Surprise: Saturn's huge moon Titan may not have a buried ocean after all

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Saturn’s giant moon Titan may hide not just an ocean but extensive reserves of liquid water beneath its frozen surface, a new study has revealed.

titan It is the largest of the 274 known orbiting moons. saturnIn fact, it’s bigger than the planet Titan Mercury,

“I love Titan – I think it’s one of the most interesting worlds solar system“The study’s lead author is Flavio Petrica, a 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 other than Earth with liquid on its surface.”

Scientists have long suspected that an ocean may also lie hidden beneath Titan’s icy shell. For example, the way Titan bends under Saturn’s gravity suggests that the moon is its home. vast underground ocean,

In the new study, Petricca and his colleagues wanted to re-examine Titan using new, better methods to analyze radio tracking data. These new techniques significantly reduced the uncertainties regarding the data collected by NASA. cassini mission The interior of the Titan.

Unexpectedly, scientists found that Titan’s interior is resisting the distortion caused by Saturn’s gravitational pull to a greater extent than previously thought. This suggests that Titan probably has no hidden ocean, but rather a layer of ice close to its melting point that is protected from liquefaction by high pressure. Researchers said this muddy icy spot is probably a reservoir of liquid water.

This artist's concept shows a possible model of Titan's internal structure incorporating data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. As of March 6, 2014, Cassini has flown by Saturn's largest moon Titan 100 times since the probe's arrival around the planet in 2004.

This artist’s concept shows a possible model of Titan’s internal structure incorporating data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. (Image credit: Eddie Fortes/UCL/STFC)

Petrica said that Titan may have once had an underground ocean early in its history. He said that there would not have been enough heat from the radioactive elements in its core to keep this ocean from freezing. “It may be that it’s going through a period again where the heat is increasing again,” Petricca said.

Overall, ocean worlds may be less common than recently thought, the scientists said. “We’re not sure whether the extensive liquid sphere, rather than the global ocean, makes Titan more or less habitable,” Petricca said. “It will be interesting to find out.”

NASA’s upcoming Dragonfly mission to Titan could help scan the moon to better understand its geology. “We will better understand the conditions of living there,” Petricca said.

Scientists explained in detail their conclusions Online Dec. 17 in the journal Nature.

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