Saturn’s moon Titan, presently being explored by the spacecraft Cassini, has astonishing similarities to Earth—a thick atmosphere, weather, seasons, rivers, and lakes. And defying the demystification that comes with discovery, Titan’s allure seems only to increase the more scientists learn about it. From a historical baseline of pre-Cassini knowledge, the authors outline questions this spacecraft was designed to answer, prime among them, the appearance and nature of Titan’s surface. 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. A concrete example is data collected by coauthor Lorenz’s impact probe, which hints that Titan’s surface is like wet sand—but instead of water as on Earth, the liquid is methane. 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. --Gilbert Taylor
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