Why is it in News?
→ Re-examination of NASA Cassini spacecraft data suggests Titan may not have a subsurface ocean.
→ Findings challenge earlier assumptions about Saturn’s largest moon.
Important Points
- Titan is Saturn’s largest moon.
- Discovered by Christiaan Huygens on 25 March 1655.
- Second largest moon in the solar system after Ganymede.
- Radius is about 2,575 km.
- Only moon with a dense atmosphere.
- Atmosphere mainly nitrogen with methane.
- Only world besides Earth with stable surface liquids.
- Cassini spacecraft studied Titan from 2004 onwards.
- Titan is tidally locked with Saturn.
- Orbital period around Saturn is 15 days and 22 hours.