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Nature Geoscience 1, 415–416 (1 July 2008) | doi:10.1038/ngeo238

Uncovering Titan's secrets

Dominic Fortes

Planetary science, or comparative planetology in the strict sense, is the comparison of structure and function between planetary bodies, satellites, and even comets, with the goal of better understanding our own home world; ostensibly this is motivated by a desire to either mitigate natural hazards or control our environment, but more often the driver is sheer human curiosity. Our solar system is a mixed bag of planetary objects that have exhibited various Earth-like processes at some stage of their respective histories.