European Association for Astronomy Education

Credits: NASA Science News

Titan's ice shell, which overlies a very salty ocean, varies in thickness around the moon.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI/Univ. of Arizona/G. Mitri/University of Nantes

Scientists analyzing data from NASA’s Cassini mission have found evidence of an ocean inside Saturn's largest moon, Titan, which might be as salty as the Earth's Dead Sea.(learn more)

Source: ESA/Huygens

ESA's Huygens image of Titan's surface on 14 January 2005.
Image credits: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

ESA’s Huygens probe bounced, slid and wobbled its way to rest in the 10 seconds after touching down on Saturn’s moon, Titan, in January 2005, a new analysis reveals. The findings provide novel insight into the nature of the moon’s surface. (read more)

Source: ESA

Artist's imoression of Titan's interior.
Image credits: Angelo Tavani.

Nothing like it has been seen before beyond our own planet: large tides have been found on Saturn’s moon Titan that point to a liquid ocean – most likely water – swirling around below the surface. (read more)

Source: ESA

Saturn and Titan viewed from Cassini.
Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/J. Major.

Titan appears to be strung like a bead on Saturn’s rings, which cast shadows onto the southern hemisphere of the gas giant in this beautiful image from Cassini. (read more)

Source:Cassini Solstice Mission

Image credit: NASA/JPL

Tomorrow Cassini goes back to Titan to make the T-82 flyby close to Titan's south pole.

During this close Titan flyby, the composite infrared spectrometer (CIRS) performs a wide variety of observations, including limb sounding, and mapping of surface and atmospheric temperatures. Far-infrared limb sounding near closest approach reaches the most northerly latitude of the Solstice Mission. (75 degrees North) until 2015, providing insights into the transition of the northern polar circulation from spring to summer, and includes a search for possible condensates. The Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) rides-along to detect clouds to monitor climatic changes after the equinox.T-82 is a dusk sector equatorial flyby across Titan's magnetic tail. Similar in geometry, but at a lower altitude (2,363 miles, or 3,803 kilometers) than T-78, Cassini will be able to provide a better characterization of the magnetotail by providing samples at different radial distances from the moon at a fixed local time.