Saturns Moon Titan

1
Saturns Moon Titan

• By Paul Wenzel,
• Jing Liu
• T
• The source of heavy organics and aerosols in
  Titan's atmosphere
• Feb 2008
• Cambridge University Press

2
Titan

• Discovered in 1655, by Dutch astronomer
  Christiaan Huygens.
• Saturns biggest moon.
• Equatorial radius of 2,575 km. second largest
  moon in our solar system.

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More about Titan

• Takes about 16 days to make a full orbit around
  Saturn.
• Only moon in solar system that is known to have
  clouds, mysterious, thick planet-like atmosphere,
  this is why titan is of great interest to
  scientists.
• Tidally locked in synchronous rotation.
• Kuiper discovered spectral line of methane .

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And more

• 1980- NASAs Voyager 1 spacecraft attempted to
  take close up pictures of Titans landscape.
• Unable to get clear images of its natural
  features and land because of its thick clouds.
• Images showed only slight color, brightness
  variations in atmosphere.
• Confirmed that there was an atmosphere.

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Cassini-Huygens Spacecraft
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The mission

• Launched from Cape Canaveral, FL, October 15,
  1997, entered Saturns orbit July 1, 2004.
• Voyage through the solar system to Saturn, moons
  to study it in detail.
• Joint effort of ESA, NASA and ISA.
• Scientific probe, Huygens was released from the
  main spacecraft.
• Parachuted thru Titans atmosphere to its surface.

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The Journey
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Journey continued

• No existing launch could send 5600 Kg craft
  directly to Saturn.
• Used technique called gravity assist, planet
  pulls spacecraft as its flying by but spacecraft
  pulls on planet causing exchange of energy.
• Orbited sun twice, went by Earth once.
• Three boosts gave enough orbital momentum to
  reach outer solar system.

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Journey..

• Final gravity assist was from Jupiter Dec, 30,
  2000.
• Gave Cassini-Huygen final thrust needed to get to
  Saturn, arriving July 2004.
• About 760,000 miles from Saturn.

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Huygens Probe

• Supplied by ESA, landed on Titan, Jan 2005.
• Built Shellfish, protect delicate interior from
  hot temp during descent.
• Has 2 parts Entry Assembly Module Descent
  module.

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More about Huygens

• 2.7 meters across, 1.3 without shield.
• Entry Assembly Module carries equip to control
  Huygen after separated from Cassini. Shield that
  acted as a brake and thermal protection.
• Decent Module contains scientific lab and
  instruments, find info about Titan.

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Huygens landing on Titan

• 3 diff. Parachutes, made landing easy.
• After 2nd parachute was deployed protective
  shield broke off.
• Landed immediately started gathering information
  and using lab.
• Worked for about 90 mins after landing.
• Provide in-depth study of clouds atmosphere,
  surface.
• 6 diff. science instruments.

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Descent in Titan
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Titans Surface

• 100-300 myr old, highly resurfaced world w/ few
  craters.
• Four mechanisms which erase craters
• Deposition of organics from the atmosphere
• Cryovolcanism which is eruption of water
• Wind w/ ice grains, hydrocarbon aerosoles
• Flowing liquid methane.

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Surface

• In the northern hemisphere over a 100 lakes have
  been discovered.

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Titans Atmosphere

• Consists of 98 molecular nitrogen, 2 methane,
  and traces of hydrocarbons ethane, acetylene,
  propane.
• Hydrocarbon haze
• Methane-ethane clouds in troposphere
• Surface temp of 94 K, pressure of 1.5 bars puts
  methane near its triple point.
• Well developed methane based hydrological cycled
  is evidenced by numerous river beds.

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Atmosphere

• Also extensive high-latitude lake system, appears
  to operate seasonal or longer time scales.
• Problem due to photolysis, current amount
  methane, depleted tens/ millions yrs.
• Dont know if this is just rare occurrence of
  methane during Titans history.

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First Images
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Conclusion

• Scientists Titan is important no other
  planet/moon, universe has lakes/atmosphere other
  than earth.
• Hydrocarbons, water ice make it remind scientists
  of early earth.
• There are still a lot of questions, Huygen has
  given us some answers/ pictures on its
  surface/atmosphere which is step in learning
  more about the moon.

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Bibliography

• http//www.solarviews.com/eng/titan.htm
• http//solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Ob
  jectTitan
• http//georgenet.net/hubble/titanearth.html
• http//www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/index.
  html
• http//www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEMTV8
  2VQUD_0.html