Frozen paradise

Named after a Japanese paradise, the Senkyo region of Titan (the dark area below and to the right of center) is a bit less welcoming than its namesake.

With a very inhospitable average temperature of approximately 290 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (-180 degrees Celsius), water on Titan (3,200 miles or 5,150 kilometers across) freezes hard enough to be essentially considered rock.

This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Titan. North on Titan is up and rotated 33 degrees to the right. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 8, 2015 using a near-infrared filter which is centered at 938 nanometers.


The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.2 million miles (1.9 million kilometers) from Titan. Image scale is 7 miles (11 kilometers) per pixel.