Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and Josh claimed it was also the most interesting moon in our solar system. We were shown images of some of Saturn’s other moons including Enceladus, Iapetus, and Mimas and told that Saturn has a total of 274 moons, with more being discovered each year.
Titan was discovered by the astronomer Huygens in 1655 but it wasn’t until 1944 that it was detected that Titan had an atmosphere. In this respect alone, Titan is unique among the moons of our solar system.
In 1997 the Cassini-Huygens probe was launched to discover more about Saturn and its moons. Part of the mission was to land a probe on Titan which happened in 2005. Joshua showed the video sent from the Huygens probe during its descent, which was stunning. The probe sent back images of the surface showing small pebbles of water ice and orange sand dunes in the distance. The Cassini mission was packed with instruments and analysis of the data is still yielding results today.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has instruments that reveal that Titan has lots of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere. The main constituent gas in the atmosphere is nitrogen (95%) with methane (5%) being the other gas. The atmosphere extends 1200km making it twice the size of Earth’s atmosphere. Super rotation of the etmosphere creates wind speeds of up to 100m/s.
Titan has a Methane cycle much like the water cycle here on Earth. The lakes of liquid methane on the surface of Titan evaporate into the atmosphere forming clouds which then rain back down onto the surface. The temperature on Titan varies from 100° K (-150° C) to 190° K. Just like Earth, Titan is cooler at the poles and warmer at the equator. Furthermore, Titan has seasons which change every 7 years.
Titan orbits Saturn in 15 days and 22 hours and, like our moon, it is tidally locked with the same face pointing to the planet. It is also thought to have a global sub-surface ocean. The lakes of liquid methane, located in the north, are about the size of those of the Great Lakes in the USA.
Titan is indeed a fascinating moon and is being used as a model of how Earth might have been 3 billion years ago. A future mission by NASA, due to launch in 2028, will deploy a helicopter called Dragonfly to study Titan in more detail.
Our thanks go to Joshua Ford for a very interesting talk.
Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and Josh claimed it was also the most interesting moon in our solar system. We were shown images of some of Saturn’s other moons including Enceladus, Iapetus, and Mimas and told that Saturn has a total of 274 moons, with more being discovered each year.
Titan was discovered by the astronomer Huygens in 1655 but it wasn’t until 1944 that it was detected that Titan had an atmosphere. In this respect alone, Titan is unique among the moons of our solar system.
In 1997 the Cassini-Huygens probe was launched to discover more about Saturn and its moons. Part of the mission was to land a probe on Titan which happened in 2005. Joshua showed the video sent from the Huygens probe during its descent, which was stunning. The probe sent back images of the surface showing small pebbles of water ice and orange sand dunes in the distance. The Cassini mission was packed with instruments and analysis of the data is still yielding results today.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has instruments that reveal that Titan has lots of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere. The main constituent gas in the atmosphere is nitrogen (95%) with methane (5%) being the other gas. The atmosphere extends 1200km making it twice the size of Earth’s atmosphere. Super rotation of the etmosphere creates wind speeds of up to 100m/s.
Titan has a Methane cycle much like the water cycle here on Earth. The lakes of liquid methane on the surface of Titan evaporate into the atmosphere forming clouds which then rain back down onto the surface. The temperature on Titan varies from 100° K (-150° C) to 190° K. Just like Earth, Titan is cooler at the poles and warmer at the equator. Furthermore, Titan has seasons which change every 7 years.
Titan orbits Saturn in 15 days and 22 hours and, like our moon, it is tidally locked with the same face pointing to the planet. It is also thought to have a global sub-surface ocean. The lakes of liquid methane, located in the north, are about the size of those of the Great Lakes in the USA.
Titan is indeed a fascinating moon and is being used as a model of how Earth might have been 3 billion years ago. A future mission by NASA, due to launch in 2028, will deploy a helicopter called Dragonfly to study Titan in more detail.
Our thanks go to Joshua Ford for a very interesting talk.
Charles Emes
