Questions tagged [titan]
Questions about Titan, the largest moon of Saturn.
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What would Saturn's seasons look like from Titan?
I've read several articles on Saturn's seasons and the reasons why we know about them thanks to Voyager 1 and Cassini. Those observations, to my limited understanding, seem to be based mainly on ...
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What happened to Titan's magnetic field?
From Wikipedia - Titan's atmosphere:
Titan's internal magnetic field is negligible, and perhaps even nonexistent, although studies in 2008 showed that Titan retains remnants of Saturn's magnetic ...
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How do we know the hydrocarbon lakes on Titan are actually liquid?
Cassini failed to detect any waves in the seas/lakes it observed, despite winds of 72 km/h (45 mph) being present on Titan which are able to create "sand" dunes from frozen particles, and ...
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Why would a freezing liquid layer accelerate a rocky body's rotation?
Titan, whose orbital period is 382 hours, is tidally locked, like all round moons in the Solar System. But Jonathan I. Lunine said of Titan:
One thing that Titan could not have done during its ...
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Titan's Atmosphere
Is Titan's atmosphere being continually regenerated? What is the current thinking on the origins and maintenance of Titan's atmosphere after the landing of the Huygens probe.
As I remember, ...
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What color does Titan turn in a lunar eclipse?
To my understanding, Earth’s Moon’s surface turns red in a lunar eclipse due to refraction of light through Earth’s atmosphere. When Saturn has a lunar eclipse with Titan (so Saturn rests between ...
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Extraterrestrial snow?
What do we know about extraterrestrial snow? On which (exo)planets or (exo)moons do we have direct hints for its existance? This is indeed a children's question, but I struggle to answer it ...
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Have auroras on Titan been observed yet?
After reading the very insightful introduction to auroras on other planets I started digging and found various questions and some answers here on the same topic, see below.
What I did not figure out ...
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For colonization purposes, what is so good about Titan? [closed]
I have read that Titan is the best candidate for humans to colonize in our Solar System.
However it has no water, it's atmosphere is not breathable and it is -290° F on the surface. It doesn't sound ...
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When was the diameter of Titan first measured?
Titan is enshrouded in a thick opaque cloud of methane : with a telescope, you can't see the moon's surface. Because of this, from a distance, you can only see the diameter of the moon + its ...
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How much solar UV radiation would someone get who were on the surface of Titan?
The Saturn system is about 10 times as far from the Sun as the Earth. This question is concerning Titan for two reasons: Titan has an Earthlike atmosphere so you don't have to account for a higher ...
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Does Saturn raise tides on Titan's lakes?
Titan is the only body in the Solar System other than Earth to have large bodies of surface liquid. Since Saturn is much more massive than the Moon, I would expect for tides, if they're present to ...
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Is it possible for a septuple eclipse to happen on Saturn considering there are 7 moons capable of eclipsing the Sun?
The reason quadruple eclipses can never happen on Jupiter is because of the 1:2:4 orbital resonance between Io, Europa, and Ganymede. As far as I know this isn't a problem for Saturn's moons.
From ...
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Why doesn't Titan have a carbon dioxide atmosphere?
Earth's primitive atmosphere had large amounts of carbon dioxide, as did the ancient Martian atmosphere. Venus's current atmosphere is no exception either. So why does Titan have next to none of this ...
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What would happen to the Galilean moons and Titan if Jupiter and Saturn disappeared?
The Moon reportedly doesn't "need" the Earth to revolve around the Sun. If the Earth wasn't there, the Moon would continue its current path from a heliocentric reference frame around the Sun. My ...
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Underground sea in Titan(Saturn's moon), water or hydrocarbons?
Is the underground sea on Titan formed of water or hydrocarbons. Is anyone certain?
I have read a lot of various documents from NASA and Cassini missions and Huygens missions, and I have become ...
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How did Arecibo detect methane lakes on Titan, and image Saturn's rings?
This answer to Farthest distance to a solar system object that's been measured by radar? mentions that Saturn's rings, and the Uncover Travel post Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico – The World’s ...
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What if the atmosphere of Titan were like the one on Venus?
The current mean temperature in Titan is −180 ºC (93 K), the same as in Saturn.
But I was wondering what would be the case if the atmosphere of Titan would be like the Venus atmosphere, whose ...
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Why the Circumstellar Habitable Zone is defined as it is, if life could be possible outside of it?
According to Circumstellar habitable zone
In astronomy and astrobiology, the circumstellar habitable zone (CHZ), or simply the habitable zone, is the range of orbits around a star within which a ...
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What causes Titan a moon to have a denser atmosphere than that of a Mars?
I'm wondering about Mars and Titan. If Mars is larger than Titan how come it lost most of its atmosphere? Mars also has a magnetic field while Titan doesn't. Yet Titans atmospheric pressure on the ...
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How would humans with appropriate equipment navigate the surface of Saturn's moon Titan on foot? [closed]
Taking into account the physical characteristics of Titan (e.g. surface gravity, atmospheric pressure), what would be the most efficient method of motion for an astronaut to navigate the surface of ...
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Is Titan Better or Mars? [closed]
Isn't Titan better to colonize than Mars? It has a thick atmosphere which is made up of nitrogen like our planet's. It doesn't have a magnetic field, but it does get a type of protection from Saturn. ...
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Is it possible to see Saturn from Titan's surface, day and night?
Titan is the only moon in our solar system with a thick atmosphere, similar to what our Earth's atmosphere was before life "appeared". It also orbits Saturn close enough to actually see it beautifully ...
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Say we were to bring Titan to Earth's orbit. How much would its atmospheric pressure change?
I've heard one of the reason why Titan has such a thick atmosphere is because of its really low temperature. So say that were were to magically bring Titan to the Same orbit as Earth, and the moon ...
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Did this paper just argue that there is surely life on Titan?
I just read the popular press version of a new paper, and now I have a question about Titan.
Here are some quotes from the pop article:
A rocky, ocean-bearing planet with more than 0.1 percent ...
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How bright would it be on the "face" of Titan
If you were planing a maned mission to Titan and wanted to find a landing site that would get the most visible light for the longest amount of time, your first logical choice would be the dark side of ...
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Why do certain moons have their rotational period equal to their orbital period?
Our moon and Saturn's moon, Titan, have this feature. Because of this we only observe one side (hemispere) of our moon. Why is this? What is the Newtonian or astrophysics that would explain this? ...
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What does "Active Weather Patterns" mean?
I just read that Cassini discovered titan had "active Weather patterns".
What does that mean?
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Are there other pictures of Titan surface from Huygens?
I can't find any other picture of the Titan surface from the Huygens probe than this one
Are there any? Are they not disclosed on purpose?
If this is the only one taken, why?
Titan surface http://i....
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Why does Titan have lower surface gravity than the Moon when Titan is more massive?
Reading on Wikipedia I saw that Titan is 80% more massive than the earth's moon but has only 85% the surface gravity. Why is this?