Titan's Swirling South Polar Vortex (Saturn Images from NASA's Cassini Spacecraft)

CICLOPS: Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS

Titan's Swirling South Polar Vortex

With its recent excursion out of Saturn's equatorial plane, Cassini has uncovered a vortex swirling around the south pole in Titan's hazy atmosphere. (Image advisory can be found here.)

		Jul 10, 2012:	Titan's Colorful South Polar Vortex - This true color image captured by NASA'S Cassini spacecraft before a distant flyby of Saturn's moon Titan on June 27, 2012, shows a south polar vortex, or a mass of swirling gas around the pole in the atmosphere of the moon.

		Jul 10, 2012:	Titan's South Polar Vortex in Motion - This movie captured by NASA'S Cassini spacecraft shows a south polar vortex, or a mass of swirling gas around the pole in the atmosphere, at Saturn's moon Titan.

		Jul 10, 2012:	Winter's Coming - False-color images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft show the development of a hood of high-altitude haze -- which appears orange in this image -- forming over the south pole of Saturn's moon Titan.

Alliance Member Comments

GorT> (Jul 12, 2012 at 9:19 PM):

Speaking of ephemerides...when are the stars going to align again, C.P..? What about the coincidence of 2012; year of the dragon in the Chinese calendar and the 11 year solar maxima occurring now? How did they know?