Editing Titan (moon) (section)

== Discovery and naming ==
[[File:Christiaan Huygens-painting.jpeg|thumb|left|upright|[[Christiaan Huygens]] discovered Titan in 1655.]]

The Dutch astronomer [[Christiaan Huygens]] discovered Titan on March 25, 1655.<ref name="z606">{{cite journal | last=Biagioli | first=Mario | title=From ciphers to confidentiality: secrecy, openness and priority in science | journal=The British Journal for the History of Science | publisher=[Cambridge University Press, The British Society for the History of Science] | volume=45 | issue=2 | year=2012 | issn=0007-0874 | jstor=23275476 | pages=213–233 | doi=10.1017/S0007087412000088 | pmid=23050368 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/23275476 | access-date=July 11, 2024}}</ref><ref name="n251">{{cite web | title=Titan: Exploration | website=[[NASA|NASA Science]] | date=July 11, 2023 | url=https://science.nasa.gov/saturn/moons/titan/exploration/ | access-date=July 11, 2024}}</ref><ref name="v507">{{cite book | title=Solar System Moons | chapter=The Satellites of Saturn | publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg | publication-place=Berlin, Heidelberg | date=2010 | isbn=978-3-540-68852-5 | doi=10.1007/978-3-540-68853-2_3 | pages=53–90}}</ref> Fascinated by [[Galileo]]'s 1610 discovery of Jupiter's four largest moons and his advancements in telescope technology, Huygens, with the help of his elder brother [[Constantijn Huygens Jr.]], began building telescopes around 1650 and discovered the first observed moon orbiting Saturn with one of the telescopes they built.<ref>{{cite web |date=September 4, 2008 |title=Discoverer of Titan: Christiaan Huygens |url=https://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMJRT57ESD_index_0.html |publisher=European Space Agency |access-date=April 18, 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110809144038/https://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMJRT57ESD_index_0.html |archive-date=August 9, 2011 }}</ref>

Huygens named his discovery ''Saturni Luna'' (or ''Luna Saturni'', Latin for "moon of Saturn"), publishing in the 1655 tract ''De Saturni Luna Observatio Nova'' (''A New Observation of Saturn's Moon'').<ref>{{cite book |last1=Huygens |first1=Christiaan |last2=Société hollandaise des sciences |title=Oeuvres complètes de Christiaan Huygens |date=1888 |publisher=Martinus Nijhoff |location=The Hague, Netherlands |volume=1 |pages=387–388 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/61160#page/415/mode/1up |language=la |access-date=January 31, 2019 |archive-date=January 31, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190131145231/https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/61160#page/415/mode/1up |url-status=live }}</ref> After [[Giovanni Domenico Cassini]] published his discoveries of four more moons of Saturn between 1673 and 1686, astronomers began referring to these and Titan as Saturn I through V (with Titan then in fourth position). Other early epithets for Titan include "Saturn's ordinary satellite."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Cassini |first=G. D. |title=A Discovery of two New Planets about Saturn, made in the Royal Parisian Observatory by Signor Cassini, Fellow of both the Royal Societys, of England and France; English't out of French |journal=Philosophical Transactions |volume=8 |issue=1673 |pages=5178–5185 |date=1673 |doi=10.1098/rstl.1673.0003 |bibcode=1673RSPT....8.5178C |doi-access=free }}</ref> The International Astronomical Union officially numbers Titan as "Saturn VI."<ref name=usgs>{{cite web |url=https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Page/Planets |title=Planet and Satellite Names and Discoverers |publisher=USGS |access-date=March 6, 2021 |archive-date=November 28, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171128093419/https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Page/Planets |url-status=live }}</ref>

The name ''Titan'', and the names of all seven satellites of Saturn then known, came from [[John Herschel]] (son of [[William Herschel]], discoverer of two other Saturnian moons, [[Mimas]] and [[Enceladus]]), in his 1847 publication ''Results of Astronomical Observations Made during the Years 1834, 5, 6, 7, 8, at the Cape of Good Hope''.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Lassell |date=November 12, 1847 |title=Observations of Mimas, the closest and most interior satellite of Saturn |url=https://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/MNRAS/0008//0000042.000.html |journal=[[Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society]] |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=42–43 |access-date=March 29, 2005 |doi=10.1093/mnras/8.3.42 |bibcode=1848MNRAS...8...42L |doi-access=free |archive-date=September 11, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060911204009/http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/MNRAS/0008//0000042.000.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/Resultsastronom00Hers#page/414/mode/2up/search/Titan|title=Results of astronomical observations made during the years 1834, 5, 6, 7, 8, at the Cape of Good Hope: being the completion of a telescopic survey of the whole surface of the visible heavens, commenced in 1825 |last=Herschel |first=Sir John F. W. |publisher=Smith, Elder & Co. |year=1847 |location=London |pages=415}}</ref> Numerous small moons have been discovered around Saturn since then.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Overview {{!}} Saturn Moons |url=https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/saturn-moons/overview/?page=0&per_page=40&order=name+asc&search=&placeholder=Enter+moon+name&condition_1=38%3Aparent_id&condition_2=moon%3Abody_type%3Ailike&condition_3=moon%3Abody_type |access-date=March 1, 2021 |website=solarsystem.nasa.gov | date=November 11, 2017 |publisher=[[NASA]] |archive-date=November 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211129110147/https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/saturn-moons/overview/?page=0&per_page=40&order=name+asc&search=&placeholder=Enter+moon+name&condition_1=38:parent_id&condition_2=moon:body_type:ilike&condition_3=moon:body_type |url-status=live }}</ref> Saturnian moons are named after mythological giants. The name Titan comes from the [[Titans]], a race of immortals in [[Greek mythology]].<ref name="usgs" />

Planetary moons other than Earth's were never given symbols in the astronomical literature. Denis Moskowitz, a software engineer who designed most of the [[dwarf planet]] symbols, proposed a Greek [[tau]] (the initial of Titan) combined with the crook of the Saturn symbol as the symbol of Titan ([[File:Titan T symbol (fixed width).svg|16px]]). This symbol is not widely used.<ref name=moons>{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2025/25079-phobos-and-deimos.pdf |title=Phobos and Deimos symbols |last1=Bala |first1=Gavin Jared |last2=Miller |first2=Kirk |date=7 March 2025 |website=unicode.org |publisher=The Unicode Consortium |access-date=14 March 2025 |quote=}}</ref>
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