIA06228). North on Titan is up and tilted 30 degrees to the right. The images to create this composite were taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera on <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/April_16" title="April 16">April 16</a>, <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/2005" title="2005">2005</a>, at distances ranging from approximately 173,000 to 168,200 kilometers (107,500 to 104,500 miles) from Titan and from a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun" class="extiw" title="en:Sun">Sun</a>-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 56 degrees. Resolution in the images is approximately 10 kilometers per pixel. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA" class="extiw" title="en:NASA">NASA</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Space_Agency" class="extiw" title="en:European Space Agency">European Space Agency</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Space_Agency" class="extiw" title="en:Italian Space Agency">Italian Space Agency</a>. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_Propulsion_Laboratory" class="extiw" title="en:Jet Propulsion Laboratory">Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a>, a division of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Institute_of_Technology" class="extiw" title="en:California Institute of Technology">California Institute of Technology</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasadena,_California" class="extiw" title="en:Pasadena, California">Pasadena</a>, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C" class="extiw" title="en:Washington, D.C">Washington, D.C</a>. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulder,_Colorado" class="extiw" title="en:Boulder, Colorado">Boulder</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado" class="extiw" title="en:Colorado">Colo</a>. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov</a> and the Cassini imaging team home page, <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.
NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Taken on 16 April 2005
<ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06230">http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06230</a> (cropped and rotated from the original)</li></ul>