This page is about the moon of Saturn. For other meanings, see Titan (disambiguation).

Titan (tye'-tun, IPA ; Greek Τιτάνας) is the largest moon of Saturn and the second largest moon in the solar system. It was discovered on March 25 1655 by the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens^{440-km wide multi-ring impact basin (seen by ISS as a bright-dark concentric pattern), a smaller 60-km wide flat-floored crater, and regions of roughly parallel bright and dark lineaments which maybe ice- or hydrocarbon-rich sand dunes.}

The Huygens probe photographed pale hills with dark 'rivers' running down to a dark plain. Current understanding is that the hills are composed of water ice. Dark organic compounds rain from Titan's atmosphere and flow down the hills to form the dark plains ^{[14]. The images taken after the probe's landing show a flat plain covered in pebbles. The pebbles, which may be made of water ice, are somewhat rounded, which may indicate the action of fluids on them CICLOPS: Cassini Imaging. Retrieved March 28, 2005.}

• European Space Agency. (2005). ESA - Cassini-Huygens. Retrieved March 28, 2005.
• Gangale, Thomas (2002). The Darian Calendar for Titan. Retrieved March 28, 2005.
• Hamilton, Calvin J. (2001). Titan - Saturn IV. Retrieved March 28, 2005.
• Hammerschlag, Michael (2005). CLOUD WORLD: MISSION to TITAN. Retrieved March 28, 2005.
• NASA (2005). NASA - Cassini-Huygens: CLose Encounter With Saturn. Retrieved March 28, 2005.
• Perry, Jason (2005). Titan Today. Retrieved March 28, 2005.
• The Planetary Society (2005). TPS: Saturn's moon Titan. Retrieved March 28, 2005.
• University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Lab (2005). Lunar and Planetary Lab The Descent Imager-Spectral Radiometer of the Cassini-Huygens Mission to Titan. Retrieved March 28, 2005.

Notes

1. NASA page: News-Features-the Story of Saturn "Titan is the second-largest moon in the entire solar system."
2. ⇧ NASA page: The Story of Saturn/The moons "On March 24, 1655, ... The next day, Christiaan Huygens ... discovered its largest moon, Titan." States the date of discovery. verified 22:00, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC)
3. ⇧NASA page: News-Features-the Story of Saturn "it's the only moon with a dense atmosphere."
4. ⇧ NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day of Titan, Book: Lifting Titan's Veil NASA: "Huygens discovered Luna Saturni - now known as...Titan" Book: Huygens discovered Luna Saturni - now known as Saturn's moon Titan
5. ⇧ Satellites of Saturn; Observations of Mimas, the closest and most interior satellite of Saturn, Mr Lassell, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, volume 8, page 42, 1847-11-12, verified 2005-03-29
6. ⇧ *Bill Arnett (2005). Titan. Retrieved April 10, 2005. "Titan is nevertheless larger in diameter than Mercury"
7. ⇧ ibid. "It was long thought that Titan was the largest satellite in the solar system but recent observations have shown that Titan's atmosphere is so thick that its solid surface is slightly smaller than Ganymede's."
8. ⇧ Huygens Probe Sheds New Light on Titan, Peter de Selding, Space News, 2005-01-21, verified 2005-03-28
9. ⇧ Titan: Arizona in an Icebox?, Emily Lakdawalla, 2004-01-21, verified 2005-03-28
10. ⇧ Seeing, touching and smelling the extraordinarily Earth-like world of Titan, ESA News, European Space Agency, 2005-01-21, verified 2005-03-28
11. ⇧ New Images of Titan Baffle Astronomers, Henry Bortman, Astrobiology Magazine, 2004-10-28, verified 2005-03-28
12. ⇧ Titan's complex and strange world revealed, Stephen Battersby, NewScientist.com news service, New Scientist, 2004-10-29, verified 2005-03-28
13. ⇧ Seeing, touching and smelling the extraordinarily Earth-like world of Titan, ESA News, European Space Agency, 2005-01-21, verified 2005-03-28
14. ⇧ Early Huygens Results: Titan Threw Curves at ESA Probe, Emily Lakdawalla, The Planetary Society, 2005-03-19, verified 2005-03-28
15. ⇧ New Images from the Huygens Probe: Shorelines and Channels, But an Apparently Dry Surface, Emily Lakdawalla, 2005-01-15, verified 2005-03-28
16. ⇧ Titan: Arizona in an Icebox?, Emily Lakdawalla, 2004-01-21, verified 2005-03-28
17. ⇧ Seeing, touching and smelling the extraordinarily Earth-like world of Titan, ESA News, European Space Agency, 2005-01-21, verified 2005-03-28
18. ⇧ Titan's Surface and Rotation: New Results from Voyager 1 Images James Richardson, Ralph Lorenz, & Alfred McEwen, Icarus, July 2004, Vol. 170/1, pp. 113-124 verified 2005-03-28
19. ⇧ NASA Page: Cassini-Huygens: Operations "Oct. 26, 2004: Cassini makes its first close pass by Titan. Cruising by at a distance of only 1,200 kilometers (750 miles), the spacecrafts radar provides the first detailed glimpses of the moon's mysterious surface."
20. ibid.
21. ⇧ ibid. "Jan. 14, 2005: The European Space Agency's Huygens probe descends through Titan's cloudy atmosphere, touching down on the surface about two and half hours later."