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Titan: Nasa say Saturn's biggest moon has Earth-like surface

NASA-saturn-moonImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

A picture of Titan taken by Nasa's Cassini spacecraft.

Here on Earth we have one moon, whereas Saturn has an incredible 82!

The biggest of Saturn's moon is Titan, and US space agency Nasa say they've found it has an 'Earth-like terrain', or surface.

Scientists from NASA have drawn a global map of Titan using information gathered by the Cassini probe on its mission to Saturn.

It's is first ever complete map of Saturn's surface.

Image source, NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
Image caption,

The map that NASA scientist have drawn showing all the exciting new things they have found on Titan!

Cassini took more than 100 fly-bys of Titan, zipping past the moon and collecting lots of data about it.

The data gave NASA scientists all the information they needed to map out just what was on the surface of Saturn's biggest moon.

Learn more about incredible Cassini and its epic mission

How else is Titan similar to the Earth?

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Saturn with its many rings captured by Nasa

Earth and Titan are the only planetary bodies known to have stable liquid on their surfaces.

Unlike Earth, Titan doesn't have water in it's rain and clouds or filling its lakes.

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Titan is very gaseous - the two gasses that we know are on the moon are methane and ethane.

They are actually called hydrocarbons and are gasses that act like liquids.

Cool facts about Saturn
  • One year on Saturn is the same as 29 years on Earth!

  • Four missions have been to Saturn pioneer 11, Cassini, and Voyager 1 and 2

  • Nobody knows the exact number of rings around Saturn. Nasa thinks there could be between 500 and 1000

  • Saturn's rings aren't solid - they are actually made up of bits of ice, dust and rock

What do you think?

What do you think about the cool new discovery? Let us know in the comments.