The planet Saturn tilted after one of its 83 moons moved away very quickly, several researchers indicate in a study published in the prestigious journal Sciences.
Saturn’s spin axis is currently tilted 26.7° from vertical. A fact that has remained unexplained for a long time when Saturn is a gas giant.
“Its material accretion process should have led the planet to remain perpendicular to the plane of its orbit,” say the researchers.
Rotation up to 36°
Except that Titan, Saturn’s largest satellite, is slowly moving away rather quickly. According to these researchers, this movement has gradually changed the frequency at which Saturn’s axis of rotation makes a complete turn around the vertical.
Saturn tilted up to 36° and then its rotational frequency came into sync with neighboring planet Neptune about a billion years ago. This phenomenon would explain the tilt that has persisted since then, although it has decreased slightly due to the influence of Titan that has reduced its distance.
Another important change: the rotational frequency is no longer in sync between Saturn and Neptune. There, one of Saturn’s moons would also be in question, since it would have crashed into its surface.
“It broke into multiple pieces, and these pieces are still dislocated, and little by little they form the rings,” explains Jack Wisdom in his study in the magazine. Sciences.
appearance of rings
This is also one of the important lessons of this publication since scientists had, until now, no explanation for the “youth” of the rings in relation to the planet.
Saturn formed four and a half billion years ago, at the beginning of the solar system. But a few decades ago, scientists suggested that Saturn’s rings appeared much later: only about 100 million years ago.
The missing Moon was named Chrysalis (chrysalis in French) by Jack Wisdom. Scientists believe that this moon was slightly smaller than the one near Earth.
Source: BFM TV
