Moons

Saturn has at least 62 moons. Since the planet was named after Cronus, lord of the Titans in Greek mythology, most of saturns moons are named after other Titans, their descendants, as well as after giants from Gallic, Inuit and Norse myths. Saturns largerst moon, Titan, is slightly larger than Mercury, and is the second-largest moon in the solar system behind Jupiters moon Ganymede. (Earths moon is the fifth largest.) Titan is veiled under a very thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere that might be like what Earths was long ago, before life. While the Earths atmosphere extends only about 37 miles (60 km) into space, Titans reaches nearly 10 times as far. The atmosphere contains a number of hydrocarbons, chemicals that primarily make up fossil fuels on earth. Methane rain falls from the sky and moves through the moons icy crust. A recent study detected propylene, a chemical use to make plastics, in the planets atmosphere. These moons can possess bizarre features. Pan and atlas are shaped like flying saucers, lapetus has one side as bright as snow and one side as dark as coal. Enceladus shows evidence of "ice volcanism," spewing out water and other chemicals from the 101 geysers spotted at the moons southern pole.