March 25, 1655: Discovering Saturn's largest satellite is Titan

Christiaan Huygens was the first to discover the Titan satellite, but the name was set by another astronomer two centuries later.

Titan or Saturn VI is Saturn 's largest satellite, the only satellite known to have a special atmosphere, and the only object except Earth that has clear evidence of stable surface water bodies has been examined. break.

Titan's natural colors are observed from the Cassini – Huygens spacecraft.

Titan is a satellite at the distance of Saturn's twenty-second and farthest from the group of satellites of sufficient size to form a sphere. Often described as a satellite with planet-like characteristics, Titan has a diameter about 50% larger than the Earth's Moon and has a mass greater than 80%. It is the second largest satellite in the Solar System , behind Jupiter 's Ganymede satellite, and if measured by its diameter it is larger than the smallest planet, Mercury, (even with only half the mass). Titan is Saturn's first discovered satellite.

Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens

Titan was discovered by Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens on March 25, 1655. Huygens was inspired by the discovery of four of Jupiter's largest satellites of Galileo in 1610 and his telescope improvements. Huygens himself has made technical improvements and his discovery of Titan has been " partly due to telescope quality and partly thanks to luck" . He gave it the simple name Saturni Luna (or Luna Saturni, Latin for "Moon of Saturn"), published the thesis De Saturni Luna Observatio Nova in 1655. After Giovanni Domenico Cassini published the His discovery of four other Saturnian satellites between 1673 and 1686, astronomers have a habit of calling those satellites and Titan is Saturn I to V (Titan is ranked fourth). . Other original names of Titan include " Saturn's normal Satellites ". Titan was officially numbered Saturn VI because after the 1789 discoveries the digital diagram was not used anymore to avoid confusion (Titan was numbered II and IV and VI). Since then many small satellites closer to Saturn's surface have been discovered.

Two centuries later, when John Herschel discovered Uranus and named seven Saturnian moons. At that time, Saturn's largest moon was named Titan, which meant it was immensely true to its properties compared to other moons.