A hidden world revealed: Titan

Bad Astronomy
By Phil Plait
Oct 12, 2011 6:29 PMNov 20, 2019 1:00 AM

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We've sent space probes to every planet in our solar system (and if you're a die-hard Pluto fan, you only have to wait 4 more years). And yet there is still much to see, much to explore. Not every world gives up its secrets easily, and perhaps none has been so difficult to probe than Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Bigger than Mercury, second only to Jupiter's Ganymede, Titan has an atmosphere of nitrogen so thick it has twice the Earth's air pressure at its surface. That thick, hazy atmosphere is impenetrable by optical light... but infrared light can pierce that veil, and the Cassini space probe is well-equipped with detectors that can see in that part of that spectrum. And after 7 years, and 78 fly-by passes of the huge moon, there are enough images for scientists to make this amazing global map:

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