Subj : Daily APOD Report
To   : All
From : Alan Ianson
Date : Sun Mar 27 2022 00:40:54

                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    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

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

   Explanation: Why would the surface of Titan light up with a blinding
   flash? The reason: a sunglint from liquid seas. Saturn's moon Titan has
   numerous smooth lakes of methane that, when the angle is right, reflect
   sunlight as if they were mirrors. Pictured here in false-color, the
   robotic Cassini spacecraft that orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017 imaged
   the cloud-covered Titan in 2014 in different bands of cloud-piercing
   infrared light. This specular reflection was so bright it saturated one
   of Cassini's infrared cameras. Although the sunglint was annoying -- it
   was also useful. The reflecting regions confirm that northern Titan
   houses 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 Titan to be a
   world with active weather -- including times when it rains a liquefied
   version of natural gas.

                   Tomorrow's picture: stars of the south
     __________________________________________________________________

       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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