Carolyn Porco
Professor of Astronomy, University of Arizona, and Leader, Cassini Imaging Science Team
will lecture on:
Exploration of the Outer Solar System
Friday June 16, 8:00pm, SAC Auditorium,
SUNY Stony Brook

This artist's conception shows Titan's surface with Saturn appearing dimly in the background through Titan's thick atmosphere of mostly nitrogen and methane. The Cassini spacecraft flys overhead with its high gain antenna pointed at the Huygens probe as it nears the surface. Titan's surface may hold lakes of liquid ethane and methane, sprinkled over a thin veneer of frozen methane and ammonia. Most of the brownish-orange color comes from more heavily processed hydrocarbons present in Titan's atmosphere and on its surface. Artistic license has been used to exaggerate the size of the orbiter, the sharpness of the icy features, the tilt of Saturn's rings, and the visibility of the planet through Titan's atmosphere. (NASA slide P-45893AC)