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ORBONIX · SATURN SYSTEM
TITAN
Saturn's largest moon and the only moon
in the Solar System known to have a dense
atmosphere and stable liquid lakes and seas
on its surface.
TITAN · NASA / CASSINI
5,151 km
DIAMETER
1.22 million km
DISTANCE FROM SATURN
15.95 DAYS
ORBITAL PERIOD
1.35 g/cm³
AVERAGE DENSITY
−179°C
APPROX. SURFACE TEMPERATURE
1.5× EARTH
ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE
A WORLD WITH WEATHER
Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and
the second-largest moon in the Solar System.
Its atmosphere is primarily nitrogen,
with methane and other organic molecules.
Titan's thick orange haze makes its surface
difficult to see from space.
Despite its extremely cold temperatures,
Titan has an active weather cycle.
Methane evaporates, forms clouds,
falls as rain and flows across the surface.
The Cassini mission discovered vast lakes
and seas of liquid methane and ethane
near Titan's polar regions.
THICK ATMOSPHERE
Titan has the thickest atmosphere
of any moon in the Solar System.
It is composed mostly of nitrogen.
METHANE LAKES
Titan has lakes and seas of liquid
methane and ethane on its surface.
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
Sunlight and Saturn's magnetosphere
drive chemistry that creates complex
organic molecules in Titan's atmosphere.
DID YOU KNOW?
Titan is the only world beyond Earth
known to have a stable cycle of
liquid flowing across its surface.
AN EARTH-LIKE CYCLE WITH DIFFERENT CHEMISTRY
Titan has rivers, lakes, seas, clouds and rain, but its surface cycle is driven largely by methane and ethane rather than liquid water. Beneath its thick nitrogen-rich atmosphere, radar observations have revealed channels, dunes and polar seas.
Water ice forms much of Titan's solid surface, and evidence also points to a subsurface ocean. Its complex organic chemistry makes Titan an important natural laboratory for studying planetary atmospheres and prebiotic chemical processes.
IMAGE:
NASA / JPL-CALTECH / SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE