Tethys and Titan. Titan. Titan is Saturn's largest moon. It is surrounded by a thick, golden haze, and only certain kinds of telescopes and cameras can see through the haze to the surface. Titan is of great interest to scientists because it has flowing liquids on its surface and a dense, complex atmosphere. 10 Need-To-Know Things About Titan If the sun were as tall as a typical front door, Earth would be the size of a nickel and Titan would be the size of a pea.Titan is a moon that orbits the planet Saturn.
Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun at a distance of about 1.4 billion km (886 million miles) or 9.5 AU.One day on Titan (the time it takes for Titan to rotate or spin once) takes about 16 Earth days. Read More About Titan. Titan (moon) Titan (or Saturn VI) is the largest moon of Saturn. It is the only natural satellite known to have a dense atmosphere,[9] and the only object other than Earth for which clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found.[10] Titan is primarily composed of water ice and rocky material. Much as with Venus prior to the Space Age, the dense, opaque atmosphere prevented understanding of Titan's surface until new information accumulated with the arrival of the Cassini–Huygens mission in 2004, including the discovery of liquid hydrocarbon lakes in Titan's polar regions.
The geologically young surface is generally smooth, with few known impact craters, although mountains and several possible cryovolcanoes have been found.[12][13] The atmosphere of Titan is largely composed of nitrogen; minor components lead to the formation of methane and ethane clouds and nitrogen-rich organic smog. Titan was discovered on March 25, 1655, by the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens. About Saturn & Its Moons. Titan In many respects, Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is one of the most Earth-like worlds we have found to date. With its thick atmosphere and organic-rich chemistry, Titan resembles a frozen version of Earth, several billion years ago, before life began pumping oxygen into our atmosphere. Titan is of great interest to scientists because it has a substantial, active atmosphere and complex, Earth-like processes that shape its surface. The moon is enveloped by an orange haze of naturally produced photochemical smog that frustratingly obscured its surface prior to Cassini's arrival.
Since 2004, the spacecraft's observations have taken the study of this unique world into a whole new dimension. Cassini has revealed that Titan's surface is shaped by rivers and lakes of liquid ethane and methane (the main component of natural gas), which forms clouds and occasionally rains from the sky as water does on Earth. On its journey to Saturn, Cassini carried the European-built Huygens probe. Titan flash v.12. Space Science - Saturn and Titan.