Titan - Saturn s moon

Titan - Saturn 's Moon

Saturn has the most complex and extensive system of satellites in the solar system as well as course as the rings . There are 18 large moons as listed by Chaisson and McMillan in table 12 :2 Astronomy Today , 6th Edition page 322 , which are usefully classed in 3 groups - the small moons which are irregularly shaped lumps of ice , each being less than 400 km in diameter . Their irregularities mean that they also exhibit irregularities in their motion . The second group are somewhat larger being from 400km to

1500km in diameter . The third group has only one member - Titan , the second largest satellite in our solar system with a diameter of 5150km . Only Jupiter 's moon Ganymede is larger . This makes it larger than both Mercury and Pluto

Titan has a dense atmosphere as was discovered by spectroscopic observation of its coloration and there has been scientific speculation that it could perhaps support life according to Chaisson and McMillan page 327 ) because now has conditions similar to those found on earth ,many millennia ago . They report ( page 323 ) that it was because astronomers were so keen to explore this idea that Voyager 1 was sent to pass as close as possible to it . However the view from the spacecraft was cause the formation of a thick smog . The southern clouds are lighter in color than those in the northern hemisphere and there is also a dark cap...