Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, may be made up of two different moons that collided hundreds of millions of years ago, new research suggests. If confirmed, this epic collision could also help solve long-standing mysteries surrounding the gas giant. symbolic ring formed.
Titan is solar systemThe second largest moon of Jupiter after Ganymede. It’s around Total length: 3,200 miles (5,150 kilometers)which is about 1.5 times as wide as Earth’s Moon and about 5% as wide as Earth’s Moon. mercury.
Previously, researchers believed that Titan, like most moons, formed billions of years ago as small chunks of rock and dust gradually accumulated. However, in a new study, February 9th was uploaded to a preprint server arXiv Although the paper is scheduled for future publication in the journal Planetary Sciences, researchers at the SETI Institute have shown that this may not be the case.
Based on the data collected by NASAAfter the Cassini spacecraft passed by Titan and deployed Huygens to the surface, the SETI team proposes that Titan may have formed about 400 million years ago when two similarly large moons collided.
Researchers argue that this collision may have also created another of Saturn’s moons, Hyperion. This small moon is about 84 miles (135 km) wide and is thought to have formed from debris from an impact. Just like Earth’s moon did When protoplanet Theia collided with Earth Approximately 4.5 billion years ago.
Additionally, the new hypothesis may explain the unusual orbits of some of Saturn’s moons, the researchers said.
Saturn’s waning moon
Saturn There are at least 274 satellites – most of any planet – after that 128 natural satellites recently discovered. But researchers have long suspected that another giant moon is missing.
Saturn’s orbit around the sun is highly tilted compared to other planets (aside from its unstable neighbor Uranus), which allows us to not only Look at the planet’s unusual rings But it also suggests that something huge once pulled it from its place. The mysterious object was most likely a large satellite, which researchers had long suspected was thrown from Saturn by gravity.
In a new study, researchers investigated the possibility that the moon was destroyed rather than extinct.
The “most important clue” that this other moon was destroyed is Hyperion, which is trapped in orbital resonance with Titan, making three orbits around Saturn for every four orbits of Titan.
“We realized that the Titan Hyperion sluices are relatively new, only a few hundred million years old,” said study lead author and SETI researcher Matiya Chukku said in statement. “This dates back to around the same time that the extra moon disappeared. [So] Perhaps Hyperion did not survive this cataclysm, but rather was a result of it. ”
After simulating multiple scenarios using Cassini data, the researchers now believe that two giant moons, called Proto-Titan and Proto-Hyperion, collided with each other, forming Titan, and eventually Hyperion was born from the debris of a massive collision.
rings, orbits, cars
Hyperion may not be the only satellite created or affected by this potential collision.
Researchers propose that this collision may have given rise to several other moons that slowly drifted towards Saturn, colliding with other pre-existing moons, creating a field of debris that eventually settled in Saturn’s rings about 100 million years ago. (This hypothesis suggests that Saturn’s rings much older than previously recognized. )
The researchers also theorize that this collision could explain the unstable orbits of two of Saturn’s other moons, Iapetus and Rhea. These moons are significantly tilted relative to their surrounding moons, and are slightly in resonance with Titan’s orbit.
Additionally, their hypothesis could explain the Titan phenomenon. Surprisingly, there are no impact craters: Much younger than previously realized, and therefore less exposed to meteorite impacts. The researchers propose that Prototitan may have been pockmarked before its creation, similar to Jupiter’s moon Callisto.
NASA is preparing to send the Dragonfly probe to visit and explore Titan. The drone-like spacecraft is scheduled to launch in 2028, which would allow it to reach the moon by 2034. Once it arrives, it could confirm the impact hypothesis and further unravel the mysteries left behind on the moon.