Titan, a moon or a dwarf planet?
Titan- the second largest moon of our solar system,after Ganymede of Jupiter, revolves around the most beautiful planet, Saturn.
Titan is the only moon in our solar system to house a dense atmosphere with clouds like that of a Planet making it almost a Dwarf Planet. It houses a complex atmosphere of mostly Nitrogen, like that of earth, and methane. Titan also has a presence of organic molecules that contain carbon and hydrogen, and that often include oxygen and other elements similar to what is found in Earth's atmosphere and that are essential for life. These conditions are much like Earth in its early days but being closer to sun, it has been warmer than Titan.
Titan was first discovered by a Dutch astronomer, Christiaan Huygens in the year 1655. The Huygens Lander was sent to Titan abord the Cassinni Space craft to learn about its complex world. Its name was a tribute to honour its discoverer. Huygens Lander is the first human made object to land on the surface of Titan.
Titan's diameter is 50 percent larger than that of Earth's moon. The moon is larger than the planet Mercury but is half the mass of Mercury.
Titan's upland areas are shorter than Earth's. The largest mountains are only a few hundred yards high.
The moon's mass is mainly composed of water in the form of ice and rocky material.
Titan has no magnetic field.
There is an abundance of methane lakes, which are mainly concentrated near its southern pole.
Large areas of Titan's surface are covered with sand dunes made of hydrocarbon. Dunes on Titan may resemble the ones of the Namibian desert in Africa.
Because methane exists as a liquid, it also evaporates and forms clouds, which occasionally causes methane rain.
Sunlight is quite dim in Titan, and climate is driven mostly by changes in the amount of light that accompanies the seasons.
There is also data that suggests the presence of aliquid ocean beneath the surface, but it is still to be confirmed.
One of the most intriguing facts about Titan and the one that has actually drawn scientists' attention: its thick atmosphere. Titan's atmosphere extends around 370 miles high (about 600 kilometers), which makes it a lot higher than Earth's atmosphere. This is also the main reason why Titan's gravity is extremely low. Because of this high atmosphere, Titan was thought to be the largest moon in the solar system for a long time. It wasn't until 1980 that Voyager was close enough to discover it was actually smaller than Ganymede.
Possibilities for Life : It is thought that conditions on Titan could become more habitable in the far future. If the sun increases its temperature (6 billion years from now) and becomes a red giant star, Titan's temperature could increase enough for stable oceans to exist on the surface, according to some models. If this happens, conditions in Titan could be similar to Earth's, allowing conditions favorable for some forms of life.
credits: wikipedia, space.com
