NASA released an image of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, that shows it as the Cassini spacecraft does: greenish and hazy and kind of Earth-like.
"During this Titan flyby, the spacecraft's closest-approach altitude was 6,200 miles (10,000 kilometers), which is considerably higher than those of typical flybys, which are around 750 miles (1,200 kilometers). The high flyby allowed VIMS to gather moderate-resolution views over wide areas (typically at a few kilometers per pixel)," NASA said in a statement. "The view looks toward terrain that is mostly on the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Titan. The scene features the parallel, dark, dune-filled regions named Fensal (to the north) and Aztlan (to the south), which form the shape of a sideways letter 'H.'
"Several places on the image show the surface at higher resolution than elsewhere," read NASA's release. "These areas, called subframes, show more detail because they were acquired near closest approach. They have finer resolution, but cover smaller areas than data obtained when Cassini was farther away from Titan."
The Cassini spacecraft arrived at the Saturn system in 2004 and NASA estimates it has enough fuel to continue observing the planet and its satellites until 2017.
"Titan' upland areas are not as high as those on Earth," NASA stated. "The tallest mountains are probably only a few hundred meters above the surrounding terrain. Huygens spotted drainage patterns leading down from upland areas near its landing site that were obviously carved by flowing liquid."
