Titan's surface, Huygens

Titan, a new Earth-like world

The atmosphere of Titan, one of Saturn’s moons, appears similar to that on Earth about 3.5 billions years ago before life appeared.

After a seven-year journey on board the Cassini spacecraft, ESA’s Huygens probe reached Titan’s surface, marking the most distant landing ever achieved by a spacecraft. During the descent its cameras collected data on the dense atmosphere and took the first ever images of the surface.

These revealed an extraordinary world with lakes, islands and signs of erosion similar to those that shape our planet, confirming that liquid methane once flowed there. Methane on Titan is found in liquid form and not as a gas due to the intense pressure and cold temperatures, about –180° C.

For more information on this Cassini-Huygens image, please click on the following link: Titan’s surface, Huygens.