Even after a few snapshots taken by the Cassini spacecraft, Saturn's moon Titan remains a shrouded mystery. This view from Cassini shows a detached region of haze in the moon's stratosphere.

The picture was taken July 3, one day after Cassini flew past Titan. It was released last week.

The outer haze layer appears to float above the main part of the moon's smoggy atmosphere. Because of its thinness, the high haze layer is best seen at the moon's limb. The picture was made in ultraviolet light, which isn't visible to the human eye, so it has been colorized. The pale orange of Titan's smog is made to be the color it appears to the human eye, but the detached purple haze is falsely colored to provide contrast.

The haze hovers some 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the surface. Ultraviolet light from the Sun breaks down methane and nitrogen molecules, astronomers explained. The products are believed to react to form more complex organic molecules containing carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen that can combine to form the very small particles seen as haze.

-- SPACE.com Staff

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute