Titan Flashcards
Who came up with the name ‘Titan’
John Hershel (son of William Hershel who had discovered Mimas and Enceladus). He named all seven of the major satellites then known.
What makes the orange smog on Titan
UV light from the sun reacting with methane in the atmosphere to create tholins
Aside from Titan what are the six other major moons of Saturn in order of proximity to the planet
Mimas
Enceladas
Tethys
Dione
Rhea
[Titan]
Iapetus
[remember MET-DRI]
Which astronomer first confirmed the existance of an atmosphere on Titan, what was his nationality
How did he do it?
The Dutch astronomer Gerard Kuiper in 1944
He detected the bands of methane that had to be in an atmosphere
How much stronger in % is the atmospheric pressure on Titan compared to Earth
60%
What was the first space probe to visit Titan, and in what year
Pioneer 11 in 1979
Who discovered Titan, what was his nationality and in what year did he make the discovery
Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens discovered Titan in 1655
In what year was Cassini-Huygens spacecraft launched, and in what year did it arrive in the Saturnian system
Launched in 1997
Arrived at Saturn in July 2004
Of what is the rain on Titan made of
Methane and Ethane
What is the bulk structural composition of Titan
What is interesting about the outer shell
About half water ice and half rocky material
The outer shell [crust] is probably decoupled from the interior and suggestive of an interior liquid ocean
What is the power source for the C-H spacecraft
Plutonium 238
What is the time it takes Titan to orbit Saturn
15 days and 22 hours (as it is tidally locked it is also its rotational period)
What is the diameter of Titan in km
5150km (0.404ER)
What is the name of the largest lake on Titan
Kraken Mare (which could be as big as the Caspian Sea)
What is the primary consistuent of Titan’s atmosphere, and how much does methane constitute below the troposphere
Mostly nitrogen (the only other nitrogen rich dense atmosphere in the Solar System aside from Earth)
Methane makes up 1.4% of the upper atmosphere and 5% below the troposphere
Methane presence is an argument from cryovolcanism because it needs to be replenished as solar energy can convert the methane in Titan’s atmosphere to more complex hydrocarbons within 50million years.
