TITANIA largest moon of Uranus. The Forgotten.
Uranus is the seventh planet of the solar system at a distance of 27.1 billion
kilometers from the Sun. This distance is 20 times the distance of Earth from the Sun. It is
blue in color due to presence of methane gas in the atmosphere. It is surrounded by 27
satellites.
Titania is the largest of the satellites of Uranus and the eighth largest moon in the
Solar system at a diameter of 1578 km. It was discovered by William Herschel in Jan 11,
1787. It is pale red in color. It is composed of rocks and ice in equal amounts. Its core is
made of rocks and the mantle is of ice. It is considered that water is present between core
and mental boundary. Its atmospheric pressure is about 1-2 mPa. Its surface temperature
reaches to 89K in summer.
“Voyager 2” was the first satellite sent in Jan 1986 to study Titania. It took several
images of Titania but unlike all other planets and moons its southern hemisphere was facing
the sun keeping the northern hemisphere all in dark. Only one side is toward the sun. The
other side never come in front of the Sun. Which enabled us to study only 40% of its Entire
surface.
From 2001 to 2005 infrared spectroscopy revealed that there is frozen water as
well as frozen Carbon dioxide. Frozen Carbon dioxide means very less temperature. If there
is ice then below it there might be some water. If there is some water, then might be there
exist some microbes and if there exist some microbes then there must be some organic
matter, which they are consuming. Man has always been enchanted by some foreign life. If I
send a rover to study Titania, my first priority will be the search of such life and matter.
Cracks on Surface appears to be the result of both impacts and endogenic processes. Its
surface feels young which means it decays and grows into new forms.
The very first problem we can face on Titania is landing. The atmosphere is very thin
we just cannot fall on it. We require rocket landing. The second problem would be the
temperature. At 89K rover will freeze and it won’t be able to perform any valuable task. Third
problem we may face would be communication. Since the Solar system is in constant motion
the distance between Earth and Uranus changes daily. Their closest distance is 1.6 billion Km
and the farthest is 3.2 billion Km. it means if we try to communicate from Earth to Uranus it
will require
t = s/v
= (1.6x10^12)/ (3x10^8)
= 5333.33s
≈88 mints
That’s a one-way communication time. For this we have to rely on artificial
intelligence.
I'll be looking forward to a trip to titania
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