A pair of scientists from CNRS and Sorbonne University who currently work at the Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Ephemeris Calculation or Paris Observatory - PSL/CNRS have recently exposed the impact of satellites of Saturn, thereby explaining the tilt of the gas giant's rotation axis.
Their research, published in the Nature Astronomy journal on January 18, 2021, predicts that the tilt will rise further over "the next few billion years."
According to a Phys.org report, "rather like David versus Goliath," it seems that the tilt of Saturn may actually "be caused by its moons."
This is the conclusion of recent research carried out by researchers from the DNRS, Sorbonne University, and the University of Pisa, showing that the present tilt of the rotation axis of Saturn results from its satellite's migrations, and particularly by that of Titan, the planet's largest moon.
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Tilt Caused by Titan and the Other Moons
Recent observations have revealed that this largest moon of Saturn, as well as other moons are slowly moving away from the planet much faster compared to astronomers had formerly approximated.
By integrating this increased migration rate into their calculation, the scientists concluded that such a process impacts the inclination of the rotation axis of Saturn.
Meaning, as the planet's satellites are moving further away, Saturn is tilting more and more. The decisive occurrence that tilted this planet is believed to have taken place relatively recently.
For more than three billion years from its formation, the rotation axis of Saturn stayed just slightly tilted. Furthermore, it was only approximately one billion years ago that its satellites' slow motion stimulated a resonance phenomenon that carries on at present.
Essentially, the axis of this planet interacted with the track of the planet Neptune and slowly tilted until it reached the 27-degree inclination observed at present.
As mentioned, Titan is the largest moon of Saturn. NASA Science describes it as "an extraordinary and exceptional world."
Among the over 150 known moons of the solar system, Titan is found to be the only one that has considerable atmosphere. More so, of all the areas in the solar system, this moon is the lone place other than Earth identified to have liquids in river, lake and sea forms, on its surface.
Occurrence Due to a Change in Orbit of Neptune
Such findings are said to have been called into earlier scenarios. Specifically, astronomers had already agreed in the presence of such resonance.
Nevertheless, astronomers believed that it took place quite early on, more than four billion years back, due to Neptune's change in orbit. From that time, the axis of Saturn was believed to have been steady.
The axis of Saturn is actually still tilting, and what is seen today is simply a transitional phase in this shift. In the next few billion years, the tilt of axis of Saturn could be two times more its present state.
The team of researchers had already got to the same conclusions on Jupiter, a planet that is expected to go through a similar tilting because of the migration of its four major moons and to the resonance that has the orbit of Uranus. Relatively over the next billion years, such a tilt of the axis of Jupiter could rise from three degrees to higher than 30 degrees.
Check out more news and information on Saturn on Science Times.
