"Titan in fiction Titan is the largest moon of Saturn. It has a substantial atmosphere and is the most Earth-like satellite in the Solar System, making it a popular science fiction setting. Science fiction set on Titan can be roughly divided into the pre- and post-Pioneer eras, with a division set by the flyby of Saturn by the ""Pioneer 11"" space probe on April 5, 1973, which showed that Titan's surface was too cold to sustain (Earthlike) life. Somewhat later, the arrival of ""Cassini–Huygens"" mission in 2004 with the ""Huygens"" probe's landing in 2005 showed the presence of hydrocarbon lakes"
"Titan (moon) Titan is the largest moon of Saturn. It is the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere, and the only object in space, other than Earth, where clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid have been found. Titan is the sixth gravitationally rounded moon from Saturn. Frequently described as a planet-like moon, Titan is 50% larger than Earth's moon and 80% more massive. It is the second-largest moon in the Solar System after Jupiter's moon Ganymede, and is larger than the smallest planet, Mercury, but only 40% as massive. Discovered in 1655 by the Dutch astronomer"
"moon""), publishing in the 1655 tract ""De Saturni Luna Observatio Nova"" (""A New Observation of Saturn's Moon""). After Giovanni Domenico Cassini published his discoveries of four more moons of Saturn between 1673 and 1686, astronomers fell into the habit of referring to these and Titan as Saturn I through V (with Titan then in fourth position). Other early epithets for Titan include ""Saturn's ordinary satellite"". Titan is officially numbered Saturn VI because after the 1789 discoveries the numbering scheme was frozen to avoid causing any more confusion (Titan having borne the numbers II and IV as well as VI). Numerous"
"In Ottoman Turkish, Urdu and Malay, the name of Zazel is 'Zuhal', derived from the Arabic language (). Saturn's rings require at least a 15-mm-diameter telescope to resolve and thus were not known to exist until Galileo first saw them in 1610. He thought of them as two moons on Saturn's sides. It was not until Christiaan Huygens used greater telescopic magnification that this notion was refuted. Huygens discovered Saturn's moon Titan; Giovanni Domenico Cassini later discovered four other moons: Iapetus, Rhea, Tethys and Dione. In 1675, Cassini discovered the gap now known as the Cassini Division. No further discoveries"
"Hyperion (moon) Hyperion ( ; Greek: ), also known as Saturn VII (7), is a moon of Saturn discovered by William Cranch Bond, George Phillips Bond and William Lassell in 1848. It is distinguished by its irregular shape, its chaotic rotation, and its unexplained sponge-like appearance. It was the first non-round moon to be discovered. The moon is named after Hyperion, the Titan god of watchfulness and observation – the elder brother of Cronus, the Greek equivalent of Saturn – in Greek mythology. It is also designated Saturn VII. The adjectival form of the name is ""Hyperionian"". Hyperion's discovery came"
"Dione (moon) Dione ( ; ) is a moon of Saturn. It was discovered by Italian astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1684. It is named after the Titaness Dione of Greek mythology. It is also designated Saturn IV. Giovanni Domenico Cassini named the four moons he discovered (Tethys, Dione, Rhea and Iapetus) ""Sidera Lodoicea"" (""the stars of Louis"") to honor king Louis XIV. Cassini found Dione in 1684 using a large aerial telescope he set up on the grounds of the Paris Observatory. The satellites of Saturn were not named until 1847, when William Herschel's son John Herschel published ""Results"
"Christiaan Huygens Christiaan Huygens ( ; ; ; 14 April 1629 – 8 July 1695) was a Dutch physicist, mathematician, astronomer and inventor, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest scientists of all time and a major figure in the scientific revolution. In physics, Huygens made groundbreaking contributions in optics and mechanics, while as an astronomer he is chiefly known for his studies of the rings of Saturn and the discovery of its moon Titan. As an inventor, he improved the design of the telescope with the invention of the Huygenian eyepiece. His most famous invention, however, was"
"side of Saturn, and that the dark hemisphere is visible when Iapetus is on the eastern side. The dark hemisphere was later named Cassini Regio in his honor. Iapetus is named after the Titan Iapetus from Greek mythology. The name was suggested by John Herschel (son of William Herschel, discoverer of Mimas and Enceladus) in his 1847 publication ""Results of Astronomical Observations made at the Cape of Good Hope"", in which he advocated naming the moons of Saturn after the Titans, brothers and sisters of the Titan Cronus (whom the Romans equated with their god Saturn). When first discovered, Iapetus"
"when the ridge formed, probably due to the presence of a subsurface liquid ocean, which increases tidal flexing. Dione (moon) Dione ( ; ) is a moon of Saturn. It was discovered by Italian astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1684. It is named after the Titaness Dione of Greek mythology. It is also designated Saturn IV. Giovanni Domenico Cassini named the four moons he discovered (Tethys, Dione, Rhea and Iapetus) ""Sidera Lodoicea"" (""the stars of Louis"") to honor king Louis XIV. Cassini found Dione in 1684 using a large aerial telescope he set up on the grounds of the Paris"
"small moons have been discovered closer to Saturn since then. The name ""Titan"", and the names of all seven satellites of Saturn then known, came from John Herschel (son of William Herschel, discoverer of two other Saturnian moons, Mimas and Enceladus), in his 1847 publication ""Results of Astronomical Observations Made during the Years 1834, 5, 6, 7, 8, at the Cape of Good Hope"". He suggested the names of the mythological Titans (), brothers and sisters of Cronus, the Greek Saturn. In Greek mythology, the Titans were a race of powerful deities, descendants of Gaia and Uranus, that ruled during"
"Erasmus of Rotterdam and Spinoza. All of Descartes' major work was done in the Netherlands since he studied at Leiden University — as did throughout the centuries geologist James Hutton, British Prime Minister John Stuart, U.S. President John Quincy Adams, Physics Nobel Prize laureate Hendrik Lorentz and Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695) discovered Saturn's moon Titan, argued that light travelled as waves, invented the pendulum clock and was the first physicist to use mathematical formulae. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was the first to observe and describe single-celled organisms with a microscope. In the Dutch Golden"
"Dutch astronomer, mathematician and physicist Christiaan Huygens, discoverer of Titan. The mission was commonly called Saturn Orbiter Titan Probe (SOTP) during gestation, both as a Mariner Mark II mission and generically. ""Cassini-Huygens"" was a Flagship-class mission to the outer planets. The other planetary flagships include ""Galileo"", Voyager, and Viking. ""Cassini"" had several objectives, including: ""Cassini–Huygens"" was launched on October 15, 1997, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40 using a U.S. Air Force Titan IVB/Centaur rocket. The complete launcher was made up of a two-stage Titan IV booster rocket, two strap-on solid rocket engines, the Centaur upper"
"about 40% of its surface. Titania was discovered by William Herschel on January 11, 1787, the same day he discovered Uranus's second largest moon, Oberon. He later reported the discoveries of four more satellites, although they were subsequently revealed as spurious. For nearly fifty years following their discovery, Titania and Oberon would not be observed by any instrument other than William Herschel's, although the moon can be seen from Earth with a present-day high-end amateur telescope. All of Uranus's moons are named after characters created by William Shakespeare or Alexander Pope. The name Titania was taken from the Queen of"
"Titania (moon) Titania is the largest of the moons of Uranus and the eighth largest moon in the Solar System at a diameter of . Discovered by William Herschel in 1787, Titania is named after the queen of the fairies in Shakespeare's ""A Midsummer Night's Dream"". Its orbit lies inside Uranus's magnetosphere. Titania consists of approximately equal amounts of ice and rock, and is probably differentiated into a rocky core and an icy mantle. A layer of liquid water may be present at the core–mantle boundary. The surface of Titania, which is relatively dark and slightly red in color, appears"
". ""Cassini""'s last flyby was on 31 May 2015 at a distance of about . Hyperion (moon) Hyperion ( ; Greek: ), also known as Saturn VII (7), is a moon of Saturn discovered by William Cranch Bond, George Phillips Bond and William Lassell in 1848. It is distinguished by its irregular shape, its chaotic rotation, and its unexplained sponge-like appearance. It was the first non-round moon to be discovered. The moon is named after Hyperion, the Titan god of watchfulness and observation – the elder brother of Cronus, the Greek equivalent of Saturn – in Greek mythology. It is"
"Enceladus Enceladus (; ) is the sixth-largest moon of Saturn. It is about in diameter, about a tenth of that of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Enceladus is mostly covered by fresh, clean ice, making it one of the most reflective bodies of the Solar System. Consequently, its surface temperature at noon only reaches , far colder than a light-absorbing body would be. Despite its small size, Enceladus has a wide range of surface features, ranging from old, heavily cratered regions to young, tectonically deformed terrains. Enceladus was discovered on August 28, 1789, by William Herschel, but little was known about"
"the mainspring torque. The implication is that Huygens thought that his spiral spring would isochronise the balance, in the same way that he thought that the cycloidally shaped suspension curbs on his clocks would isochronise the pendulum. In 1655, Huygens proposed that Saturn was surrounded by a solid ring, ""a thin, flat ring, nowhere touching, and inclined to the ecliptic."" Using a 50 power refracting telescope that he designed himself, Huygens also discovered the first of Saturn's moons, Titan. In the same year he observed and sketched the Orion Nebula. His drawing, the first such known of the Orion nebula,"
"Chiron (hypothetical moon) Chiron (Greek: Χείρων) is the name given to a supposed moon of Saturn sighted by Hermann Goldschmidt in 1861. It has since been determined that no such moon exists. Hermann Goldschmidt announced the discovery of the ninth moon of Saturn in April 1861, which, he said, orbited between Titan and Hyperion. Goldschmidt's discovery was never confirmed, and Chiron was never seen again. In 1898, William Henry Pickering discovered Phoebe, which is now considered the ninth moon of Saturn. Strangely, in 1905, Pickering believed that he had discovered another moon of Saturn, which, he reported, orbited the planet"
"Rhea (moon) Rhea ( ; ) is the second-largest moon of Saturn and the ninth-largest moon in the Solar System. It is the second smallest body in the Solar System for which precise measurements have confirmed a shape consistent with hydrostatic equilibrium, after dwarf planet Ceres. It was discovered in 1672 by Giovanni Domenico Cassini. Rhea was discovered by Giovanni Domenico Cassini on 23 December 1672. It was the second moon of Saturn that Cassini discovered, and the third moon discovered around Saturn overall. Rhea is named after the Titan Rhea of Greek mythology, the ""mother of the gods"". It"
"dust that surrounded Saturn soon after its formation. Tethys has been approached by several space probes including ""Pioneer 11"" (1979), ""Voyager 1"" (1980), ""Voyager 2"" (1981), and multiple times by ""Cassini"" since 2004. Tethys was discovered by Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1684 together with Dione, another moon of Saturn. He had also discovered two moons, Rhea and Iapetus earlier, in 1671–72. Cassini observed all of these moons using a large aerial telescope he set up on the grounds of the Paris Observatory. Cassini named the four new moons as ""Sidera Lodoicea"" (""the stars of Louis"") to honour king Louis XIV"
"Sidera Lodoicea Sidera Lodoicea is the name given by the astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini to the four moons of Saturn discovered by him in the years 1671, 1672, and 1684 and published in his ""Découverte de deux nouvelles planètes autour de Saturne"" in 1673 and in the ""Journal des sçavans"" in 1686. These satellites are today known by the following names, given in 1847: The name ""Sidera Lodoicea"" means ""Louisian Stars"", from Latin ""sidus"" ""star"" and ""Lodoiceus"", a nonce adjective coined from ""Lodoicus"", one of several Latin forms of the French name ""Louis"" (reflecting an older form, ""Lodhuwig""). Cassini intended"
"He was further confused when the rings again became visible in 1613. Early astronomers used anagrams as a form of commitment scheme to lay claim to new discoveries before their results were ready for publication. Galileo used ""smaismrmilmepoetaleumibunenugttauiras"" for ""Altissimum planetam tergeminum observavi"" (""I have observed the most distant planet to have a triple form"") for discovering the rings of Saturn. In 1655, Christiaan Huygens became the first person to suggest that Saturn was surrounded by a ring. Using a 50× power refracting telescope that he designed himself, far superior to those available to Galileo, Huygens observed Saturn and in"
"When Copernicus placed Earth among the planets, he also placed the Moon in orbit around Earth, making the Moon the first natural satellite to be identified. When Galileo discovered his four satellites of Jupiter in 1610, they lent weight to Copernicus's argument, because if other planets could have satellites, then Earth could too. However, there remained some confusion as to whether these objects were ""planets""; Galileo referred to them as ""four planets flying around the star of Jupiter at unequal intervals and periods with wonderful swiftness."" Similarly, Christiaan Huygens, upon discovering Saturn's largest moon Titan in 1655, employed many terms"
"of France. By the end of the seventeenth century, astronomers fell into the habit of referring to them and Titan as ""Saturn I"" through ""Saturn V"" (Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan, Iapetus). Once Mimas and Enceladus were discovered in 1789, the numbering scheme was extended to ""Saturn VII"" by bumping the older five moons up two slots. The discovery of Hyperion in 1848 changed the numbers one last time, bumping Iapetus up to ""Saturn VIII"". Henceforth, the numbering scheme would remain fixed. The modern names of all seven satellites of Saturn come from John Herschel (son of William Herschel, discoverer of"
"Tethys (moon) Tethys (or Saturn III) is a mid-sized moon of Saturn about across. It was discovered by G. D. Cassini in 1684 and is named after the titan Tethys of Greek mythology. Tethys has a low density of 0.98 g/cm, the lowest of all the major moons in the Solar System, indicating that it is made of water ice with just a small fraction of rock. This is confirmed by the spectroscopy of its surface, which identified water ice as the dominant surface material. A small amount of an unidentified dark material is present as well. The surface of"
"(3) Medium Slow Cruise; (4) Slow Cruise; (5) Orbital Ops; (6) Av; (7) ATE (Attitude Estimator) Calibration. These 7 maps cover all spacecraft telemetry modes. The ""Huygens"" probe, supplied by the European Space Agency (ESA) and named after the 17th century Dutch astronomer who first discovered Titan, Christiaan Huygens, scrutinized the clouds, atmosphere, and surface of Saturn's moon Titan in its descent on January 15, 2005. It was designed to enter and brake in Titan's atmosphere and parachute a fully instrumented robotic laboratory down to the surface. The probe system consisted of the probe itself which descended to Titan, and"
"was the first director of the Paris Observatory from 1671 until his death. He discovered the four moons of Saturn – Iapetus, Rhea, Tethys and Dione – the major gap in its rings, known as Cassini Division, and was the first to write down observations of the zodiacal light. The Cassini–Huygens spacecraft is named after him and Christiaan Huygens. The lunar and Martian craters ""Cassini"" are also named in his honor. The approved naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 21 September 2002 (). 24101 Cassini 24101 Cassini, provisional designation """", is an eccentric background asteroid from"
"Titans generally, and the other moons of Saturn are named after individual titans, specifically Tethys, Phoebe, Rhea, Hyperion, and Iapetus. Astronomer William Henry Pickering claimed to discover another moon of Saturn which he named Themis, but this discovery was never confirmed, and the name Themis was given to an asteroid, 24 Themis. Asteroid 57 Mnemosyne was also named for a titan. A proto-planet Theia is hypothesized to have been involved in a collision in the early solar system, forming the Earth's moon. Titan (mythology) In Greek mythology, the Titans (Greek: , ""Titán"", , ""Titânes"") and Titanesses (or Titanides; Greek: ,"
"of significance were made until 1789 when William Herschel discovered two further moons, Mimas and Enceladus. The irregularly shaped satellite Hyperion, which has a resonance with Titan, was discovered in 1848 by a British team. In 1899 William Henry Pickering discovered Phoebe, a highly irregular satellite that does not rotate synchronously with Saturn as the larger moons do. Phoebe was the first such satellite found and it takes more than a year to orbit Saturn in a retrograde orbit. During the early 20th century, research on Titan led to the confirmation in 1944 that it had a thick atmosphere –"
"professor of astronomy at the University of Bologna in 1650 and became, in 1671, director of the Paris Observatory. He thoroughly adopted his new country, to the extent that he became interchangeably known as Jean-Dominique Cassini – although that is also the name of his great-grandson, Dominique, comte de Cassini. Cassini observed and published surface markings on Mars (earlier seen by Huygens but not published), determined the rotation periods of Mars and Jupiter, and discovered four satellites of Saturn, Iapetus and Rhea in 1671 and 1672, and Tethys and Dione (1684). Cassini was the first to observe these four Saturn's"
"the Saturnian magnetosphere. Future missions to Tethys and the Saturn system are uncertain, but one possibility is the Titan Saturn System Mission. Tethys (moon) Tethys (or Saturn III) is a mid-sized moon of Saturn about across. It was discovered by G. D. Cassini in 1684 and is named after the titan Tethys of Greek mythology. Tethys has a low density of 0.98 g/cm, the lowest of all the major moons in the Solar System, indicating that it is made of water ice with just a small fraction of rock. This is confirmed by the spectroscopy of its surface, which identified"
"Mimas (moon) Mimas, also designated Saturn I, is a moon of Saturn which was discovered in 1789 by William Herschel. It is named after Mimas, a son of Gaia in Greek mythology. With a diameter of it is the smallest astronomical body that is known to be rounded in shape because of self-gravitation. Mimas was discovered by the astronomer William Herschel on 17 September 1789. He recorded his discovery as follows: ""The great light of my forty-foot [12 m] telescope was so useful that on the 17th of September, 1789, I remarked the seventh satellite, then situated at its greatest"
"1656, like Galileo, had published an anagram saying """". Upon confirming his observations, three years later he revealed it to mean ""Annuto cingitur, tenui, plano, nusquam coherente, ad eclipticam inclinato""; that is, ""It [Saturn] is surrounded by a thin, flat, ring, nowhere touching, inclined to the ecliptic"". Robert Hooke was another early observer of the rings of Saturn, and noted the casting of shadows on the rings. In 1675, Giovanni Domenico Cassini determined that Saturn's ring was composed of multiple smaller rings with gaps between them; the largest of these gaps was later named the Cassini Division. This division is"