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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]
Called an "azotosome" ('nitrogen body'), formed from "azoto", Greek for nitrogen, and "soma", Greek for body, it lacks the phosphorus and oxygen found in phospholipids on Earth but contains nitrogen. Despite the very different chemical structure and external environment, its properties are surprisingly similar, including autoformation of sheets ...
With its liquids (both surface and subsurface) and robust nitrogen atmosphere, Titan's methane cycle nearly resembles Earth's water cycle, albeit at a much lower temperature of about 94 K (−179 °C; −290 °F). Due to these factors, Titan is called the most Earth-like celestial object in the Solar System.
It is possible that the methane ice could float for a time as it probably contains bubbles of nitrogen gas from Titan's atmosphere. [27] Temperatures close to the freezing point of methane (90.4 K; −182.8 °C; −296.9 °F) could lead to both floating and sinking ice - that is, a hydrocarbon ice crust above the liquid and blocks of ...
Another theoretically possible means to become airborne on Titan would be to use a hot air balloon-like vehicle filled with an Earth-like atmosphere at Earth-like temperatures (because oxygen is only slightly denser than nitrogen, the atmosphere in a habitat on Titan would be about one third as dense as the surrounding atmosphere), although ...
The climate of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is similar in many respects to that of Earth, despite having a far lower surface temperature. Its thick atmosphere, methane rain, and possible cryovolcanism create an analogue, though with different materials, to the climatic changes undergone by Earth during the far shorter year of Earth.
Three moons are particularly notable. Titan is the second-largest moon in the Solar System (after Jupiter's Ganymede), with a nitrogen-rich Earth-like atmosphere and a landscape featuring river networks and hydrocarbon lakes. [6] Enceladus emits jets of ice from its south-polar region and is covered in a deep layer of snow. [7]
This is a list of named geological features on Saturn's moon Titan.Official names for these features have only been announced since the 2000s, as Titan's surface was virtually unknown before the arrival of the Cassini–Huygens probe.