Titan is a satellite of Saturn, the second largest in the solar system after Ganymede (Jupiter). In its structure, this body is very similar to the Earth. Its atmosphere is also similar to ours, and in 2008 a large underground ocean was discovered on Titan. For this reason, many scientists suggest that this particular satellite of Saturn will become the abode of mankind in the future.
Titan is a moon that has a mass equal to approximately 95 percent of the mass of all the moons of the planet Saturn. Gravity is about a seventh of the force of gravity on Earth. It is the only satellite in our system that has a dense atmosphere. The study of the surface of Titan is difficult due to the thick cloud layer. The temperature is minus 170-180 degrees, and the pressure near the surface is 1.5 times higher than that of the Earth.
Titan has lakes, rivers and seas made of ethane and methane, as well as high mountains that are mostly ice. According to the assumptions of some scientists, around the stone core, which reaches a diameter of 3400 kilometers, there are several ice layers with different types of crystallization, andalso possibly one layer of liquid.
In the course of research on Titan, a huge hydrocarbon pool was discovered - the Kraken Sea. Its area is 400,050 square kilometers. According to computer calculations and images taken from the spacecraft, the composition of the liquid in all lakes is approximately the following: ethane (about 79%), propane (7-8%), methane (5-10%), hydrogen cyanide (2-3%), acetylene, butane, butene (about 1%). According to other theories, the main substances are methane and ethane.
Titan is a moon whose atmosphere is about 400 kilometers thick. It contains layers of hydrocarbon smog. For this reason, the surface of this celestial body cannot be observed with a telescope.
The planet Titan receives very little solar energy to ensure the dynamics of processes in the atmosphere. Scientists have suggested that the strong tidal effect of the planet Saturn provides the energy to move atmospheric masses.
Rotation and orbit
Titan's orbital radius is 1,221,870 kilometers. Outside of it, there are such satellites of Saturn as Hyperion and Iapetus, and inside - Mimas, Tethys, Dione, Enceladus. Titan's orbit passes outside Saturn's rings.
The Titan-satellite makes a complete revolution around its planet in fifteen days, twenty-two hours and forty-one minutes. The orbital speed is 5.57 kilometers per second.
Like many others, the Titan satellite rotates synchronously with respect to Saturn. This means that the timeits rotations around the planet and around its axis coincide, as a result of which Titan always turns one side to Saturn, so there is a point on the surface of the satellite at which Saturn always appears to be hanging at the zenith.
The tilt of Saturn's axis of rotation ensures the change of seasons on the planet itself and its satellites. For example, the last summer on Titan ended in 2009. At the same time, the duration of each season is approximately seven and a half years, since the planet Saturn makes a complete revolution around the Sun star in thirty years.
