
Moons of the Solar System
Titan is Saturn's largest moon and, thanks to the Huygens probe, the only satellite beyond Earth's own where a spacecraft has actually landed on the surface. This film picks up the story six years after that 2005 touchdown, using data from Huygens and its Cassini mother craft to describe a world that looks nothing like the frozen rock scientists expected: lakes and rivers of liquid methane, rainstorms, and cryo-volcanoes spewing icy slush instead of magma. Footage and imagery from the missions carry most of the description, with researchers explaining what the readings mean for a moon dense enough with organic chemistry to interest astrobiologists. The film also covers proposals under discussion at the time for a return mission, including a probe designed to splash down directly into one of Titan's hydrocarbon seas. Part of a four-part series on solar system moons, this installment stays narrowly focused on Titan's orange haze and the case for going back.