Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: SF Chinese (ID:kexuejiaodian), translated by Pang Wei

Saturn is the most recognizable planet in the solar system because of its unique icy rings.

But exactly how Saturn's rings were formed has always been a mystery.

Recently, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have used computer simulations to find a possible answer: the ring-shaped structure of the gaseous giant Saturn and its nearly 27 °axis inclination may be caused by an once-existing Saturn moon.

The vanished moon crossed out of its orbit and rushed to Saturn, where it was torn to pieces by Saturn's gravity.

The study is based on data collected by the Cassini probe. Cassini explored Saturn in 2004-2017.

Scientists have built several computer models to trace the orbits of Saturn and its moons. It turns out that billions of years ago, Saturn had at least one more moon than it is today, and the missing moon was called Chrysalis.

Through the gravitational interaction with the chrysalis, Saturn's axis of rotation has always been parallel to Neptune, but about 160 million years ago, the chrysalis's orbit began to become unstable and eventually fell apart because it was too close to Saturn. After losing this moon, Saturn was unable to keep pace with Neptune, resulting in the current large rotation inclination.

Not only that, some fragments of the "chrysalis" are captured by Saturn's gravity and continue to break up, eventually forming an iconic ring-shaped structure.

Scientists estimate that the chrysalis is about 1500 kilometers in diameter, similar to Saturn's third largest moon Iapetus.

Research leader Jack Weizdham (Jack Wisdom), a planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, believes that while the results are exciting, there is still a long way to go.

"the moon is like a chrysalis, at first ordinary, then suddenly shining on Saturn with a halo. Our research is also like a 'chrysalis', which may turn into a butterfly." He said.

Saturn Moons currently, Saturn has 82 moons, of which astronomers have named only 53. The two most important Saturn moons are Enceladus Titan and Enceladus.

Titan is Saturn's largest moon, with a diameter of 5150 kilometers, larger than Mercury, the smallest planet in the solar system.

Enceladus, Saturn's sixth largest moon, has been a hot subject for astronomers because of the liquid ocean beneath its surface ice, making it one of the target planets in search of extraterrestrial life.

The original article is published in Science focus 2022.11.

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