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<\/p>\nWhile its mission ended just over three years ago, data from NASA\u2019s Cassini spacecraft continues to help scientists unlock the mysteries of the Saturnian system that contains more than 80 identified moons. <\/p>\n
In particular, new and updated research has helped determine the drift rate of Titan away from Saturn, in turn leading to a better understanding of how the ringed planet system formed, while a completely different set of analyses revealed the surface ages of Enceladus and provided key insights into the moon\u2019s potential to harbor life.<\/p>\n
Drift, drift, drift away<\/b><\/p>\n
Moons drift away from their host planets. This is a fact of life for various bodies in the solar system. Earth\u2019s Moon drifts away from it at roughly 3.8 cm (1.5 inches) per year. <\/p>\n
Using models to estimate how fast a moon drifts from its planet, the theories assumed that in systems such as Saturn\u2019s, with dozens of moons, the outer moons like Titan migrated outward more slowly than moons closer in because they are farther from their host planet\u2019s gravity. Therefore, scientists calculated the rate at which they believed Saturn\u2019s moon Titan was moving away from it, a calculation that came in at 0.1 cm (0.04 inches) per year.<\/p>\n
However, data from Cassini \u2014 which ended its mission in September 2017 \u2014 reveals that Titan is moving away from Saturn at a rate of 10.16 cm (4 inches) per year, one hundred times faster than previously predicted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis result brings an important new piece of the puzzle for the highly debated question of the age of the Saturn system and how its moons formed,\u201d said Dr. Valery Lainey, lead author of the study published earlier this year in Nature Astronomy<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Titan\u2019s new drift rate was calculated using radio data obtained by Cassini over a 10-year period from 10 close flybys between 2006 and 2016. Corroborating data was compiled using star maps in the background of Cassini images as the craft tracked Titan\u2019s position.<\/p>\n
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Titan, backdropped by Saturn on 6 May 2012. (Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/Space Science Institute)<\/p>\n
\u201cBy using two completely different datasets, we obtained results that are in full agreement, and also in agreement with Jim Fuller\u2019s theory, which predicted a much faster migration of Titan,\u201d said Dr. Paolo Tortora, of Italy\u2019s University of Bologna \u2014 co-author of the study.<\/p>\n
Given the new understanding of Titan\u2019s drift from Saturn and the fact that it is currently 1.2 million kilometers (759,000 miles) from the planet, this would indicate the moon formed much closer to Saturn than originally believed and that the entire system of moons around the planet expanded outward more quickly than previously predicted.<\/p>\n
Moreso, the updated drift rate provides confirmation to a new, four year old theory from theoretical astrophysicist Dr. Jim Fuller who proposed that the outer moons of multiple-moon planetary systems can drift at the faster rates of the more inner moons because of a \u201cdifferent orbit pattern that link to the particular wobble of its host planet.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a multi-moon planet is tugged and stretched and relaxed by the gravitational pull of their moons, the planet can \u201cwobble\u201d \u2014 with some of that energy transferred to the outer moons (like Titan) of the system.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new measurements imply that these kind of planet-moon interactions can be more prominent than prior expectations and that they can apply to many systems, such as other planetary moon systems, exoplanets \u2014 those outside our solar system \u2014 and even binary star systems, where stars orbit each other,\u201d said Dr. Fuller, another co-author of the study.<\/p>\n
Enceladus\u2019 young surface age and the search for life<\/b><\/p>\n
Just as with Titan and numerous other elements of the Saturnian system, data from Cassini\u2019s 13 year mission at the planet continues to reveal new and intriguing elements about its moons, in this case Enceladus.<\/p>\n
Shortly after its arrival in the system, Cassini imaged large geyser-like ejections from the southern hemisphere of Enceladus, later confirmed to be ice particles and vapor from a subterranean ocean.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n