Titan

In astronomy, largest moon of the planet Saturn, with a diameter of 5,150 km/3,200 mi and a mean distance from Saturn of 1,222,000 km/759,000 mi. It was discovered in 1655 by Dutch mathematician and astronomer Christiaan Huygens, and is the second-largest moon in the Solar System (only Ganymede, of Jupiter, is larger).

Titan is the only moon in the Solar System with a substantial atmosphere (mostly nitrogen), topped with smoggy orange clouds that obscure the surface, which may be covered with liquid ethane lakes. Its surface atmospheric pressure is greater than Earth's. NASA's Cassini space probe reached Saturn in 2004 and its subprobe Huygens landed on Titan in January 2005. It has long been thought that Titan might have lakes or even oceans of liquid methane or ethane, but there is currently no evidence to confirm this, either from the probes or from Earth-based observations.

The lander Huygens collected data as it descended through Titan's atmosphere, and once it reached Titan's surface it began sending back data about the chemical composition of its surroundings and visual images. It continued to do this for 4 hours and 36 minutes until it was disabled by the harsh conditions on Titan. The images it sent back show a landscape etched by liquid flows, but showed no signs that liquids exist on the surface today. The Huygens probe was the first artificial object to land on Titan.

Titan

In Greek mythology, any of the giant children of Uranus, the primeval sky god, and Gaia, goddess of the Earth, whose six sons and six daughters included Kronos, Rhea, Themis, and Oceanus. Kronos and Rhea were in turn the parents of Zeus, who ousted his father as ruler of the world.

The siblings of the Titans included the three Hecatoncheires, 100-handed monsters named Briareus, Gyges, and Cottus; and the three one-eyed Cyclops, Arges, Steropes, and Brontes.

Uranus cast the Hecatoncheires and Cyclops into Tartarus, part of the underworld, so their indignant mother Gaia persuaded the Titans to rebel against their father. She gave Kronos a flint sickle, with which he emasculated Uranus and threw his genitals into the sea. From the blood which fell on the earth sprang the three Furies, while the foam generated in the sea gave birth to Aphrodite, goddess of love.

The Titans deposed Uranus, freed their brothers from Tartarus, and made Kronos their king, but Kronos imprisoned the Hecatoncheires and Cyclops once more, and married his sister Rhea. Their son Zeus later led his brothers and sisters in a ten year struggle with the ruling Titans, until Gaia promised victory to Zeus if he would deliver the Hecatoncheires and Cyclops. Aided by the Cyclops, Zeus overcame Kronos and the Titans and threw them into Tartarus; the Hecatoncheires were set to guard them.