Amazing Photos: Titan, Saturn's Largest Moon

Saturn's Moon Titan Is Slushy Inside

This artist's illustration shows the likely slushy interior structure of Saturn's moon Titan deduced from gravity field data collected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Full Story.

Giant Sand Dunes on Titan Shaped by Backward Winds

Scientists have used data from the Cassini radar mapper to map the global wind pattern on Saturn's moon Titan using data collected over a four-year period, as depicted in this image.

Ice on a Volcano

Wednesday, January 19, 2011: This topographic image shows an area of Saturn's moon Titan, known as Sotra Facula, which may harbor an ice volcano (cryovolcano). Finger-like flows suggest the presence of cryovolcanism. NASA's Cassini spacecraft collected data for this false-color image in which heights are exaggerated by a factor of 10.

--Tom Chao

titan-aerosol-moon-saturn

The blurring effects of Titan's aerosol are obvious in this image, where the orange moon peeks from behind two of Saturn's rings. Small, battered Epimetheus, another of Saturn's 62 moons, appears just above the rings.

titan northern half

Titan's northern half, where it's early spring, appears slightly darker than the southern half, where it's early fall, in this image taken on March 22, 2010. Like Earth, Titan has four distinct seasons, each of which lasts about seven of Earth's years.

Moons on the Move

Titan emerges from behind Saturn while Tethys streaks into view in this colorful scene on March 24, 2008. Titan is 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles) wide; Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) wide. Saturn's shadow darkens the far arm of the rings near the planet's limb.

Flowing Liquids on Titan

Abundant evidence for flowing liquids is seen in this view of Saturn’s moon Titan, from sinuous, wide river channels to shorter, more chaotic drainage patterns. This radar view of Titan's south pole was taken on Dec. 20, 2007.

Titan Approaches Saturn

Swathed in its thick blanket of atmosphere, frigid Titan approaches the brilliant limb of Saturn on March 14, 2008.

Titan - methane rain

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft chronicled the change of seasons as it captured clouds concentrated near the equator of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, on Oct. 18, 2010.

Titan's Seasonal Precipitation

Cloudy with rain. Simplified global atmospheric circulation and precipitation pattern on Titan and Earth. Most precipitation occurs at the intertropical convergence zone, or ITCZ, where air ascends as a result of convergence of surface winds from the northern and southern directions. Titan’s ITCZ was previously near the south pole (A) but is currently on its way to the north pole (B). The seasonal migration of the ITCZ on Earth is much smaller (C and D). This image appears in a Perspective by Tetsuya Tokano titled, "Precipitation Climatology on Titan."