Atmosphere, that is.
This is an incredible image of two of Saturn's moons, Titan and Rhea. Titan is the larger of the two, and it has a thick atmosphere of primarily nitrogen. The smaller moon, Rhea, has no air.
This image demonstrates the extent that light can be affected by an atmosphere. Titan's thick smog allows sunlight to encircle the moon in a dramatic all-over sunset (or sunrise, I suppose), while the light barely peeks over the edge of airless Rhea, producing an equally dramatic crescent.
More about this image and how it was produced can be found here.
No comments:
Post a Comment