major moon · moon of Saturn
Titan
Saturn's giant moon, the only moon with a thick atmosphere, where methane rain fills rivers, lakes and seas on the surface.
- Distance from Earth today
- 1.28 billion km8.556 AU · light: 1 h 11 min
- Distance from the Sun today
- 1.41 billion km9.425 AU
- As of
- 2 November 2026position from NASA/JPL orbital elements
Where it is today
Top view of the plane of Earth’s orbit, compressed distance scale. Open on the big map with the time slider →
Facts
- Diameter
- 5,150 km
- Mass
- 134,518 × 10¹⁸ kg
- Density
- 1,881 kg/m³
- Mean distance from the planet
- 1,221,900 km
- Orbital period
- 15.9 days
- Orbital eccentricity
- 0.029
- Orbital inclination
- 0.3°
Source of the figures: JPL SSD – Planetary Satellites (public domain).
Discovery: 1655 – Christiaan Huygens
Description
Titan is Saturn's largest moon and the second-largest in the Solar System, bigger than Mercury. Discovered by Christiaan Huygens in 1655, it is the only moon with a dense atmosphere, made mostly of nitrogen and filled with an orange haze of organic compounds. Apart from Earth, it is the only known world with stable liquid on its surface: lakes and seas of liquid methane and ethane near the poles, fed by rain and rivers. The Cassini orbiter mapped it through the haze with radar, and in 2005 its Huygens probe parachuted to the surface, the most distant landing ever made. NASA's Dragonfly rotorcraft is being prepared to fly between sites on Titan.