Random Facts About Saturn's Moon Titan, Closest Thing We Have To A Second Earth (16 items)

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  (#10) It's Bigger Than Mercury

  With a surface diameter of approximately 3,201 miles, Titan is the second-largest moon in the solar system, after Jupiter's Ganymede. Titan is 50% bigger than Earth’s moon, and is larger than the planet Mercury.
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  (#4) It's Really, Really Cold

  At -290 degrees Fahrenheit (-179 degrees Celsius), Titan is unbearably cold. The moon does get some slight warmth from a greenhouse effect created by atmospheric methane. However, this effect is negated as compounds in the upper atmosphere reflect light back into space, contributing to a less powerful, but nonetheless consequential, anti-greenhouse effect. The lack of ultraviolet penetration also means that Titan’s uppermost atmosphere is much warmer than the moon’s surface, which only receives 0.1% as much light as people do on Earth.

  Despite the ever-present cold, Titan does experience seasons. It also has a similar hydrological cycle to Earth, where methane, instead of water, evaporates into the atmosphere and pours down as rain. Winds are also prevalent on Titan, and have been measured at speeds of 270 miles per hour.
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  (#5) It Has Lakes And Seas

  Besides Earth, Titan is the only known body in the solar system with stable bodies of liquid on its surface. Titan’s landscape is littered with various lakes and seas, mainly composed of methane and ethane.

  Those compounds can exist in liquid form there due to the extreme cold.
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  (#15) Its Neighbors Are Fascinating Too

  Saturn has 62 known moons, though most are small. Still, moons like Enceladus, with its subterranean ocean and spewing geysers, are fascinating places that, like Titan, are also being studied as potentially life-harboring worlds.
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  (#1) It's Like A Primordial Earth

  Titan is often described as a primordial Earth, where processes such as flowing liquids and organic compounds point to the potential for life. However, much like Earth's earliest days, Titan isn’t currently hospitable to humans.

  The moon's frigid temperatures, low ultraviolet surface exposure, and lack of liquid water and breathable air mean that complex organisms wouldn’t be able to survive there for very long without the aid of technology.
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  (#11) It Might Be Older Than Saturn

  Astronomers aren’t exactly sure how Titan formed, but it doesn't appear to be an amalgam of smaller remains like so many of Saturn’s other orbiting bodies. One theory suggests that Titan could actually be older than Saturn - a rarity for a moon’s relationship to its host planet.

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