Not to be confused with Titans.

Overview

Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and the second-largest moon in the Solar system. It is also the only moon to possess a substantial atmosphere, as well as the only body other than Earth to hold liquid on its surface.^[1]

Composition and Atmosphere

Titan is composed of roughly 50% rock and 50% water ice, with a thick atmosphere of 98% nitrogen, 1.4% methane, 0.2 hydrogen, and 0.4 other gases. At ground level the pressure is 1.5 times greater than Earth's sea level pressure. Scattered across the surface are lakes of liquid hydrocarbons, the only known bodies of liquid on the surface of an object other than the Earth. It is suspected that, like Europa, Titan possesses a subsurface ocean of liquid water, which makes it a plausible host for some form of life.

Exploration

The Cassini spacecraft has provided the majority of the current infomation regarding Titan, as previous spacecraft were unable to penetrate its thick atmospheric haze. The child mission to Cassini, Huygens, detached from its parent in late December 2004, and entered the Titanian atmosphere before parachuting to a safe landing on its surface in mid-January 2005. While Huygens returned large amounts of data on the atmosphere during its descent, it rapidly succumbed to the intense cold once on the surface, though not before returning several images at ground level.

Images