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Astronomy Picture of the Day - The Surface of Titan from Huygens
NASA ^ | 30 Nov, 2025 | Image Credit: ESA, NASA, JPL, U. Arizona, Huygens Lander

Posted on 11/30/2025 12:09:36 PM PST by MtnClimber

Explanation: If you could stand on Titan -- what would you see? The featured color view from Titan gazes across an unfamiliar and distant landscape on Saturn's largest moon. The scene was recorded by ESA's Huygens probe in 2005 after a 2.5-hour descent through a thick atmosphere of nitrogen laced with methane. Bathed in an eerie orange light at ground level, rocks strewn about the scene could well be composed of water and hydrocarbons frozen solid at an inhospitable temperature of negative 179 degrees C. The large light-toned rock below and left of center is only about 15 centimeters across and lies 85 centimeters away. The saucer-shaped spacecraft is believed to have penetrated about 15 centimeters into a place on Titan's surface that had the consistency of wet sand or clay. Huygen's batteries enabled the probe to take and transmit data for more than 90 minutes after landing. Titan's bizarre chemical environment may bear similarities to planet Earth's before life evolved.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa
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1 posted on 11/30/2025 12:09:36 PM PST by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 11/30/2025 12:09:52 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; A Navy Vet; A_perfect_lady; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; ...
Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

3 posted on 11/30/2025 12:11:08 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Looks like Nevada - or maybe New Mexico.


4 posted on 11/30/2025 12:15:07 PM PST by GaltAdonis
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To: MtnClimber

Wow.


5 posted on 11/30/2025 12:16:16 PM PST by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as )
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To: MtnClimber

179 degrees C. That’s -290° F. for us non-Europeans, NASA.


6 posted on 11/30/2025 12:25:57 PM PST by Telepathic Intruder
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To: MtnClimber

Looks a lot like Mojave..................


7 posted on 11/30/2025 12:33:34 PM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Red Badger

That would require a few old mobile home meth labs scattered around.


8 posted on 11/30/2025 12:42:43 PM PST by doorgunner69
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To: MtnClimber

It looks like really bad air pollution in China.


9 posted on 11/30/2025 1:25:00 PM PST by telescope115 (Ad Astra, Ad Deum…)
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To: MtnClimber

Everywhere you look, what do you see?

Rocks.


10 posted on 11/30/2025 1:33:02 PM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer” )
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To: MtnClimber

11 posted on 11/30/2025 1:39:03 PM PST by Diogenesis (Si vis pacem, para bellum)
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Looks like the rocks are worn by water or wind…


12 posted on 11/30/2025 1:41:12 PM PST by TnTnTn
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To: MtnClimber

Not very obelisky.


13 posted on 11/30/2025 1:44:02 PM PST by Yardstick
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To: MtnClimber

Huyg ens series.

Sorry. Stop groaning.


14 posted on 11/30/2025 1:56:09 PM PST by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait.)
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To: MtnClimber

Titan or Barstow, Ca.


15 posted on 11/30/2025 2:30:55 PM PST by Bullish (My tagline ran off with another man, but it's okay... I wasn't married to it.)
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