Wayne Simpson, aged 12, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin for his question:

Is it true that Saturn’s moon Titan has an atmosphere?

Golden Saturn has nine moons outside its shimmering rings. The first to be spotted was Titan, probably because it is the biggest of the brood, It was discovered in 1655. Titan is about 3000 miles in diameter. Our moon is 2163 miles in diameter. Two of Jupiter's moons, Ganemede and Callistro, are quite a bit larger than Titan.

Though Titan is not the largest, it has a reason for being the most special moon in our Solar System. in 1943, it was discovered that Titan, had an atmosphere. So far as we know it is the only satellite in the Solar System to have air of its owns

The atmosphere of Titan is made mostly of Nitrogen (80-90%), just like the Earth's atmosphere! Titan is the only other place in the solar system with an atmosphere made out of the same thing as the Earth's. Titan's atmosphere is very dense, and the air pressure at the surface is even higher than Earth's atmospheric pressure.

Titan also has some methane in its air. Sunlight breaks down the methane and forms other chemicals, too. Those chemicals create layers of haze or smog in Titan's atmosphere. We can't see through those smog layers, so the new pictures from the Huygens probe are our first good look at Titan's surface.

Titan is very cold (-178º C or -288º F). Methane, which is a gas on Earth, may turn to liquid in some places on Titan. There may even be methane rain on Titan.

For futher infomation on Titan go to JPL site listed in our Science News Main Menu.