Fact Sheet
Titanic Discovery
Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens discovered Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, 350 years ago this week. Later astronomers, with better telescopes, found that Titan is blanketed by an unbroken layer of organic haze at the top of its thick, cold atmosphere (left). The first good looks through this haze came late last year and early this year from the Cassini spacecraft, which is orbiting Saturn and its moons. The large, bright white area in the Cassini image at right is known as Xanadu. [Credit: NASA/JPL (2)]
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