STEM News Tip: Titan and its Atmosphere on APOD
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- Published: Thursday, 20 August 2020 15:00
Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows seven different views of Saturn's moon Titan. The surface of Titan is ahrd to see at most visible wavelengths, due to the extreme scattering of light due to particles in the atmosphere. But scattering is wavelength-dependent; anyone who has seen our demonstration M7-31: Tyndall's Experiment can report that you can see very different scattering of light at different frequencies - this is what gives us our rich red sunsets and the brilliant blue sky overhead at noon. To see the surface of Titan, astronomers can use even longer infrared wavelengths, to penetrate the clouds and see what's happening down there.
- Follow the Astronomy Picture of the Day at https://apod.nasa.gov/
- Learn more about Titan at https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/saturn-moons/titan/overview/