On 14 January 2005, the Huygens spacecraft landed on Saturn’s moon Titan and sent back this view of its pebbled surface. The rounded stones are thought to be water ice; Titan is so cold that ice behaves like rock.

Titan has clouds, rain, rivers, lakes and seas, but its surface liquids are hydrocarbons such as methane and ethane. The landscape can look familiar, even though its chemistry is very different.

A real photograph from Saturn’s moon

The actual view from Huygens on Titan’s surface in January 2005 — ESA / NASA / JPL / University of Arizona. Huygens surface photograph, 14 January 2005; processed colour view.

Rounded pebbles on Titan on the left, river rocks on Earth on the right — ESA / NASA / JPL / University of Arizona (Titan left), NASA comparison image (Earth right).

Titan in front of Saturn and its rings in a true-colour Cassini photograph — NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute. Cassini true-colour photograph of Titan in front of Saturn and its rings.

A real photograph from Saturn’s moon

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