{"id":25481,"date":"2022-09-16T10:21:14","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T09:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=25481"},"modified":"2022-09-16T10:21:14","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T09:21:14","slug":"missing-moon-may-have-caused-saturns-rings-and-tilt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/missing-moon-may-have-caused-saturns-rings-and-tilt\/25481\/","title":{"rendered":"Missing moon may have caused Saturn\u2019s rings and tilt"},"content":{"rendered":"
The groundbreaking modelling study provides fascinating insights into Saturn\u2019s evolution. Today, the giant gas planet hosts 83 moons; however, the MIT team believe that many moons ago, an extra satellite they named Chrysalis was pivotal for causing Saturn\u2019s rings and tilt.<\/p>\n
The rings of Saturn swirl around the planet\u2019s equator, rotating at a 26.7-degree angle relative to the plane that it orbits the Sun. Astronomers hypothesised that this tilt was due to gravitational interactions from its neighbour, Neptune, as Saturn\u2019s tilt precesses nearly the same rate as Neptune\u2019s orbit.<\/p>\n
However, despite potentially being in sync at one time, Saturn has since released Neptune\u2019s pull. So what could have caused Saturn\u2019s rings and tilt? MIT astronomers believe the missing moon Chrysalis was instrumental, pulling and tugging Saturn for billions of years, keeping its tilt in line with Neptune.<\/p>\n
Then, around 160 million years ago, Chrysalis became unstable and came too close to its planet in a grazing encounter that ripped the moon apart \u2013 enough force to remove Saturn from Neptune\u2019s grasp, leaving it with the tilt we see today. Moreover, the researchers believe that some of the shattered fragments from Chrysalis remained suspended in orbit, eventually breaking into small icy chunks to form the planet\u2019s signature Rings.<\/p>\n
Jack Wisdom, professor of planetary sciences at MIT and lead author of the new study, commented: \u201cJust like a butterfly\u2019s Chrysalis, this satellite was long dormant and suddenly became active, and the rings emerged.<\/p>\n
Scientists in the early 2000s theorised that Saturn\u2019s tilt was due to the planet being trapped in a gravitational association with Neptune. However, a new twist to the mystery was added by observations from NASA\u2019s Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017.<\/p>\n
They revealed that Titan, the planet\u2019s largest moon, was moving away from the planet at a faster rate than expected \u2013 around 11 centimetres each year. Titan\u2019s rapid migration and gravitational pull led scientists to believe that the moon was responsible for Saturn\u2019s tilting and keeping the planet in sync with Neptune.<\/p>\n
However, this depends on Saturn\u2019s moment of inertia \u2013 how mass is distributed in the planet\u2019s interior, meaning the tilt could behave differently if the matter is more concentrated at its core or towards the surface.<\/p>\n
Wisdom said: \u201cTo make progress on the problem, we had to determine the moment of inertia of Saturn.\u201d<\/p>\n
In their new study, the astronomers looked to pinpoint Saturn\u2019s moment of inertia utilising some of Cassini\u2019s last observations, in which it closely approached the planet to map its gravitational field precisely. The gravitational field can be used to estimate the distribution of the planet\u2019s mass.<\/p>\n
The team modelled Saturn\u2019s interior, identifying mass that matched the gravitational field that Cassini observed. They found that this new moment of inertia placed Saturn outside of resonance with Neptune.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen we went hunting for ways of getting Saturn out of Neptune\u2019s resonance,\u201d Wisdom explained.<\/p>\n
The team performed simulations to map the evolution of Saturn\u2019s orbital dynamics and its moons to see if this could have influenced Saturn\u2019s rings or tilt, but this was not the case. Next, they reexamined the mathematical equations of the planet\u2019s precession, identifying that if one of Saturn\u2019s moons were missing, it could affect its tilt.<\/p>\n
Subsequently, the astronomers ran simulations to illuminate the properties of the missing moon, such as its mass and orbital radius and dynamics, that could have knocked Saturn out of sync. They determined that the loss of Chrysalis, which was around the size of the planet\u2019s third-largest moon \u2013 Iapetus \u2013 was enough to knock it out of resonance.<\/p>\n
Between 200 and 100 million years ago, Chrysalis entered a chaotic orbital zone, closely encountering Iapetus and Titan, eventually coming too close to Saturn, which ripped the moon apart and formed Saturn\u2019s rings and modern-day tilt.<\/p>\n
Wisdom concluded: \u201cIt\u2019s a pretty good story, but like any other result, it will have to be examined by others. But it seems that this lost satellite was just a Chrysalis, waiting to have its instability.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A new study performed by MIT astronomers suggests that an ancient, missing moon may have caused Saturn\u2019s rings and the planet\u2019s tilt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":25482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[771],"tags":[818,24421],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n