Titan:
Saturn's Masked Moon
- Largest moon of Saturn.
- Titan is larger than Mercury.
- Average distance from Saturn is 1.222,000 km.
- Rotation is 16 days.
- Diamter is 5,140 km.
- It has an unknown composition, and a hydorgen atmosphere.
- Its atmosphere was first discovered by astronmer G.P. Kuiper in 1944.
- This Dutch-American's spectra showed strong absorptions of certain colors.
- Color absorptions are due to methane gas on Titan.
- He wrote a paper about Titan's atmosphere.
- Voyager 1's flight through Saturn's system in 1980 revealed:
- Titan appeared as an orange featureless ball.
- A dark-toned polar cap.
- A bright southern-hemispheric cloud covering.
- Methane and nitrogen were indeed present in the atmosphere.
- Other gases, such as ethane, acetylene, ethylene, and hydrogen cyanide, were also present.
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