TITAN MOON OF SATURN

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon)

ASTRO 101 Contributors: Duc Dinh, Spring 2016

Caroline Brandon, Fall 2014

§  Discovered by Christiaan Huygens in 1655

§  Has a dense atmosphere

§  The largest moon of Saturn

§  The second largest moon in the solar system after Jupiter’s moon Ganymede

§  According to NASA, Titan is one of the most Earth-like worlds that have been found

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon) Source: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/titan

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/?start=15&subCategory=10

This composite image shows an infrared view of Saturn's moon Titan from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, acquired during the mission's ''T-114'' flyby on Nov. 13, 2015

This colorized mosaic from NASA's Cassini mission shows the most complete view of Titan's northern land of lakes and seas. 

§ Alternate Name: Saturn VI

§  The name Titan comes from a generic term for the children of Ouranos (Uranus) and Gaia in ancient Greek mythology. In the stories, the Titans were the ancestors of the human race.

Source: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/index.cfm?SciencePageID=73 Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_(mythology)

Titan Atlas

Size, Mass, and Internal Structure:

§  5151 Km( 3201 Miles ) in diameter, about half the size of Earth and almost as large as Mars.

§  Mass: 1.3452 x 10^23 kg, about twice of our Moon

§  Gravity: 1.352 m/s^2

§  Titan is likely differentiated into several layers with a 3,400 kilometer (2,100 mi) rocky center surrounded by several layers composed of different crystal forms of ice

§  Its interior may still be hot and there may be a liquid layer consisting of a “magma" composed of water and ammonia between the ice crust and deeper ice layers made of high-pressure forms of ice.

Source: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/imagedetails/index.cfm?imageId=4468

§  Titan orbits Saturn once every 15 days and 22 hours.

§  Saturn and Titan are tidally locked which are similar to our Earth and Moon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon)

Titan’s orbit (highlighted in red)

§  Thought to have formed through co-accretion, a similar process to that believed to have formed the planets in the Solar System

§  As the young gas giants formed, they were surrounded by discs of material that gradually coalesced into moons

§  A proposed model for the formation of Titan begin by a series of giant planets impact, which would go on to form Titan

Source: http://www.thegeminigeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/

§  Titans’ atmosphere is almost all nitrogen

§  Titan's atmospheric composition in the stratosphere is 98.4% nitrogen with the remaining 1.6% composed mostly of methane (1.4%) and hydrogen (0.1–0.2%)

§  One of Titan's great mysteries is the source of its methane. Researchers suspect methane could be belched into Titan's atmosphere by cryovolcanism, or volcanoes with water as lava.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon)

§  Titan's surface temperature is about 94 K (−179.2 °C)

§  Water ice has an extremely low vapor pressure, so the little water vapor present appears limited to the stratosphere.

§  Titan receives about 1% as much sunlight as Earth

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon) Source: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA20020

§  Titan's surface is marked by broad regions of bright and dark terrain

§  Titan has numerous of methane lakes and seas, and the two largest methane seas on Titan are:

_ Kraken Mare (400000 km2) _ Ligeia Mare (126000 km2)

§  Titan's nitrogen-rich atmosphere is twice as thick as Earth's, making it difficult for astronomical instruments to image its surface in the visible light spectrum

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon)

§  In 1907 Spanish astronomer Joseph Comas observed limb darkening of Titan, the first evidence that the body has an atmosphere

§  The first probe to visit the Saturnian system was Pioneer 11 in 1979, which revealed that Titan was probably too cold to support life

§  Voyager 1's trajectory was designed to provide an optimized Titan flyby, during which the spacecraft was able to determine the density, composition, and temperature of the atmosphere, and obtain a precise measurement of Titan's mass

Source: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01393 Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon)

Pioneer 11 Saturn and its moon Titan picture from Pioneer 11

Voyager 1 Night side of Titan picture from Voyager 1

§  From NASA's Cassini spacecraft (launched to orbit around Saturn in 2005) we now know that Titan has lakes and seas of liquid methane (natural gas) and ethane near its pole

§  The seabed may be covered in a sludge of carbon- and nitrogen-rich material, and its shores may be surrounded by wetlands

Source: http://pics-about-space.com/cassini-spacecraft-art?p=3 Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon)

Titan’s lakes (dark spots) picture From Cassini

Cassini

§  The Titan Mare Explorer (TiME) is proposed design for a lander to explore moon Titan

§  TiME will be designed to float on the methane sea of Titan to study the chemical composition of the sea, and data back to earth.

§  TiME destination will be the Ligeia Mare sea.

§  The capsule will be launched to bring TiME to Titan in 2016 and it will reach Titan by 2023.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_Mare_Explorer

§  Since Titan consist of large amount of Methane (Natural Gas), Will Titan moon explode if it was hit by small object from outer space?

§  Will Titan temperature become warmer in the future?

§  Why scientist didn’t consider Titan moon as a planet since it’s size is almost similar to Mars?