Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Titan receives just about 1% of the amount of sunlight Earth does. [1] The average surface temperature is about 90.6 K (-182.55 °C, or -296.59 °F). [2] At this temperature water ice has an extremely low vapor pressure, so the atmosphere is nearly free of water vapor.
Titan orbits Saturn at 20 Saturn radii or 1,200,000 km above Saturn's apparent surface. From Titan's surface, Saturn subtends an arc of 5.09 degrees, and if it were visible through the moon's thick atmosphere, it would appear 11.4 times larger in the sky, in diameter, than the Moon from Earth, which subtends 0.48° of arc.
An image of Titan's surface from the Huygens lander. Titan is the only object in the outer Solar System where a spacecraft has landed and conducted surface operations. The geology of Titan encompasses the geological characteristics of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. Titan's density of 1.881 g/cm 3 indicates that it is roughly 40–60% rock ...
Titan's surface temperature is also quite low, about 94 K (–179 C/–290 F). [ 67 ] [ 68 ] Consequently, the mass fractions of substances that can become atmospheric constituents are much larger on Titan than on Earth .
Some estimates of the surface temperature even approached temperatures in the cooler regions of Earth. There was, however, another possible explanation for the infrared emissions: Titan's surface was very cold, but the upper atmosphere was heated due to absorption of ultraviolet light by molecules such as ethane, ethylene and acetylene. [10]
The opacity to sunlight of this organic haze on Titan is determined primarily by the haze production rate. If haze production increases, opacity of the haze increases, resulting in more cooling of the surface temperature. [3] Additionally, the presence of this organic haze is the cause of the temperature inversion in Titan's stratosphere. [4]
Titan, shrouded in a smog-like orange haze, is the only known world other than Earth exhibiting liquid seas on the surface, though they are not composed of water but rather nitrogen and the ...
Titan has a surface gravity of 0.138 g, ... Due to Titan's extremely low temperatures, heating of any flight-bound vehicle becomes a key obstacle. [12] See also