AstroKidsEverything in the sky › Titan
moon · moon of Saturn

Titan

A moon with a thick orange sky, and rivers of something that is not water. It is the only moon with a proper sky of its own, thicker than ours — and the only place besides Earth where liquid rains and pools on the ground.

🕒 When can I see it?🚀 Travel there
Titan — Drawn, not photographed.

What it is

Saturn's largest moon, thick orange atmosphere, lakes and rivers of liquid methane.

Moon: Orbits a planet rather than the star. Every kind of thing there is →

How to find Titan

Its position moves, so there is no fixed place on a map to point at. The Planetarium works out where it is for your own place and date.

What you will really see

Through a small telescope

A tiny point right beside its bright planet — steady the telescope and wait.

🔭 See it drawn as it looks through a telescope
🖨️ A sheet to print for this
🖨️ Print a sheet and go and look
🖨️ Sheet to take outside →

Worth knowing about Titan

Titan is also bigger than Mercury — the 2nd largest moon. In weight, about 1/45th of Earth. Its day: it keeps one face towards Saturn for the whole 16 days it takes to go round, so one day there lasts more than two of our weeks.

Its surface
Thick orange atmosphere with lakes and rivers of liquid methane — the only other place with liquid on its surface.
How it moves
About two weeks — half a month.
The machines we sent
The Huygens probe landed there in 2005, carried by Cassini.
How did anyone measure the Earth in the first place?
The numbers
Across5 149 km
Distance from the planet it orbits1 221 870 km
Once round its orbit15.9 days
One spin15.9 days
Temperature-179 °C (from -179 to -179)
Made of, among other thingsmethane, nitrogen, water

How anyone knows this

Nobody flew a tape measure out there. Every number on this page was worked out from the ground:

What it belongs to

☀️ Everything the Sun holds, in one place📖 How the solar system fits together

Then go outside

Clear tonight? The Planetarium will show you what is worth a look. Then just go out.

🌙 Plan an evening outside🌌 Everything else in the sky