Saturn’s Tilt Caused by Its Moons
upstart writes in with an IRC submission:
Saturn's tilt caused by its moons:
Two scientists from CNRS and Sorbonne University working at the Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Ephemeris Calculation (Paris Observatory - PSL/CNRS) have just shown that the influence of Saturn's satellites can explain the tilt of the rotation axis of the gas giant. Their work, published on 18 January 2021 in the journal Nature Astronomy, also predicts that the tilt will increase even further over the next few billion years.
Rather like David versus Goliath, it appears that Saturn's tilt may in fact be caused by its moons. This is the conclusion of recent work carried out by scientists from the CNRS, Sorbonne University and the University of Pisa, which shows that the current tilt of Saturn's rotation axis is caused by the migration of its satellites, and especially by that of its largest moon, Titan.
Recent observations have shown that Titan and the other moons are gradually moving away from Saturn much faster than astronomers had previously estimated. By incorporating this increased migration rate into their calculations, the researchers concluded that this process affects the inclination of Saturn's rotation axis: as its satellites move further away, the planet tilts more and more.
[...] The research team had already reached similar conclusions about the planet Jupiter, which is expected to undergo comparable tilting due to the migration of its four main moons and to resonance with the orbit of Uranus: over the next five billion years, the inclination of Jupiter's axis could increase from 3 to more than 30.
Journal References:
1.) Melaine Saillenfest, Giacomo Lari, Gwenael Boue. The large obliquity of Saturn explained by the fast migration of Titan, Nature Astronomy (DOI: 10.1038/s41550-020-01284-x)
2.) Melaine Saillenfest, Giacomo Lari, Ariane Courtot. The future large obliquity of Jupiter [open], Astronomy & Astrophysics (DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202038432)
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