Trolls Around The Solar System (Part 8 - The Moons Of Saturn)

You can find the previous parts here: Part 1 (Mercury) - Part 2 (Venus) -Part 3 (Mars) - Part 4 (The Asteroid Belt) - Part 5 (Jupiter) - Part 6 (Jovian Moons) - Part 7 (Saturn)

The trolls are still near Saturn, the second gas giant of our solar system. They haven't left for Uranus yet, because X31 wanted to share a few more details on the moons of the planet.

- As I told you guys, Saturn has more than 50 natural satellites, X31 said. Do you want to learn more about them?

- Yes!! the trolls shouted.

- Well, I am not going to bombard you with information that you will forget after an hour. I am just going to tell you the cool stuff you might want to remember later. The biggest moon is Titan, one and half times the diameter of our Moon. You will find it in the outer rings and it's the only satellite with an atmosphere present.

- Don't be fooled by the word atmosphere, T-800 said. It's mostly nitrogen and methane, it also rains methane over the surface.

- Titan has lots of lakes around its poles with methane–ethane in them. It is believed to also have a subsurface ocean of water and ammonia, this means it could be hosting life, not the way we know it on Earth, but still... X31 continued.

- Rhea is the second largest satellite of the planet, T-800 said. It is almost half the size of our Moon and it's a badly cratered, coreless body of ice and rocks. There is a thin oxygen atmosphere over Rhea, the second place in the whole solar system where oxygen is present in the air.

- And where did the oxygen come from? X42 asked.

- Probably from the magnetic field of Saturn that leads to oxygen and carbon dioxide release in the air, X31 answered.

- Oh, there is also Hyperion, X31 added. Hyperion is another outer moon that doesn't look at all like a moon, it's rather like a spongy potato.

- I think I can see it over there! X54 shouted.

- You're right, X54! That's Hyperion, X31 said.

- Why does it look like that? X42 asked.

- Well, Hyperion was probably the result of another, larger moon that crashed, T-800 explained.

- I almost forgot Iapetus, the "yin-yang" satellite, X31 said.

- Yin-yang? I don't get it, X54 said.

- It looks like the yin-yang symbol, because it is half black and half white, X31 explained.

- And where did it get those colors? X42 asked.

- The dark parts are probably hydrocarbons from another moon, Phoebe, T-800 replied.

- And maybe there was materials from other moons feeding Iapetus, because some of the highest mountains of the whole solar system are there, X31 continued.

- Is that it?! X54 shouted excitedly again.

- I can see it too, X42 said.

- Yes, guys, that's Iapetus, T-800 confirmed.

- Here, let's take a look at the inner moons, the ones closer to the planet, X31 said. The smallest one is Mimas, another badly cratered satellite. The weird thing about it is that, despite being all icy and the closest to Saturn, the ice never melts by the tidal heating. There could be an ocean of liquid water beneath the surface, though.

- Another small satellite is Enceladus, T-800 went on.

- Ah! Just like the ancient Greek god of earthquakes? X42 asked.

- Exactly, X31 answered. Enceladus is all icy too. The tidal heating causes the ice to melt and these tiny particles form one of the planet's rings.

- Do you want to learn something cool about Enceladus? T-800 asked.

- Of course! the trolls replied.

- It has about 100 geysers in its south pole!

- That must give an amazing sight, X42 noticed.

- It does! X31 said. The plumes that rise up from the satellite's insides feed the rings with ice, dust and gas. Perhaps there is warm water underneath all this bright ice that covers the surface.

- Which makes it another great canditate for life support, T-800 added.

- That tidal heating thing you mentioned earlier, what is it? X54 was confused.

- It happens due to tidal acceleration and it's basically the orbital energy that is dissipated as heat, T-800 answered. The heat is scattered either in the oceans over the surface or the inside of a planet or moon.

- There are two other moons, Tethys and Dione in the inner moon zone, X31 continued. They are both covered in ice, Dione has probably a rocky core. Tethys also exhibits two weird red arcs over its surface, which we still don't know what they are.

- Ah! I am so confused by all these details, the only thing I am going to remember after this tour is the yin-yang moon and the geyser moon that might host life, X54 said.

- And Titan of course! X42 complemented. The giant that might also have life underneath its icy layers.

- You are right, guys. We shared way too much information, X31 said. Come on, let's get the engines working and head towards our next stop, Uranus.

- What? No mention of the irregular moons with the retrograde orbits? T-800 sounded disappointed. Or... or at least the trojan moons! They are even smaller objects that follow or lead another big moon or planet, you can find them nowhere else in our solar system, only Saturn's moons and rings complex has them!

- I know, T-800, we haven't said anything about those tiny bodies, the ring moonlets either, but we need to see the rest of the planets soon. We can't stay here for ever, X31 said.

- Ok, let's go then, I can bore you with all the things I know about Saturn on our way to Uranus, T-800 said.

- Oh boy! Thank God I got my mp4 player with me, X54 said.