Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Magnificient TITAN
Heaven wheels above you
displaying to you her eternal glories and still your eyes are on the
ground.______ Dante
Titan is the second largest
moon of Saturn. (Ganymede of Jupiter
being the largest). Titan was discovered
by a Dutch Astronomer Christiaan Huygens in the 1655 march 25. He named it Saturni Luna. Later John Herschel son of William
Herschel(German born British Astronomer) named it Titan. Titan was a race of
powerful deities descendants of Gaia and Uranus that ruled during the legendary
Golden age. There are nearly 60 or more moons of Saturn. Some are very small and are still being
studied. The largest among them
is'Titan' it is larger than planet Mercury.
The NASA's Cassinis mission has unfolded its charecteristics.. It is
very dense, covered with heavy clouds.
It is surrounded by an orange haze , differes from the rest of the
Saturn’s moons. Titans dense atmosphere
creates Green House Effect. The heat
that comes from Sun through dim sunlight gets trapped inside. The scientists have found Titan very
interesting as it may share some similarities to an early Earth.
The Cassini - Huygens probe sent
information about Titans atmosphere.
..Its atmosphere is active and complex, mainly composed of Nitrogen(95%)
and Methane (5%). Elements like Carbon
Oxygen Hydrogen are also found which are essential for life. Sand dunes made of hydrocarbons and liquid
methane lakes are largely found. Earths
atmosphere is made up of mostly Nitrogen and small amount of Oxygen (essential
for human life). This similarity makes
the scientist believe that Titan may harbor some kind of Life.They believe that
lifeforms on Titans could have evolved to use methane in the way that lifeforms
on Earth use water, and can survive in much cooler temperature than those on
Earth. The lifeforms on Earth cannot survive on Titan. Titan has very weak
gravity. If humans land there it will be
possible for them to fly in its atmosphere.
Methane is non poisonous but flammable. There is an abundance of Methane
lake in the southern pole. Liquid
methane evapourates and there is methane rain occasionally. Titan is covered with thick layers of
ice. Its surface temperature is
-290F(-179 degrees C). Its surface
pressure is slightly lighter than Earth.There is no magnetic field . Titans diameter is (50%) larger than Earths
Moon and is larger than planet Mercury but its mass is half than of Mercury.
Titan orbits Saturn in neary 16 days. It takes 16 days to spin around its
axis. Its rotation is called
Synchronous- meaning that the same side of it always faces the Saturn.
It is indeed a marvellous and
interesting moon in the Solar System for
the Scientist to Explore further..
Published in The Hitavada dt.26/8/2012
Published in The Hitavada dt.26/8/2012
Friday, August 10, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)