Editing Titan (moon) (section)

=== ''Pioneer'' and ''Voyager'' ===
[[File:Titan's thick haze layer-picture from voyager1.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Voyager 1]]'' view of haze on Titan's limb (1980)]]
The first probe to visit the Saturnian system was ''[[Pioneer 11]]'' in 1979, which revealed that Titan was probably too cold to support life.<ref>{{cite web |date=March 26, 2007 |title=The Pioneer Missions |publisher=NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory |work=Pioneer Project |url=https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/missions/archive/pioneer.html |access-date=August 19, 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629033952/https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/missions/archive/pioneer.html |archive-date=June 29, 2011 }}</ref> It took images of Titan, including Titan and Saturn together in mid to late 1979.<ref>{{cite web |title=40 Years Ago: Pioneer 11 First to Explore Saturn |publisher=NASA |date=September 3, 2019 |url=https://www.nasa.gov/feature/40-years-ago-pioneer-11-first-to-explore-saturn |access-date=February 22, 2020 |archive-date=August 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210824131858/https://www.nasa.gov/feature/40-years-ago-pioneer-11-first-to-explore-saturn/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The quality was soon surpassed by the two ''Voyagers''.<ref>{{cite web|date=November 21, 2021|title=Voyager Camera Desc|publisher=Planetary Data System|url=https://pds-rings.seti.org/voyager/iss/inst_cat_wa1.html|access-date=November 21, 2021|archive-date=November 7, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211107025433/https://pds-rings.seti.org/voyager/iss/inst_cat_wa1.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Titan was examined by both ''Voyager 1'' and ''[[Voyager 2|2]]'' in 1980 and 1981, respectively. ''Voyager 1''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s trajectory was designed to provide an optimized Titan flyby, during which the spacecraft was able to determine the density, composition, and temperature of the atmosphere, and obtain a precise measurement of Titan's mass.<ref name="Bell2015">{{cite book|author=Bell, Jim|title=The Interstellar Age: Inside the Forty-Year Voyager Mission|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KXPoAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT93|date=February 24, 2015|publisher=Penguin Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-698-18615-6|page=93|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160904191620/https://books.google.com/books?id=KXPoAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT93|archive-date=September 4, 2016}}</ref> Atmospheric haze prevented direct imaging of the surface, though in 2004 intensive digital processing of images taken through ''Voyager 1''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s orange filter did reveal hints of the light and dark features now known as [[Xanadu (Titan)|Xanadu]] and [[Shangri-la (Titan)|Shangri-la]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Richardson |first1=J. |last2=Lorenz |first2=Ralph D. |last3=McEwen |first3=Alfred |title=Titan's Surface and Rotation: New Results from Voyager 1 Images |journal=Icarus |date=2004 |volume=170 |issue=1 |pages=113–124 |doi=10.1016/j.icarus.2004.03.010 |bibcode=2004Icar..170..113R }}</ref> which had been observed in the infrared by the Hubble Space Telescope. ''Voyager 2'', which would have been diverted to perform the Titan flyby if ''Voyager 1'' had been unable to, did not pass near Titan and continued on to Uranus and Neptune.<ref name="Bell2015" />{{rp|94}}