In the astronomy of the Solar System, Chrysalis is a hypothetical moon of Saturn, named in 2022 by scientists of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology using data from the Cassini–Huygens mission.[1] The moon would have been torn apart by Saturn's tidal forces, somewhere between 200 and 100 million years ago. Up to 99% of the moon's mass would have been swallowed by Saturn, with the remaining 1% forming the rings of Saturn.[2] The origin of Saturn's rings from the destruction of a satellite has been previously proposed by other authors.[3]

Chrysalis was hypothesized to be similar in size and mass to Iapetus, with a similar water-ice composition, and to have orbited somewhere between Iapetus and Titan. Its orbit around Saturn may have been degraded as a result of Titan's orbit expanding due to interactions of the Saturn system with a resonance with Neptune, resulting in the increasing eccentricity of Chrysalis's orbit until being torn apart during a close encounter with Saturn by its parent planet's gravitational force.[4]

The hypothetical moon was named after the pupa stage of a butterfly, with the rings of Saturn representing its emergence from the chrysalis.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Saturn's rings could have come from a destroyed moon named Chrysalis". New Scientist. 15 September 2022.
  2. ↑ Wisdom, Jack; Dbouk, Rola; Militzer, Burkhard; Hubbard, William B.; Nimmo, Francis; Downey, Brynna G.; French, Richard G. (September 16, 2022). "Loss of a satellite could explain Saturn's obliquity and young rings". Science. 377 (6612): 1285–1289. Bibcode:2022Sci...377.1285W. doi:10.1126/science.abn1234. PMID 36107998. S2CID 252310492.
  3. ↑ Charnoz, Sébastien; Morbidelli, Alessandro; Dones, Luke; Salmon, Julien (February 2009). "Did Saturn's rings form during the Late Heavy Bombardment?". Icarus. 199 (2): 413–428. arXiv:0809.5073. Bibcode:2009Icar..199..413C. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2008.10.019. ISSN 0019-1035. S2CID 119229648.
  4. 1 2 Dunham, Will (15 September 2022). "Violent death of moon Chrysalis may have spawned Saturn's rings". Reuters. Retrieved 17 September 2022.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.