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Why is Titan’s surface much colder than Earth’s surface?
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Titan
Titan, moon of Saturn, photographed by Voyager 2 on August 25, 1981, at a distance of 907,000 km (564,000 miles). Green and violet images were combined to make this photograph, which shows the extended atmosphere of the satellite.
Titan’s surface is significantly colder than Earth’s primarily because of its vast distance from the Sun. While Earth orbits at a much closer range, Saturn, which Titan orbits, is located at a mean distance of approximately 1.4 billion kilometers (about 887 million miles) from the Sun.1
Because of this extreme distance, Titan receives far less solar energy than Earth, resulting in a surface temperature of approximately 94 K (−179 °C, or −290 °F). In contrast, Earth’s surface temperature is maintained at a much warmer mean of 15 °C (59 °F), supported by its proximity to the Sun and the insulating effects of its atmosphere.234