Scientists propose a lost moon of Saturn, which they call Chrysalis, pulled on the planet until it ripped apart, forming rings and contributing to Saturn’s tilt. This natural color view of Saturn was created by combining six images captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft on May 6, 2012. It features Saturn’s huge moon Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury. Below Titan are the shadows cast by Saturn’s rings. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
According to a new study, a “grazing encounter” may have smashed the moon to bits to form Saturn’s rings.
Swirling around the planet’s equator, the rings of Saturn are an obvious indicator that the planet is spinning at a tilt. The belted gas giant rotates at a 26.7-degree angle relative to the plane in which it orbits the sun. Because Saturn’s tilt precesses, like a spinning top, at nearly the same rate as the orbit of its neighbor Neptune, astronomers have long suspected that this tilt comes from gravitational interactions with Neptune.
However, a new modeling study by astronomers at MIT and elsewhere has found that, while the two planets may have once been in sync, Saturn has since escaped Neptune’s pull. What was responsible for this planetary realignment? The research team has one meticulously tested hypothesis: a missing moon. Their study was published in the journal Science on September 15. READ MORE...
