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Old 01-April-2004, 04:56 PM
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SUMMARY: Saturn's moon Titan is the largest in the Solar System; at 5,150 km in diameter, it's larger than Mercury and Pluto. It's unique because it has an unusual hazy atmosphere of nitrogen, methane, and hydrocarbons. The Voyager spacecraft took a quick look at Titan, but Cassini and the Huygen spacecraft will make detailed observations when they arrive later this year. Until then, huge observatories on Earth are working to gather as much information as possible about Titan. This will help give some perspective when the spacecraft arrive, and optimize the data they gather.

What do you think about this story? Post your comments below.
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Old 01-April-2004, 05:11 PM
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Sometime in the next week or two, Cassini images will have the same resolution as this. I'm looking forward to seeing them.
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Old 01-April-2004, 08:13 PM
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Quote:
SUMMARY: Saturn's moon Titan is the largest in the Solar System; at 5,150 km in diameter, it's larger than Mercury and Pluto.
Sorry to say, but Titan is not the largest moon in the Solar System, but the 2nd largest.
The largest is Jupiters largest moon Ganymede at 5262 km. Here is the link.
The 9 planets, Jupiter's moon, Ganymede

But you are correct in that Titan is larger then both Mercury and Pluto.
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Old 02-April-2004, 02:46 AM
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Huge Waves move slowly on Titon, BBC news story

Wow! I always though Titon was the largest moon in the Solar System.
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Old 02-April-2004, 06:31 AM
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Wow! I always though Titon was the largest moon in the Solar System.
A lot of people think that. For a long time even after the Gallilian moons were discovered it was thought Titan was the largest of them all. That is why it was so named.
Part of that was because Titan has an atmosphere which reflects light better then the dead rock Ganymede. Being more reflective was thought to mean it was bigger for a long time.

But now Titan is the largest moon with an atmosphere, so it does have that bragging right.
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Old 02-April-2004, 10:39 AM
Eric Vaxxine Eric Vaxxine is offline
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:huh: How come I can see Jupiters moons with ease through my telescope, but Saturns' are more difficult to pinpoint?
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Old 03-April-2004, 03:28 PM
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So we are landing on this moon? :huh: I wonder what it will be like. B)
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Old 03-April-2004, 08:21 PM
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Eric, that is because they are much further away
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Old 03-April-2004, 08:49 PM
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Quote:
Originally posted by damienpaul@Apr 3 2004, 08:21 PM
Eric, that is because they are much further away
Also, except for Titan, Saturn has no moons nearly as large as the big four that Jupiter has.
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Old 04-April-2004, 09:37 AM
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That's right. Saturn and it's moons are smaller and farther away then Jupiter and it's moons. But also, many of Saturns larger moons are closer to the planet then are Juptier's, resulting in trying to find a spec against the glare.
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