In the early 1980s, when the two Voyager spacecraft skimmed past Titan, Saturn's largest moon, they transmitted back enticing images of a mysterious world concealed in a seemingly impenetrable orange haze. Titan Unveiled is one of the first general interest books to reveal the startling new discoveries that have been made since the arrival of the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan.

Ralph Lorenz and Jacqueline Mitton take readers behind the scenes of this mission. Launched in 1997, Cassini entered orbit around Saturn in summer 2004. Its formidable payload included the Huygens probe, which successfully parachuted down through Titan's atmosphere in early 2005, all the while transmitting images and data; and scientists were startled by what they saw. One of those researchers was Lorenz, who gives an insider's account of the scientific community's first close encounter with an alien landscape of liquid methane seas and turbulent orange skies. Amid the challenges and frayed nerves, new discoveries are made, including methane monsoons, equatorial sand seas, and Titan's polar hood. Lorenz and Mitton describe Titan as a world strikingly like Earth and tell how Titan may hold clues to the origins of life on our own planet and possibly to its presence on others.

Generously illustrated with many stunning images, Titan Unveiled is essential reading for anyone interested in space exploration, planetary science, or astronomy.

Ralph Lorenz . . . has teamed with veteran science journalist Jaqueline Mitton to convey both the human and scientific drama of remote robotic space exploration.

An insider's look behind the headlines, focusing on the thought processes and instrumentation tricks involved. Lorenz's bloglike entries liven up the prose, but the star is Titan.

is an authentic and lively insider's account of one of the grand enterprises in modern space exploration. The authors present a compelling human story of interplanetary exploration, rich in detail and strong on science. Readers get an authoritative description of many of the latest results from Cassini.

Titan's allure seems only to increase the more scientists learn about it...Obscured by haze, the landscape has been exposed by radar, special optical cameras, and the Huygens lander. The authors cover in detail the information gathered by these and other instruments, which impart a practical sense of how scientists work from raw data toward finished interpretations...Including amazing photographs of Titan's evident geological dynamism, Lorenz and Mitton's work has a high 'wow' factor that will thrill buffs and may spur students toward a planetary science career.

[A]n engrossing firsthand account of one of humankind's greatest adventures of recent years. It will take decades to prepare a new mission and then an additional seven years for another spacecraft to reach titan. In the meantime, provides the general reader with a lively narrative that combines a reliable, nontechnical account of the Cassini-Huygens mission with personal and often intimate insights into these efforts to explore a fascinating planetary analogue to the Earth.

If you thought a virtual world like Second Life was a smorgasbord of experimental gender swaps, nerd types engaging in kinky sex or entrepreneurs cashing in on real world money making possibilities, think again. . . .Could Boellstorff be right that were all virtual humans anyway, viewing the world as we do through the prism of culture?

[A]n engrossing firsthand account of one of humankind's greatest adventures of recent years.

This fantastic book shines a light on the truth of the matter: that science is about a sense of wonder, awe, the joy of finding stuff.

List of Illustrations and Tables vii

Preface xi

Chapter 1: The Lure of Titan 1

Chapter 2: Waiting for Cassini 21

Chapter 3: Cassini Arrives 67

Chapter 4: Cassini's First Taste of Titan 101

Chapter 5: Landing on Titan 132

Chapter 6: The Mission Goes On 174

Chapter 7: Where We Are and Where We Are Going 211

Appendix: Summary of Dynamical and Physical Data 233

Further Reading 235

Index 239