Exploring Titan

Titan

  • Second largest moon in the solar system

  • Its name comes from Greek mythology. The titans were elder gods who ruled the universe before the Olympians came to power.

  • Its diameter is 50 percent larger than that of Earth’s moon and is larger than the planet Mercury but is half the mass of the planet.

  • It is mainly composed of water in the form of ice and rocky material.

  • It has no magnetic field.

  • It is the only moon in the solar system with clouds and a planet-like atmosphere composed mainly of nitrogen (95%) and methane (5%).

  • Diameter: 3,200 miles (5.150 kilometers)

  • It is the only other place aside from Earth that has seasons due to its methane cycle.

Christiaan Huygens

  • Dutch astronomer who discovered Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, on March 25, 1655

Cassini spacecraft

  • It wrapped its two-decade-long mission to Saturn in 2017.

  • Launched on October 15, 1997 and arrived on June 30, 2004.

  • It entered the atmosphere of Titan on January 14, 2005 and after a two-and-a-half-hour decent landed on solid ground.

Huygen’s Probe

  • is considered the first landing on the surface in the outer solar system.

Nitrogen

  • in Titan’s atmosphere, creates the orange haze surrounding the satellite.

Liquid Methane

  • Titan has seas and Lakes of this. It is also possible that an internal sea of liquid methane is underneath its surface.

Methane Cycle

  • Titan is the only other place aside from Earth that has seasons.