Saturn’s Colossus

This post was written on March 25th 2015. Here’s a screenshot of the screen for evidence:

The date and time is in the bottom right corner, although it isn’t clear in the screenshot. Here it is on its own:

Why am I writing this? Thank you for asking… I shall tell you!

The above image is of Saturn’s moon, Titan. A moon quite similar to Earth in that it has a rocky and liquid surface, seasons, weather systems, lakes, seas and rivers. Quite different to Earth in that the liquid is methane and the atmosphere is nitrogen. Also, they say it is too cold to support life… although there could be life ‘but not as we know it’… I mean if we can bring frozen prehistoric plants back to life, anything’s possible, don’t you think?

Titan always has one side facing Saturn, and because of the atmosphere the surface features are usually covered in a yellowy murky haze, making all surface features very hard to see. The above image was observed on a rare clear day, which also seems to dis-prove my life theory, but you just don’t know.

Titan was discovered in 1655 by the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, who had been inspired by Galileo’s finding of the Jovian moons several years earlier. It was actually discovered on 25th March 1655, which is why I took the screenshot of the date and time earlier in this post. I do have method in my madness sometimes, although what suddenly made me want to write about Titan earlier this evening is another mystery. But, I digress. 360 years ago today, Titan was discovered.

Originally, Titan was thought to have been the largest moon in the Solar System, but that title has now been claimed by Jupiter’s Ganymede, which I mentioned in yesterday’s post; but Titan is still larger than the planet Mercury.

For years, Titan was known only as Saturn’s Moon, until sometime in the nineteenth century when it was officially named Titan.

And, you may or may not believe this, but the word count of this post has now reached 360 words. Look, here’s another corner screenshot to prove it:

Will these coincidences never cease? And yes, it really has taken me that long just to write this!

Incidentally, 360 has 24 divisors; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, 180, 360; and 24 is one of them. As is one.

And in the year 360 Europe was invaded by the Huns.

Also in the year 360, Saint Ninian was born… also known in Scotland as Ringan, and Northern England as Trynnian. There was a school in Edinburgh, St Trinnians, of which the books about the unruly schoolgirls was based… no link to Titan at all here, but I thought I’d just throw that in for good measure.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there was something like Trinian’s Cove or something similar on Titan. Well, stranger things have happened!