Now that’s a big shadow!
2009 November 8
Big shadow cast upon Saturn
This was a suprising find amongst the raw images from Cassini this evening….a photo of Saturn, similar to the one I posted previously, but with a massive shadow cast upon its southern hemisphere. I presume it’s from Titan, somewhere out of frame, based upon its size and hazy edges (indicative of the big moon’s thick atmosphere.) Still, I can’t recall seeing a moon shadow cast this big on Saturn’s cloudtops before. It struck me as a little unusual.
This is the raw image, rotated 90º clockwise but otherwise unedited. See the original here.
Image: NASA/JPL/SSI
Some part of the fuzziness is due to Titan’s atmosphere, but it’s mostly due to the Sun’s measurable angular size, even at Saturn’s distance.
Thanks for the info Gordan. I was just not used to seeing such a large shadow on the planet. At first I thought it was an imaging glitch!