Titan, A Lunar Gem

So in keeping with the last post I want to touch on another special feature of our solar system that is related to Saturn, and that is it's moon Titan! Titan is unique in our solar system for a multitude of reasons, most of which you cannot find anywhere else actually in the system!

True colour image of Titan taken by Cassini

So what makes Titan unique? Well for starters it is the only moon in our solar system with such a thick stable atmosphere, and on top of that it is the only atmosphere aside from earth that is composed largely of Nitrogen! However, the orange haze that is responsible for what we see is due to a hydrocarbons in it's upper atmosphere reacting to the suns ultraviolet light. That orange smog though blocks a lot of the suns light, making Titan only able to receive about 0.1% sunlight to it's surface compared to what Earth gets. This makes the planet nice and chilly, but at the same time keeps the a lot of the heat that it does get through in which is what allows some more of the unique characteristics of this moon to exist!

An infrared image of Titan's surface showing the suns energy reflecting off one of it's lakes.

So as the image above shows, Titan has stable bodies of liquid on it's surface, composing lakes, rivers and seas! This is the only other celestial body on our solar system that we are currently aware of that has stable bodies of liquid on it's surface! This is however not water, but predominately methane seas, but also may contain things such as propane and ethane that feed into these rivers and lakes from underground! These lakes and rivers as well have much of a similar effect there as they do here when it comes to erosion of the land mass, but scientists believe that the process for it takes much longer on Titan then it does here on Earth. From our studies of Titan though so far, most of these rivers and lakes are found in the north and south poles of the planet, where they are shielded and protected from the sun far more then the equatorial region where it is much drier of a place with a few oasis's of lakes spot the desert landscape (Likely fed by underground sources). So not only does Titan have a unique thick atmosphere it also has stable bodies of liquid and guess what comes with that? Well Titan has weather much like here! That's right Titan get's rain and storms like here on earth, but rather then it raining water, it rains Methane. What else could it possibly have to make it more unique then it already is?

A near infrared image of Tortola Facula, a possible Cryovolcano

That's right, Titan might have volcanoes! Not just any kind of volcano though, but cyrovolcanoes. What is a cyrovolcano? Well unlike Earth, Titan's surface is made up of both rocky material and ice and it's cyrovolcanos rather then spewing out molten rock, erupt a composition of water and ammonia! So why is this important? Well you see the ammonia that with that water actually allows it to stay a liquid underground a far colder temperatures then it normally would, bringing theory that under the crust of Titan's surface is a liquid ocean of water and ammonia. So now not only is it possible that there is liquid water under it's surface, but the moon is also geologically active! So what could possibly get better about this place?

Well Titan is now heavily suspect of containing a form of methane-based life form! There is however no confirmed information about this, but many theories have surface on what this life would be like. Likely, it would be more microbial life existing in it's methane lakes. Also however, Titan contains much of the same organic material that was eventually jump started in creating a lot of the life here on Earth! Though that life would not be able to survive on the surface if it was more similar to ours, it is likely that it could survive in the possible ammonia-water ocean beneath it's surface! To us that would be inhospitable of an environment by Earth standards, it is still hospitable enough for life to none the less exist and grow in it!

The suspected interior of Titan

So hopefully you've come out of this is a greater understanding on why Titan is such a gem of our solar system. We really do live in a marvelous solar system and it is fascinating just learning about what is right next door to us! With that I hope to keep sharing more about our home system in the weeks to come and helps everyone to learn more about the cosmos!

Thank you for reading, share it with your friends and keep your eyes on the night sky.