Space · Moons

Titan

The only moon with real air

You need a telescope

The surface of Titan under the orange haze: hills, a river and a lake of liquid methane.

The numbers

Radius: 1,599mi(2,574 km)Bigger than Mercury
Atmosphere: Thick: the only moon that has one
Lakes and seas: Of liquid methane, not water
One trip around Saturn: 15.9days
When it was discovered: In 1655, by Christiaan Huygens

To get an idea

It is the only known moon with a thick atmosphere and not just a thin veil of gas.

On Titan rivers, lakes and rain really exist, but they are made of methane, not water.

Fun facts

These are not in the book: there was no room on paper.

Of all the moons in the Solar System, it is the second biggest, after Ganymede.
Like the Earth, Titan has seasons too, but they last a very long time.
It was discovered in 1655, and it was the first moon ever seen around Saturn.
The orange color of its haze comes from molecules that form in the atmosphere.
It is made mostly of water ice and rocky material mixed together.

Test yourself

The first question is the one printed under the QR code, with the answer the book did not give. The other four only exist here.

Question 1 of 5★ is the one from your book

What makes Titan unique among the moons?

Question 2 of 5

What are its lakes made of?

Question 3 of 5

Is Titan bigger or smaller than Mercury?

Question 4 of 5

Does Titan have seasons?

Question 5 of 5

Why couldn't its surface be seen for centuries?

Riddles

I am the only one of my kind with real, thick air, and for centuries that air kept you from looking me in the face. Underneath I have rivers and lakes, but do not try to drink them. What am I?

I have coasts, islands, rain and clouds like your world, and yet on me water is as hard as stone and what flows is a gas you burn for cooking. What am I?

I am bigger than a planet and I was found more than three centuries ago, the first to show up around the lord of the rings. What am I?

Try it yourself

Activity 1

Look at it again a week later: it will have moved to the other side, because it takes about sixteen days to make a full trip.

Activity 2

Put some water in the freezer and watch it turn hard. On Titan water is always like that, and what flows is a gas we use for cooking here.

The words

haze: A thin mist of floating particles that makes the air cloudy.

Sources: Wikidata (Q2565), Wikipedia (Titano (astronomia)).