Ralph Lorenz trained as an engineer and worked for the European Space Agency at the very beginning of the Huygens project. Since obtaining a PhD at the University of Kent, England, he has worked as a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona, USA. Jacqueline Mitton obtained a PhD in astrophysics from the University of Cambridge, and is now a full-time writer and media consultant specialising in astronomy.

• Preface; 1. Discovering Titan; 2. Seeing Titan; 3. Titan's puzzling atmosphere; 4. Murky meteorology; 5. Titan's landscape; 6. The Cassini-Huygens mission; 7. The shape of things to come; Appendix. Titan - physical and dynamical data; Bibliography.

'On 14 January, 2005, the Huygens probe will touch down, making titan the most distant place so far visited by a soft-lander from Earth. In Lifting Titan's Veil the challenges and pitfalls of a mammoth space mission are balanced by a thorough review of the painstaking scientific quest to understand this amazing mist-shrouded moon … This excellent book skilfully blends what is known with what we hope to discover.' David W. Hughes, New Scientist