August 20, 2000
Billions of years of cosmic evolution — the birth and death of stars, the slow coalescence of planets, the patient unfolding of life — all...
The Surface of Titan
Birthday · August 20, 2000
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APOD published August 20, 2000. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
If sailing the hydrocarbon seas of Titan, beware of gasoline rain. Such might be a travel advisory issued one future day for adventurers visiting Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. New images of Titan's surface were released last week from the Canada-France Hawaii Telescope featuring the finest details yet resolved. Peering into Titan's thick smog atmosphere with infrared light, complex features interpreted as oceans, glaciers, and rock became visible. The high-resolution infrared image pictured above was made possible using an unblurring technique called adaptive optics. The interplanetary probe Cassini will reach Saturn and Titan in 2004 to better explore this unusual world.