Saturn's moon Titan discovered - March 25, 1655

On this day in 1655, Christiaan Huygens first observed Saturn's largest moon, Titan.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hey y'all, it's Eves. Welcome to another episode
of This Day in History Class. Today is March. The

(00:24):
day was March sixt Dutch astronomer Christian Hikins first observed
Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Hikins studied law in mathematics at
the University of Leiden and at the Orange College of Breda.
After that, he stayed at home and pursued his scientific

(00:45):
interests thanks to the financial support of his wealthy father.
This period from sixteen fifty to sixteen sixty six was
a productive time in hikins life. He and his brother
devoted time to developing telescopes. In the early sixteen fifties,
he worked on improving his telescopes by using a new

(01:05):
way of grinding lenses that increased clarity. Using his lenses,
he was better able to observe the skies. In sixteen
fifty five, he turned his attention to Saturn. Back in
sixteen ten, Galileo became the first person to observe Saturn
with a telescope. Back then, there was confusion over Saturn's appearance.

(01:26):
Galileo saw Saturn as some sort of three part body
with a large body in the middle and two smaller
lateral bodies. Astronomers thought that two handles may have been
attached to Saturn. Galileo did, however, first observed Jupiter's moons
around this time, but decades later Hikins was poised to

(01:46):
make new discoveries with his improved telescope. On March sixteen
fifty five, he discovered Saturn's largest moon, which we now
know as Titan. At the time, Hikins named it saturni Luna,
which is Latin for Saturn's moon. He published the discovery
in a pamphlet called a New Observation of Saturn's Moon.

(02:09):
Mathematician and astronomer John Herschel suggested the name Titan for
Saturn's largest moon. Centuries later, and in eighteen forty seven publication.
In the sixteen fifty nine Hikens unveiled his theory that
Saturn was surrounded by a flat ring. By the time
he died in six he'd made many contributions to optics, astronomy,

(02:32):
and mechanics. Over the years, astronomers discovered more of Saturn's moons. Now,
Saturn is said to have eighty two moons, though only
fifty three of them are confirmed and named. Since Hikens
initial observation, scientists have learned a lot more about Titan.
It's the second largest moon in the Solar System, and

(02:54):
it's about seven hundred and fifty nine thousand miles or
one point two million kilometers from Saturn. It's cold and icy.
It It's also the only moon known to have a
dense atmosphere that's mostly nitrogen like Earth's. Titan is also
the only place besides Earth known to have liquid in
the form of rivers, lakes, and seas on its surface.

(03:18):
Liquid methane and ethane are present, and there is likely
an underground ocean of liquid water. There could be environments
with conditions suitable for life on Titan, but there is
no evidence of life there. I'm Eve Jeffcote and hopefully
you know a little more about history today than you
did yesterday. And if you want to send us a note,

(03:41):
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