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The atmosphere of Titan is the dense layer of gases surrounding Titan, the largest moon of Saturn.Titan is the only natural satellite of a planet in the Solar System with an atmosphere that is denser than the atmosphere of Earth and is one of two moons with an atmosphere significant enough to drive weather (the other being the atmosphere of Triton). [4]
Mosaic of three Huygens images of channel system on Titan. The possibility of hydrocarbon seas on Titan was first suggested based on Voyager 1 and 2 data that showed Titan to have a thick atmosphere of approximately the correct temperature and composition to support them, but direct evidence was not obtained until 1995 when data from Hubble and other observations suggested the existence of ...
Titans obliquity at 26.7° is high enough to cause seasonal variations within the stratospheric spin. [4] Attempts to model super-rotation on the gas giants, including Titan, has been abundant. The first observations of Titan in the 1980's revealed little information about circulation within the atmosphere due to the low contrast photochemical ...
Because the tidal period - Titan's day - is long, 16 Earth days, the tidal cycle is slow, so the tidal currents are generally weak," said planetary scientist and study co-author Ralph Lorenz of ...
Titan has no magnetic field and sometimes orbits outside Saturn's magnetosphere, directly exposing it to the solar wind. This may ionize and carry away some molecules from the top of the atmosphere. Titan's atmosphere supports an opaque cloud layer that obscures Titan's surface features at visible wavelengths.
Titan has a thick enough atmosphere that future colonists will not have to wear pressure suits while on its surface. Its atmosphere and Saturn’s magnetosphere provide some protection from radiation.
In September 2006, Cassini imaged a large cloud at a height of 40 km over Titan's north pole. Although methane is known to condense in Titan's atmosphere, the cloud was more likely to be ethane, as the detected size of the particles was only 1–3 micrometers and ethane can also freeze at these altitudes
The Huygens probe, supplied by the European Space Agency (ESA) and named after the 17th century Dutch astronomer who first discovered Titan, Christiaan Huygens, scrutinized the clouds, atmosphere, and surface of Saturn's moon Titan in its descent on January 15, 2005. It was designed to enter and brake in Titan's atmosphere and parachute a fully ...