Titan is Saturn's satellite

Titan is Saturn's satellite, the second largest in the solar system after Ganymede (Jupiter). In its structure, this body is very similar to the Earth. The atmosphere of it also has a resemblance to ours, and in 2008 a large underground ocean was discovered on Titan. For this reason, many scientists believe that this satellite of Saturn will become the abode of mankind in the future.

Titan is a satellite that has a mass equal to about 95 percent of the mass of all satellites of the planet Saturn. Gravity is about a seventh of gravity on Earth. This is the only satellite in our system that has a dense atmosphere. The study of the surface of Titan is difficult because of the thick cloud layer. The temperature is minus 170-180 degrees, and the pressure at the surface is 1.5 times higher than that of the Earth.

There are lakes, rivers and seas on Titan from ethane and methane, as well as high mountains, which consist mainly of ice. According to some scientists, around the stone core, which in diameter reaches 3,400 kilometers, there are several ice layers with different types of crystallization, and also, perhaps, one layer from the liquid.

In the course of research on Titan, a huge hydrocarbon basin, the Sea of Kraken, was discovered. 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 satellite whose atmosphere in thickness reaches about 400 kilometers. It contains layers of hydrocarbon "smog". For this reason, the surface of a given celestial body can not be observed with a telescope.

The planet Titan receives very little energy from the Sun to ensure the dynamics of processes in the atmosphere. Scientists have suggested that the energy for moving atmospheric masses provides a strong tidal effect of the planet Saturn.

Rotation and orbit

The radius of Titan's orbit is 1221870 kilometers. Outside, such satellites of Saturn as Hyperion and Iapetus, and inside - Mimas, Tethys, Dion, Enceladus. The orbit of Titan passes beyond the rings of Saturn.

The complete revolution around its planet Titan-satellite does for fifteen days, twenty-two hours and forty-one minutes. The speed of the orbit is 5.57 kilometers per second.

Like many others, the satellite Titan in relation to Saturn rotates synchronously. This means that the time of its rotation around the planet and around its axis coincide, as a result of which Titan is always turned one side to Saturn, therefore on the surface of the satellite there is a point at which Saturn always appears to be hanging at the zenith.

The slope of the rotation axis of Saturn provides a change of seasons on the planet itself and its satellites. For example, last summer on Titan ended in 2009. In this case, the duration of each season is approximately seven and a half years, since the complete revolution around the star of the Sun, the planet Saturn makes in thirty years.