(Huygens) Spacecraft Landed in Mud on Saturn Moon

AP on Yahoo ^ | 1/18/05 | AP - FRankfurt

[joesnuffy]

poly alloy... liquid metal

[finnigan2]

I believe that at Titan's temperature, the only "flowing" going on is liquid methane. I also read somewhere that Saturn's huge mass exerts an enormous gravitational pull on it's moons, so perhaps the flowing rivers are due to the pressures on the methane which causes it to ebb and flow like earthly tides do.

[Colorado Doug]

While NASA's Cassini probe carried Huygens to the Saturn system, ESA had to manage the 2-1/2 hour descent to the surface - Huygens continued sending data for more than an hour after landing. "It's one of the harder missions one could conceive," says Dr. Betts. "It really shows that they're a major player."

A whole hour after we dropped them off! A major player indeed.

[Bones75]

"Mr. Sappenfield needs to learn some astronomy. Titan is not a moon of Saturn. It is a satellite of Saturn; a natural satellite, if one needs to make the distinction."

Of course it is a moon.

Any object orbiting a star (i.e. a natural satellite of that star) is called a Planet (obviously). Any object orbiting a planet itself, being a satellite of said planet, is called a Moon. The Earth has a moon, the name of which is "Luna". Most other planets have moons as well.

Titan is a moon of Saturn, being a natural satellite of Saturn makes it one.

Bones