Next Solar System moon to be discovered after Galileo found Io, Ganymede, Europa & Callisto? When? By whom?
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Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, and after Ganymede, the second-largest moon in the Solar System. Discovered by Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch astronomer on March 25th, 1655 about 45 years later than Galielo's discovery of 7th January 1610.
Two generations later suggests to me that the church did inhibit research. Telescopes existed, and the thought that if Jupiter had moons, then Saturn might have them, too, must have occurred to the astronomers of the day, Perhaps it inhibited publication more than research? Another factor to consider is that Holland was also less under the sway of Roman Catholicism than Italy had been for Galileo.
Huygens named his discovery simply Saturni Luna (Latin for "Saturn's moon", which can also be written Luna Saturni) (De Saturni Luna observatio nova, 1656; XV). Later, Giovanni Domenico Cassini named the four moons he discovered (Tethys, Dione, Rhea and Iapetus) Lodoicea Sidera ("the stars of Louis") to honour king Louis XIV.
The name "Titan" and the names of all seven satellites of Saturn then known come from John Herschel (son of William Herschel, discoverer of Mimas and Enceladus) in his 1847 publication Results of Astronomical Observations made at the Cape of Good Hope, wherein he suggested the names of the Titans, sisters and brothers of Cronos (the Greek Saturn), be used.
Jupiter was the Roman equivalent of the Greek Zeus, and Saturn the Roman equivalent of Zeus' father, Cronos (Zeus' mother was Rhea, the name given to another of Saturn's moons).
The Huygens spacecraft and Cassini probe that explored Titan in 2004 were named after these two astronomers.
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