Titan
Source: NASA
TITAN! It doesn’t fall short in the name category. This moon is outrageously cool + unique and the largest of Saturn (2nd largest in the S.S. by 2%)!!!
It’s the only moon in our solar system with a dense atmosphere (see that little sliver of rainbow to the left?). This moon has so many titles and I feel privileged to share them all with you. So let’s tackle that atmosphere first: mostly nitrogen + methane, it’s a little different than our own. Titan’s gravity bears no resemblance to Earth’s which means it doesn’t have the gusto to pull it in quite as tightly- the moon’s atmosphere extends 10x farther (370 miles into space) than our own into space! However, the atmospheric pressure is 60% GREATER than here on earth- imagine living at the bottom of a swimming pool. That’s what it would be like to live on Titan. Far up above the ground, way at the top of the atmosphere, molecules are split ultimately creating organic molecules…that could contribute to any *possible* life forms (What did I tell you guys!! Crazy?!). This upper atmosphere recycling causes the moon to have this orange hazy shell. Hidden beneath that smog are rivers and lakes clouds and volcanoes and hydrocarbon “sand” dunes!! Titan has weather. This satellite is so cold that liquid water plays the role of both rock and LAVA. Can you even fathom, a volcano with water lava coming out of it? The rivers and lakes are composed of ethane and methane, as well as the clouds and the rain that falls from them. As if I need another factor to make your face fall off, Titan has tectonic forces. This moon is a world. Like every other moon, Titan has an enigma embedded into it and that is the source of methane. It’s split high in the atmosphere to create organic molecules…but how does it replenish itself to supply all of the rivers, lakes, etc. on the surface?! The European probe Huygens was dropped into Titan’s atmosphere in 2005, giving us the extended information we have on this wondrous sphere. This probe was exponential because it was the first probe that landed on a body in the outer solar system. I always love to make these moons real places when imagining them. You’re standing with a suit capable of stabilizing your body despite extreme pressure, a suit that’s also able to accommodate you to the extreme cold of this moon. It’s a mostly flat surface- a good canvas to start with. But amidst your foreign environment, one thing comes in to focus that is unignorably Saturn. On this moon, you can jump from a place and practically glide, considering its low gravity. Titan is incredible, a body that draws a crowd. A possible place of colonization in the future. A blurry orange diamond orbiting around in space, a product of creation.