Titan: One of The Most Intriguing Objects in the Solar System

(Image Credit: NASA, ESA, JPL, SSI, Cassini Imaging Team)

The black circular object that you see in the middle of this picture is Saturn’s largest moon: Titan. This moon is bigger than our Moon here on Earth, and it’s also bigger than the planet Mercury. It is one of the most interesting objects in the entire Solar System. It is the only moon in the entire Solar System with a dense atmosphere, and, like Earth, it has “standing bodies of liquid, including rivers, lakes and seas, on its surface”. Titan’s atmosphere is like Earth as well, which is primarily nitrogen (with a small amount of methane).

It is the sole other place in the solar system known to have an earthlike cycle of liquids raining from clouds, flowing across its surface, filling lakes and seas, and evaporating back into the sky (akin to Earth’s water cycle). Titan is also thought to have a subsurface ocean of water.

At first glance, this looks like a solar eclipse, but this really isn’t. The bright ring that wraps around the dark circular object (which is Titan), is Titan’s own double haze. It is interesting to note that most moons don’t have haze layer, but Titan gets two of those, to add to its own thick atmosphere. This fact makes this moon really intriguing.

The small circular object found near Titan’s haze is Enceladus, another moon of Saturn. Finally, the thick line in front of Titan is the well-known rings of Saturn.

By Franzified