Less than 20 minutes after Cassini's close approach to Titan on March 31, 2005, its cameras captured this view of Saturn through Titan's upper atmosphere. The northern part of Saturn's disk can be seen at the upper left; dark horizontal lines are shadows cast upon Saturn by its rings. Below this level, Titan's atmosphere is thick enough to obscure Saturn.
The diffuse bright regions of the image (below Saturn and at the right) are light being scattered by haze in the upper reaches of Titan's atmosphere.
This image is scientifically useful because it shows properties both of how Titan's haze transmits light (from the attenuation of light from Saturn) and of how the haze reflects light (from its brightness next to Saturn).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of 7,980 kilometers (4,960 miles) from Titan, when Saturn was about 1.3 million kilometers (808,000 miles) away. Image scale is about 320 meters (1,050 feet) per pixel on Titan.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill
You can't see Saturn from the surface of Titan unfortunately, the Moon is tidally locked so you'd have to be on the side that's always facing Saturn and even then, the orange haze would just block any view of Saturn.
Yeah, but while "landing" you could still see it?
It makes it even more special. Like seeing a sunset/sunrise while on a plane. It's the same thing as you see on the surface of earth, but looks way cooler.
There’s no one out there. There’s nothing alive. Of all the matter in the universe, an infinitesimal amount of it came together as me and is now observing itself. The universe has been here for all this time and I am here now. Looking at it. My life a millisecond in a millenia. Sometimes it feels too much to bear. So I’m just going to enjoy this cup of coffee and look forward to the basketball games tonight and try not to think about how one day, very relatively soon, my existence will end and I will return to star dust.
####Not actual colors.
I had seen this [before](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia06225-saturn-through-the-haze) but this has been colorized. Based on the credits given, I assume the artist was Kevin M. Gill.
Searching a bit, I found [his page for this image](https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmgill/50236992918/in/pool-cassini/) and the following information:
>Titan and Saturn - March 31 2005: Processed using calibrated red, green, blue, and unfiltered images of Titan and Saturn taken by Cassini on March 31 2005. Saturn is a composite of a red and unfiltered exposure and is colored artificially. Titan is RGB.
Well done anyways, still a great shot.
wow! really cool. so interesting that Titan has an atmosphere. this is a incredible view of it.
btw I found a lot of other images I liked on his (Gill's) site, thanks for posting!
Wonder what it'd be like for an intelligent species to evolve on a planet with an atmosphere that completely obscures the sky. Would they feel more alone? Would they eventually try to explore space like us? Or would it just be a given for them that there is nothing beyond the haze. Imagine how mindblowing it'd be to be the first of the species to go above the clouds and actually see the rest of the universe. It'd make for a good sci-fi premise lol
Less than 20 minutes after Cassini's close approach to Titan on March 31, 2005, its cameras captured this view of Saturn through Titan's upper atmosphere. The northern part of Saturn's disk can be seen at the upper left; dark horizontal lines are shadows cast upon Saturn by its rings. Below this level, Titan's atmosphere is thick enough to obscure Saturn. The diffuse bright regions of the image (below Saturn and at the right) are light being scattered by haze in the upper reaches of Titan's atmosphere. This image is scientifically useful because it shows properties both of how Titan's haze transmits light (from the attenuation of light from Saturn) and of how the haze reflects light (from its brightness next to Saturn). The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of 7,980 kilometers (4,960 miles) from Titan, when Saturn was about 1.3 million kilometers (808,000 miles) away. Image scale is about 320 meters (1,050 feet) per pixel on Titan. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill
Cassini is one of the most incredible achievements of humanity. Every time I see a photo from that mission I am stunned.
This looks amazing! So sad that we can't experiences these views ourselves, but still really cool that we can at least get some nice pics.
You can't see Saturn from the surface of Titan unfortunately, the Moon is tidally locked so you'd have to be on the side that's always facing Saturn and even then, the orange haze would just block any view of Saturn.
Imagine one day we managed to terraform Titan, can you imagine how much more expensive property would be on the Saturn-facing side?
Oh hell no I can already picture the listings "Apartment with a view of Saturn"
“Perched on the shores of Kraken Mare!”
To be fair, I get a view of Saturn from my apartment from time to time
As long as it isn’t a Saturn Vue. Those things are pieces of shit.
Howdy
Yeah, but while "landing" you could still see it? It makes it even more special. Like seeing a sunset/sunrise while on a plane. It's the same thing as you see on the surface of earth, but looks way cooler.
Yeah, you can.
Maybe one day we'll have tons of space probes flying around these planets and we can all watch in vr
[Relevant mission in the works](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/dragonfly/)
Lol sweet
Yet... can't experience these these viewed ourselves, yet
There’s no one out there. There’s nothing alive. Of all the matter in the universe, an infinitesimal amount of it came together as me and is now observing itself. The universe has been here for all this time and I am here now. Looking at it. My life a millisecond in a millenia. Sometimes it feels too much to bear. So I’m just going to enjoy this cup of coffee and look forward to the basketball games tonight and try not to think about how one day, very relatively soon, my existence will end and I will return to star dust.
Perhaps being stardust is subjectively better than being alive as a human being. That’d explain why there’s so much more of it than there is of us.
we are all made of stars as the song goes :)
Or, all that stardust is out there waiting for its turn to look in the mirror.
Or it's everywhere and it's just that space and time are so vast, it's difficult to see until our technology catches up with our questions.
beauty shot. the very reason for this sub’s existence
Absolutely. There are so many lesser-known shots from Cassini like this one that I’d love to see more of on this sub.
####Not actual colors. I had seen this [before](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia06225-saturn-through-the-haze) but this has been colorized. Based on the credits given, I assume the artist was Kevin M. Gill. Searching a bit, I found [his page for this image](https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmgill/50236992918/in/pool-cassini/) and the following information: >Titan and Saturn - March 31 2005: Processed using calibrated red, green, blue, and unfiltered images of Titan and Saturn taken by Cassini on March 31 2005. Saturn is a composite of a red and unfiltered exposure and is colored artificially. Titan is RGB. Well done anyways, still a great shot.
/r/megalophobia I just can't comprehend the things that exist at this very moment in the universe
I'm gonna cry
It looks so beautiful
I thought I had seen all of Cassini's images but I don't remember ever seeing this one, very col.
This is so scary
[What's Titan like this time of year?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWQ0MDu4Tzc&t=67s)
wow! really cool. so interesting that Titan has an atmosphere. this is a incredible view of it. btw I found a lot of other images I liked on his (Gill's) site, thanks for posting!
Wonder what it'd be like for an intelligent species to evolve on a planet with an atmosphere that completely obscures the sky. Would they feel more alone? Would they eventually try to explore space like us? Or would it just be a given for them that there is nothing beyond the haze. Imagine how mindblowing it'd be to be the first of the species to go above the clouds and actually see the rest of the universe. It'd make for a good sci-fi premise lol
Am I the only one who thought this picture was moving.
Now there is something I haven't seen before.
These worlds are just waiting to be explored