Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2022 March 26
See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download
the highest resolution version available.

Pluto at Night
Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Institute

Explanation: The night side of Pluto spans this shadowy scene. In the stunning spacebased perspective the Sun is 4.9 billion kilometers (almost 4.5 light-hours) behind the dim and distant world. It was captured by far flung New Horizons in July of 2015 when the spacecraft was at a range of some 21,000 kilometers from Pluto, about 19 minutes after its closest approach. A denizen of the Kuiper Belt in dramatic silhouette, the image also reveals Pluto's tenuous, surprisingly complex layers of hazy atmosphere. Near the top of the frame the crescent twilight landscape includes southern areas of nitrogen ice plains now formally known as Sputnik Planitia and rugged mountains of water-ice in the Norgay Montes.

Tomorrow's picture: titanic flash < | Archive | Submissions | Index | Search | Calendar | RSS | Education | About APOD | Discuss | >

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.


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Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2022 March 27
The featured image depicts Saturn's moon Titan as captured by the Cassini mission in 2014. The infrared
image is colored green and includes bright sunglint
from surface seas.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Titan Seas Reflect Sunlight
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, U. Arizona, U. Idaho

The surface of Titan would light up with a blinding flash. There is a sunglint from liquid seas. When the angle is right, the smooth lakes of methane on the moon reflect sunlight as if they were mirrors. The false-color image shows the cloud-covered Titan in a different band of cloud-piercing light. The reflection saturated one of the cameras. The sunglint was useful despite it being annoying. The reflecting regions confirm that northern Titan has a wide and complex array of seas with a geometry that indicates periods of significant evaporation. During its numerous passes of our Solar System's most mysterious moon, Cassini has revealed that it is a world with active weather, including times when it rains a liquefied version of natural gas.

Tomorrow's picture: stars of the south

< | Archive | Submissions | Index | Search | Calendar | RSS | Education | About APOD | Discuss | >

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.