Saturn’s largest moon may be the survivor of a catastrophic collision between two previous moons.

A new study reconstructs Titan not as a quiet survivor of the solar system’s birth, but as the product of a relatively recent collision that may have set the stage for Saturn’s rings.

evidence of recent collisions

In Saturn’s outer system, Titan and its small moon Hyperion move in a tight orbital lock that preserves records of its turbulent past.

By reconstructing that orbital relationship, Dr. Matija Ćuk SETI Institute It was established that this lock was only formed about 400 to 500 million years ago.

Such a recent timestamp is at odds with a calm and unbroken history. Instead, it shows a destructive event that reshaped Titan’s orbit and surroundings.

If the turmoil was related to the loss of another moon, then Titan itself was most likely a survivor of a violent merger, rather than a pristine relic.

Cassini rewrites Titan’s history

In a grand finale, Cassini ended its 13-year tour of Saturn, providing unprecedented data about the planet’s interior.

The updated internal model changed Saturn’s precession, or slow wobble of its rotational axis, so it no longer matches Neptune’s timing.

Once this synchronization disappeared, the long-held idea that Neptune gradually tilted Saturn fell apart, along with the simple explanation of the rings.

One proposed solution was to introduce an extra satellite that would later be pushed inward, where Saturn’s gravity could tear it apart and form a ring.

waning moon theory

To test the idea of ​​a waning moon, models were forced to follow the moon on a perilous journey to Saturn.

In most results, titan Saturn crashed his out-of-control body before tearing it apart.

Debris from that impact may have swirled close to Titan and then clumped together on Hyperion, which is still tumbling violently.

With Hyperion placed in its timeline, Titan no longer appears to be a silent survivor, instead emerging as the likely outcome of a massive conflict.

signs of a violent past

A merger between a nearby object and a small moon would have released enough energy to heat and reform the Earth’s crust, erasing many old craters.

Before the impact, the larger moon may have resembled Jupiter’s cratered moon Callisto, lacking Titan’s thick air.

If the surface is thoroughly scraped by the merger, today’s sparse crater record transforms from a puzzle to evidence of its violent past.

Titan’s orbit is still changing

Titan’s orbit around Saturn is still slightly elongated, and its shape is changing faster than expected.

Scientists are tracking its growth as follows eccentricitya measure of how elliptical the orbit is, with the tides slowly rounding the orbit.

The same pull has also moved Titan outward, and more recently tracking It showed Titan sliding away from Saturn at an astonishing speed.

Because Titan’s orbit is decaying as it continues to move, the disturbances that accelerated Titan likely occurred within the past billion years.

Survivor of complete chaos

Further out, Saturn’s moon Iapetus orbits at a steeper angle than most of its neighbors.

During a period of instability, the fateful moon repeatedly tugged at Iapetus, gradually tilting its course before its final collision. By linking that tilt to the same chaos that created Hyperion, the team was able to explain two strange things in one event.

Saturn’s outer moons therefore look more like survivors of recent upheavals than fossils from the solar system’s birth.

As it approached Saturn, the model tracked how disturbances in Titan’s orbit put the small moon in trouble.

When menstruation overlaps, orbital resonanceTitan supplied energy to its orbit by repeating the gravitational timing that amplified its gravitational pull.

As Titan drifted outward, these ratios appeared from time to time, and the small moon’s orbit was lengthened until neighboring moons began to cross it.

Once the crossing begins, it becomes difficult to avoid impacts, forming the type of debris cloud that can produce tree rings.

Origin of Saturn’s rings

Material flung inward from shattered moons may have encountered strict rules that make it difficult for clumps to remain intact near Saturn.

Saturn’s tides dominate near the Roche limit, the distance at which gravity prevents ice from reforming the moon.

cassini gravity estimate The mass of the ring is on the low side, supporting an age of around 100 million years.

This watch fits the idea that the ring was formed after the Titans merged, even though the exact triggering moment remains unknown.

dragonfly tests theory

NASA’s dragonfly The mission is scheduled to land on Titan in late 2034, where it will fly between sites and test new impact hypotheses.

The spacecraft will sample a variety of terrain to analyze Titan’s chemistry and geology, looking for evidence of deep mixing and crustal resurfacing.

Evidence of the giant impact some 500 million years ago may remain in strange rock types, buried layers, or missing crater fields.

If the surface reveals no evidence of such a reset, the merger hypothesis may require an alternative timeline or alternative explanation.

From Hyperion’s unusual orbital lock to the relatively young age of its rings, this model depicts Saturn as a system that has undergone major reorganization in the recent past.

Future measurements of Titan’s surface and Saturn’s interior, along with Dragonfly data, will test whether this dramatic series of events truly reshaped the Saturn system.

This study Planetary Science Journal.

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