Scientists Puzzled by Mysterious Motion in Atmosphere of Saturn's Moon
As detailed in a new paper published in The Planetary Science Journal, a team of scientists analyzed 13 years' worth of thermal infrared observations recorded by NASA and the European Space Agency's Cassini-Huygens mission.
Their finding: that Titan's atmosphere wobbles like a gyroscope as it shifts with the seasons of its nearly 30 Earth-year cycle, instead of spinning in line with its surface.
"The behavior of Titan's atmospheric tilt is very strange," said lead author and University of Bristol postdoctoral researcher Lucy Wright in a statement about the work. "Titan's atmosphere appears to be acting like a gyroscope, stabilizing itself in space."
The discovery makes the moon, which has already captured the attention of astronomers for its suspected bodies of liquid and planet-like dimensions — it's larger in diameter than Mercury — an even more intriguing candidate for a closer look, since it appears to have its own, independent climate system.
Given the latest discovery, though, scientists are now facing even more riddles about the unusual celestial body.
"We think some event in the past may have knocked the atmosphere off its spin axis, causing it to wobble," Wright posited. "Even more intriguingly, we've found that the size of this tilt changes with Titan's seasons."
"What's puzzling is how the tilt direction remains fixed in space, rather than being influenced by the Sun or Saturn," coauthor and University of Bristol planetary scientist Nick Teanby added. "That would've given us clues to the cause. Instead, we've got a new mystery on our hands."
The findings could influence NASA's upcoming Dragonfly mission, which is tentatively scheduled to launch no sooner than 2028, and will see a massive rotorcraft attempt to descend through Titan's extremely dense atmosphere to explore its surface.
It won't be a walk in the park, as it will have to endure temperatures around -300 Fahrenheit while keeping itself airborne with a surface pressure one and a half times that on Earth and winds of up to 20 times faster than the moon's rotation.
How the atmosphere "wobbles" on its own could allow scientists to get a better idea of how to keep Dragonfly operational, and where to touch down.
The new findings could also have far-reaching implications, forcing us to reevaluate our understanding of the Earth's atmosphere.
"The fact that Titan's atmosphere behaves like a spinning top disconnected from its surface raises fascinating questions — not just for Titan, but for understanding atmospheric physics more broadly, including on Earth," said coauthor and NASA Goddard planetary scientist Conor Nixon in the statement.
As for the chances that we'll encounter extraterrestrial life on the surface of Titan, astronomers aren't exactly hopeful. In a recent study, scientists concluded that Titan's rivers and lakes of liquid methane make it quite inhospitable to life as we know it. However, they found that a tiny amount of glycine-consuming microbes could, in theory, survive in its oceans.
More on Titan: Titan Covered With Fragments of Obliterated Moons, Scientists Say
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Business Wire
24 minutes ago
- Business Wire
Industry Leaders, Policymakers to Gather at Annual DC-based SPIE Photonics Industry Summit on 18 September
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Business Insider
an hour ago
- Business Insider
Only one person has ever been hit directly by a meteorite. Here's the strange story of Ann Hodges.
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Prondzinski said it was Mayor Ed Howard and the police chief who discovered the hole in the ceiling where the meteorite had crashed through. The Decatur Daily reported the impact of the meteorite left a large "grapefruit"-sized bruise on Hodges' hip. "She had this incredible bruise on her hip," Prondzinski told Business Insider. "She was taken to the hospital, not because she was so severely injured that she needed to be hospitalized, but because she was very distraught by the whole incident. She was a very nervous person, and she didn't like all the notoriety or all the people around." Hodges' husband, Eugene, arrived home from work to find his house surrounded by a crowd of people. Hodges' radio may have saved her from being seriously injured. "The fact that it came through the roof, that slowed its trajectory, and the fact that it did bounce off the radio — if she had been lying under the radio, it would have broken her leg or her back. It probably wouldn't have killed her, but it would have done a lot more damage to her," Prondzinski said. The Air Force confiscated the meteorite so they could determine its origin. "The Air Force looked at it because they thought it was a flying saucer and all this other wild and crazy stuff," Prondzinski said. After it was confirmed a meteorite, the Hodgeses faced a lengthy litigation process to acquire ownership of it. Their landlord, Birdie Guy, believe the meteorite belonged to her because she owned the house. "Suing is the only way she'll ever get it," Hodges told reporters at the time. "I think God intended it for me. After all, it hit me!" The Decatur Daily News reported Guy wanted money to fix the house's roof. Litigation went on for a year, and Prondzinski said Guy settled the case for $500. The house eventually caught fire and was demolished to make way for a mobile home park. Hodges became an overnight celebrity and was even featured on a game show. 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Her husband wanted to make money off the meteorite but failed to secure a buyer. The two eventually divorced in 1964. In 1972, aged 52, Hodges died of kidney failure in a nursing home. Hodges is the first documented person to have been hit by a meteorite. Recently, a man in Georgia narrowly missed being hit by another. "She's the only one who's ever been hit by a meteorite and lived to tell about it. Because of that, the meteorite has been appraised at over a million dollars," Prondzinski said. In an interview with National Geographic, Florida State College astronomer Michael Reynolds said, "You have a better chance of getting hit by a tornado and a bolt of lightning and a hurricane all at the same time." There have been some near misses in the years since Hodges was hit. 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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 Returns Safely After Completing Dozens of ISS National Lab-Sponsored Investigations
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