Ghost Moon: Titan Photobombs Enceladus in Saturn Photo

by NowPublic Staff | May 10, 2012 at 10:01 am

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Moons of Saturn: Cassinis Snaps Amazing Photo of Enceladus and Titan

Titan is Saturn's largest moon-- indeed, it's larger than Mercury. This means that Titan likes to throw its weight around. When the Cassini spacecraft photographed Enceladus, one of Saturn's smaller moons, against a backdrop of the planet's iconic rings, Titan couldn't resist photobombing its smaller sibling.

Look carefully at the Enceladus photo below. Titan is looming in the background. It's a creeper. Enceladus is an ice moon, and is thus more reflective of sunlight than the cloud-shrouded Titan.

Indeed, Titan is the only moon known to have such a dense atmosphere, and it's the only celestial body other than Earth with clear evidence of surface liquid.

Enceladus (313 miles, or 504 kilometers across) is in the center of the image. Titan (3,200 miles, or 5,150 kilometers across) glows faintly in the background beyond the rings. This view looks toward the anti-Saturn side of Enceladus and the Saturn-facing side of Titan. The northern, sunlit side of the rings is seen from just above the ringplane.

If you added an ominous sci-fi soundtrack to this image in your mind, you are not alone. Neither is Enceladus.

(via Bad Astronomy)