Saturn loses the Titan – its largest moon

Saturn's moon Titan is the most interesting to date object in the Solar system

The Moon, as you know, is not the only satellite in our Solar system. So, if between planets there was a contest for the best of the satellite, the Earth and Moon hardly would have won. The fact that the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn together are the proud owners of over 150 moons: 82 natural satellite orbit around Saturn, and Jupiter is surrounded by at least 79 heavenly bodies. You see, the choice is difficult, but the three leaders have to be Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, where there are methane rivers, lakes and the sea. This is a special companion who, as recently discovered by scientists, moving away from the home planet to 100 times faster than previously thought. But why?

The Genius of prose and science fiction Kurt Vonnegut in the novel «Sirens of Titan» wrote about the moon: «the Air Titan can be compared with air, what happens on Earth on a spring morning near the door of the bakery, overlooking the back yard». Unfortunately, Titan is no air and bakeries, but we still don't want to have this amazing companion has disappeared. Unfortunately for us, this chaotic world is moving away from its planet-host up to 100 times faster than originally predicted by the astronomers.

Using data from the mission of NASA «», a group of scientists from Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA) made the surprising discovery that revealed that in the past Titan was much closer to Saturn and that the whole system of the 82 satellites is expanding faster than previously thought. The results were published in the journal Nature and Astronomy as Inverse, add more questions about the age of the Saturn system and how he formed his companions. It is believed that 4.5 billion years ago, when the birth of the Solar system, Saturn's moon was much closer to the planet, but over the years migrated to a distance of about 1.2 million km from the gas giant.

Why migrate to the moon?

All of the moon away from the planets orbit. Even our Moon is slowly moving away from the Earth, drifting by 3.8 centimeters every year, causing the length of day is gradually increasing. But we noticed it must go through millions of years. Note that all the satellites are formed in different ways. Some formed simultaneously with the planet, the host as a result of collision, others once roamed the expanses of space in the form of stones, but was subsequently captured by the gravity of Saturn.

Gravity of a gas giant, along with the gravitational attraction between the moons, keeps the satellites orbiting the planet. However, over time the satellites are removed farther and farther from the host planet. This is due to the fact that the gravity of the satellite, no matter how small it may be, causes tidal effects on the Central planet.

a view of the Titan, hidden in the rings of Saturn

Today, astronomers know about the existence 82 of Saturn's moons. It is believed that planet with so many natural satellites are «push» its external satellites such as Titan, much slower than the satellites on inner orbits, because they are farthest from the gravitational pull of the planet. However, the results of new discoveries suggest that the outer moons may be pushed by the planet-the owner is still on with the same speed as the internal of the moon.

Titan – special moon

To measure the speed of migration of Titanium, the researchers tracked the satellite position on the images obtained during the mission, NASA «Cassini.» the resulting data is then compared with the radio waves which were sent to Land this spacecraft in the period from 2006 to 2016. By the way, tracking the change of frequency of radio waves in the year 2019, scientists have made a detailed map of the evolution of the orbit of Titan, what my colleague Daria Yelets.

most Likely on Titan is life, it's just very very different from ours

Since the mass of Saturn much greater than the mass of Titan and the gaseous environment in the depths of Saturn caused by tidal friction below, it was assumed that the Titanium is removed from your planet more slowly, not more than 0.1 cm per year. But using two independent dataset of astrometric and radiometric — and two different methods of analysis, astronomers have obtained the results, according to which is removed Titan from Saturn at a speed of 11 inches per year — almost three times more than outward migration of the moon.

The Authors also note that the results obtained for Titanium and five other satellites are consistent with previously obtained data, and also with the theory that in 2016 proposed employee of the Department of theoretical astrophysics, Caltech University Jim fuller. It is predicted that the rate of migration of the Titan will be much faster than thea standard theory, since the moon causes tides on Saturn with some frequency. It also suggests that Titan formed much closer to the Saturn, but over time migrated to its current position.