Solar Eclipse NASA

If the Moon were in a perfectly circular orbit, a little closer to the Earth, and in the same orbital plane, there would be total solar eclipses every new moon. However, since the Moon’s orbit is tilted at more than 5 degrees to the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, its shadow usually misses Earth. A solar eclipse can only occur when the Moon is close enough to the ecliptic plane during a new moon. Special conditions must occur for the two events to coincide because the Moon’s orbit crosses the ecliptic at its orbital nodes twice every draconic month (27. 212220 days) while a new moon occurs one every synodic month (29. 530587981 days). Solar (and lunar) eclipses therefore happen only during eclipse seasons resulting in at least two, and up to five, solar eclipses each year; no more than two of which can be total eclipses.


Despite this oddball moon's many exotic attributes, it actually sports one of the most Earth-like surfaces in our Solar System. Titan may also experience volcanic activity, but its volcanoes would erupt with different ingredients than the molten-rock lava that shoots out from the volcanoes of Earth. In dramatic contrast to what occurs on our own planet, Titan's volcanoes erupt icy water "lava" (cryovolcanism). Titan's entire alien surface has been sculpted by gushing methane and ethane, which carves river channels, and fills its enormous great lakes with liquid natural gas. Titan orbits Saturn once every 15 days and 22 hours. Like Earth's large Moon, in addition to many other moons in our Solar System, Titan's rotational period is precisely the same as its orbital period. This means that Titan only shows one face to its parent-planet, while the other face is always turned away. The scientists also considered other possible sources of hydrogen from the little moon itself, such as a preexisting reservoir in the icy crustal shell or a global ocean. Subsequent analysis indicated that it was unlikely that the observed hydrogen was obtained during the formation of Enceladus or from other processes on the moon-world's surface or in the interior.