Saturn tore up an ancient moon, causing giant gas rings to appear and tilt, according to research

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Saturn is one of the easiest planets to recognize, with its rings and the inclination with which it orbits. A new study has now provided an explanation for both. gas giant It rotates at an angle of 26.7 degrees with respect to the plane of its orbit. For a long time, astronomers believed that the possible cause of the tilt was the influence of Neptune, which is Saturn’s neighbor. In the new study, published in Science, astronomers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and other institutions have suggested that the cause is actually a missing moon. Saturn and Neptune may have interacted by gravity once, but the authors believe this is no longer the case.

Saturn once had 84 moons

Saturn has 83 moons today, and the study indicates it had 84 moons. The authors called the lost moon “Chrysalis”. Their model study examines what could happen to the cocoon, leading to the current tilt of Saturn and the rings around it.

While Chrysalis was in orbit around Saturn, their interactions kept the planet’s tilt synchronized with Neptune. But about 160 million years ago, Chrysalis got too close to Saturn and separated. The modeling showed that due to the loss of the cocoon, Saturn was expelled from the influence of Neptune, giving it the inclination we see today.

Meanwhile, the cocoon shattered and most of it hit Saturn. The study suggests that some of its fragments may have remained in orbit. These split into small tufts and were part of Saturn’s rings.

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“Just like a cocoon of butterflies, this satellite had been dormant for a long time and suddenly became active and rings appeared,” said Jack Wisdom, lead author of the study, in a statement on the MIT website.

The idea that Saturn’s tilt is the result of Neptune’s influence was first proposed by scientists in the early 2000s. But when NASA’s Cassini spacecraft orbited Saturn in the period 2004-2017 , found that Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, was moving away from Saturn at a rate of 11 centimeters per year, faster than expected. This led to the theory that Titan may have been responsible for Saturn’s tilt and keeping Saturn in sync with Neptune.

Perhaps Saturn and Neptune were once in sync

In the new study, using data from some Cassini observations, the team calculated a physical property of Saturn, known as the moment of inertia. This account showed that Saturn was not in harmony with Neptune, but that it was close. This indicates that the two planets may have coincided once, but not more.

So how did Saturn get out of sync? The team first ran simulations to understand how interactions between Saturn and its moons have evolved over time. They argued that if a moon were removed, it could affect the dynamics of the planet. From there, they calculated the size of the cocoon and the fate it met.

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