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A fresh investigation implies that Titan, the largest satellite of Saturn, originated when a pair of giant moons collided approximately 400 million years in the past.(Image credit: MARK GARLICK via Getty Images)
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A recent investigation posits that Titan, Saturn’s largest satellite, might be composed of two distinct moons that collided hundreds of millions of years ago. If verified, this significant cosmic impact could aid in unraveling several enduring mysteries associated with the gas giant, notably the mechanism behind the formation of its renowned rings.
Titan stands as the second-largest moon within our solar system, trailing only Jupiter’s Ganymede. Its diameter spans approximately 3,200 miles (5,150 kilometers), making it roughly 1.5 times larger in diameter than Earth’s moon and about 5% broader than Mercury.
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Up until recently, scientists have suggested that, similar to the majority of other moons, Titan came into existence billions of years prior through the gradual gathering of minuscule fragments of rock and particulate matter. Nonetheless, the recent investigation, which was posted on Feb. 9 to the preprint platform arXiv and has been approved for upcoming dissemination in The Planetary Science Journal, indicates to the contrary, as demonstrated by researchers affiliated with the SETI Institute.
Based on information amassed by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which executed flybys of Titan and transported the Huygens lander onto its surface, the SETI collective puts forth the proposition that Titan may have materialized roughly 400 million years ago during the violent collision of two equally colossal moons.
ESA’s Huygens probe landed on Titan on Jan. 14, 2005. This image was captured by the spacecraft at an altitude of around 3 miles (5 km) above the moon’s surface.
This collision may also have given rise to another Saturnian moon, Hyperion, the researchers speculate. This more compact satellite, possessing a diameter of about 84 miles (135 km), potentially originated from the fragments generated by the impact, akin to the formation of Earth’s moon when the protoplanet Theia clashed with Earth roughly 4.5 billion years ago.
The team additionally noted that the novel theory might provide insights into the peculiar trajectories exhibited by several other Saturnian satellites.
Saturn’s missing moon
Saturn boasts a minimum of 274 moons — surpassing all other planets — attributed to the recent detection of 128 natural satellites. Nonetheless, researchers have harbored suspicions for quite some time regarding the absence of yet another considerable moon.
The trajectory of Saturn’s orbit around the sun displays a notable inclination in relation to the other planets (with the exception of Uranus, its eccentric neighbor), which enables observation of the planet’s exceptional rings and alludes to a historical event wherein a sizable object displaced it from its original position. It is surmised that this elusive entity was a prominent moon, which, it has long been hypothesized, was subjected to gravitational ejection away from Saturn.
In the current investigation, researchers delve into the potential scenario in which this moon did not vanish but, instead, underwent obliteration.
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The new study hints that Titan (left) and Hyperion (right) were both formed by the same massive collision. Both these false-color images were captured by NASA’s Cassini probe during its mission to Saturn.
Hyperion constitutes the “most critical indication” that this supplementary moon underwent destruction, as it is enmeshed in an orbital resonance with Titan, encircling Saturn thrice for every four circuits made by Titan.
“We observed that the Titan-Hyperion synchronization is comparably nascent, originating merely a few hundred million years in the past,” Ćuk, the principal researcher and a SETI investigator, stated. “This corresponds roughly to the period when the extra moon disappeared. Thus, it is plausible that Hyperion did not withstand this cataclysm but, rather, stemmed from it.”
Following the simulation of multiple scenarios derived from the Cassini data, the team currently infers that a pair of substantial moons, designated “Proto-Titan” and “Proto-Hyperion,” experienced a violent collision, thereby engendering Titan and subsequently leading to the development of Hyperion from the remnants of the significant impact.
Rings, orbits and automobiles
Hyperion may not have represented the sole moon generated or impacted by this hypothetical catastrophe.
The researchers suggest that the impact could potentially have spawned several additional moons, which progressively migrated toward Saturn and collided with other pre-existing satellites, culminating in a field of debris that ultimately coalesced into Saturn’s rings approximately 100 million years ago. (This postulation is in contradiction with a separate investigation that implied the greater age of Saturn’s rings compared to previous estimations.)
The study researchers argue that the collision that birthed Titan may have eventually led to the creation of Saturn’s iconic rings, as well as altering the orbits of several other Saturnian satellites.
The team conducting the study also posits that the impact may provide an explanation for the unusual trajectories exhibited by two additional Saturnian moons, Iapetus and Rhea, which demonstrate substantial inclination relative to their neighboring satellites and possess a degree of resonance with the orbit of Titan.
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Furthermore, their speculation could resolve the puzzling scarcity of impact craters on Titan: Given its significantly younger age compared to previous estimations, it would have experienced less exposure to meteoroid strikes. The team proposes that, in its pre-formation state, Proto-Titan might have exhibited a surface replete with pockmarks, akin to Jupiter’s moon Callisto.
NASA is currently organizing its Dragonfly probe mission for the purpose of observing and scrutinizing Titan. The drone-resembling spacecraft is slated for launch in 2028, potentially enabling it to reach the moon by 2034. Upon arrival, it might be capable of affirming the impact-centered theory and elucidating additional unsolved puzzles pertaining to the moon.