A Tourist’s Guide to Titan

by Jonathan Park

Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, has lakes, seas, and rivers on its surface. It rains and snows there, and we can find sand dunes, mountain ranges, and other familiar geographical features. Earth and Titan are the only places in the Solar System where surface liquid can be found. However, on Titan, instead of liquid water, we find liquid methane, and instead of rock, we find ice frozen as hard as granite. The sky is an orange haze of organic molecules, with the occasional methane cloud in summer. The air temperature is a rather cold minus 179 degrees Celsius, and the seas and lakes are just a little cooler. It’s almost like Earth’s super-chilled twin. What would it be like to visit there? We will try to provide a really good idea with the help of computer-generated images. As a tourist, you will encounter some intriguing surprises! So come along and enjoy this tourist’s guide to Titan.