Surprise! Saturn’s huge moon Titan may not have a buried ocean after all
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Saturn’s moon Titan looks a bit like Earth, but is actually very different. | Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Saturn’s massive moon Titan may not be hiding an ocean beneath its frozen surface, but rather vast pockets of liquid water, a new study suggests.
Titan is the largest of the 274 known moons in orbit Saturn. In fact, Titan is bigger than the planet Mercury.
“I love Titan. I think it’s one of the most interesting worlds in the world. the solar system“, lead author of the study Flavio Petricca, planetary scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, told Space.com. “It is the only moon in our solar system with an atmosphere, and it is the only body with liquid on its surface other than Earth.”
Scientists have long suspected that seas might also be hiding beneath Titan’s icy shell. For example, the way Titan buckles under Saturn’s gravity suggests that the Moon harbors a vast underground ocean.
In the new study, Petricca and his colleagues wanted to re-examine Titan using new and improved methods to analyze radio tracking data. These new techniques have significantly reduced the uncertainties in the data collected by NASA satellites. Cassini mission from inside Titan.
Unexpectedly, scientists have discovered that Titan’s interior is much more resistant to distortion caused by Saturn’s gravitational pull than previously thought. This suggests that Titan probably does not have a hidden ocean, but rather a layer of ice near its melting point that is prevented from liquefying by high pressure. This melting ice likely harbors pockets of liquid water, the researchers added.
This artist’s concept shows a possible model of Titan’s internal structure that incorporates data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. | Credit: AD Fortes/UCL/STFC
Titan may have had an underground ocean early in its history, Petricca said. There may not have been enough heat from radioactive elements in its core to keep that ocean from freezing, he noted. “It may be that we are going through a phase again where heating increases again,” Petricca added.
Overall, ocean worlds may be less common than recently thought, the scientists noted. “We’re not sure whether having vast pockets of liquid instead of a global ocean makes Titan more or less habitable,” Petricca said. “It will be interesting to find out.”
NASA’s upcoming Dragonfly mission to Titan may help scan the Moon to better understand its geology. “We will better understand the habitability conditions there,” Petricca said.
Scientists have detailed their discoveries online December 17 in the journal Nature.
