All Images
Research News
Titan: A Climate Out of This World
![a composite visible/infrared view of Titan.](/news/mmg/media/images/titan_climate1_f.jpg)
This composite visible/infrared view of Titan shows a world with features strikingly similar to our Earth: clouds, haze, mountain ranges and a thick atmosphere. The true color of Titan is orange.
Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (123 KB)
Use your mouse to right-click (Mac users may need to Ctrl-click) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.
![Titan at the top emerging from behind Saturn and Tethys at the bottom left.](/news/mmg/media/images/titan_climate2_f.jpg)
Titan in Saturn's system: Titan (top) emerges from behind its parent planet, Saturn. Another satellite, Tethys, is visible at the bottom left of the picture.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (76 KB)
Use your mouse to right-click (Mac users may need to Ctrl-click) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.
![a composite visible/infrared view of Titan's North Pole as seen by Cassini.](/news/mmg/media/images/titan_climate3_f.jpg)
The recent observations by Schaller and her colleagues of a giant cloud in the tropics of Titan was a first. But at the poles, clouds are more common. This is a composite visible/infrared view of Titan's North Pole as seen by the Cassini spacecraft. Such clouds might be a source for the liquids that fill the moon's northern lakes.
Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (70 KB)
Use your mouse to right-click (Mac users may need to Ctrl-click) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.
![the tropical cloud observed by Emily Schaller from the ground in April 2008.](/news/mmg/media/images/titan_climate4_f.jpg)
The tropical cloud observed by Emily Schaller from the ground in April 2008. Bright clouds affect the global brightness of Titan's disk, which is why we can detect them just by measuring the intensity of Titan, even when it is seen only as a dot.
Credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA/E. Schaller et al.
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (77 KB)
Use your mouse to right-click (Mac users may need to Ctrl-click) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.
![largest of Titan's northern lakes on left compared to Lake Superior on right.](/news/mmg/media/images/titan_climate5_f.jpg)
The lakes of Titan, compared to ours. Left is the largest of Titan's northern lakes, situated close to the Pole. It has a larger area than Lake Superior (right). Colors on the left picture have been artificially added to the original, black and white radar picture.
Credit: NASA/JPL/GSFC
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (104 KB)
Use your mouse to right-click (Mac users may need to Ctrl-click) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.