The Tides of Titan

Iess, L.; Jacobson, R. A.; Ducci, M.; Stevenson, D. J.; Lunine, Jonathan I.; Armstrong, J. W.; Asmar, S. W.; Racioppa, P.; Rappaport, N. J.; Tortora, Paolo

doi:10.1126/science.1219631

Cited by 260 publications

(198 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…2d). Measured tidal fluctuations in the gravity field are consistent with the existence of a decoupling water layer below the ice shell (Iess et al, 2012). The interpretation of gravity and topography data indicate that the thickness of the ice shell above the ocean should vary with latitude and longitude, implying that the ice shell is thermally conductive and has a high viscosity at present (Hemingway et al, 2013;Lefevre et al, 2014;Mitri et al, 2014).…”

supporting

confidence: 56%

Science goals and mission concept for the future exploration of Titan and Enceladus

Tobie¹,

Teanby²,

Coustenis³

et al. 2014

Planetary and Space Science

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Saturn's moons, Titan and Enceladus, are two of the Solar System's most enigmatic bodies and are prime targets for future space exploration. Titan provides an analogue for many processes relevant to the Earth, more generally to outer Solar System bodies, and a growing host of newly discovered icy exoplanets. Processes represented include: atmospheric dynamics, complex organic chemistry, meteorological cycles (with methane as a working fluid), astrobiology, surface liquids and lakes, geology, fluvial and aeolian erosion, and interactions with an external plasma environment. In addition, exploring Enceladus over multiple targeted flybys will give us a unique opportunity to further study the most active icy moon in our Solar System as revealed by Cassini and to analyse in situ its active plume with highly capable instrumentation addressing its complex chemistry and dynamics. Enceladus' plume likely represents the most accessible samples from an extra-terrestrial liquid water environment in the Solar system, which has far reaching implications for many areas of planetary and biological science. Titan with its massive atmosphere and Enceladus with its active plume are prime planetary objects in the Outer Solar System to perform in situ investigations. In the present paper, we describe the science goals and key measurements to be

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supporting

confidence: 56%

Science goals and mission concept for the future exploration of Titan and Enceladus

Tobie¹,

Teanby²,

Coustenis³

et al. 2014

Planetary and Space Science

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show abstract

“…Note that e=0.03 is significantly larger than the eccentricities of the Galilean satellites, but approaches that of Titan (e=0.028; Iess et al 2012). Owing to their position within a circumplanetary disk, we expect that any young moons will possess eccentricities at least as small as the Galilean satellites and ought therefore to be captured in the adiabatic regime.…”

Section: Capture Into Resonancementioning

confidence: 95%

Resonant Removal of Exomoons During Planetary Migration

Spalding

Batygin

Adams

2016

ApJ

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Jupiter and Saturn play host to an impressive array of satellites, making it reasonable to suspect that similar systems of moons might exist around giant extrasolar planets. Furthermore, a significant population of such planets is known to reside at distances of several Astronomical Units (AU), leading to speculation that some moons thereof might support liquid water on their surfaces. However, giant planets are thought to undergo inward migration within their natal protoplanetary disks, suggesting that gas giants currently occupying their host star's habitable zone formed farther out. Here we show that when a moon-hosting planet undergoes inward migration, dynamical interactions may naturally destroy the moon through capture into a so-called evection resonance.Within this resonance, the lunar orbit's eccentricity grows until the moon eventually collides with the planet. Our work suggests that moons orbiting within about ∼10 planetary radii are susceptible to this mechanism, with the exact number dependent on the planetary mass, oblateness, and physical size. Whether moons survive or not is critically related to where the planet began its inward migration, as well as the character of interlunar perturbations. For example, a Jupiter-like planet currently residing at 1 AU could lose moons if it formed beyond ∼5 AU. Cumulatively, we suggest that an observational census of exomoons could potentially inform us on the extent of inward planetary migration, for which no reliable observational proxy currently exists.

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“…For the remaining 32 min while the Huygens gondola was staying at rest on the surface until the end of telemetry link, the statistical analysis of the signal to noise ratio (SNR) revealed that there is more than a 50% chance for a 36 Hz SR signal being permanently present at the surface. Besides these direct indices in favor of the presence of that signal during nearly 3 h of Huygens data transmission, the constraints on the structure of the SR cavity derived from the spectral characteristics of the 36 Hz signal allowed to predict the presence of a conductive ocean, buried 50-60 km underneath the icy-crust (Béghin et al, 2010), that was furthermore confirmed by the tidal variations of Titan's gravity field (Iess et al, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Self-consistent modeling of induced magnetic field in Titan’s atmosphere accounting for the generation of Schumann resonance

Béghin

2015

Icarus

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The Tides of Titan

Cited by 260 publications

References 15 publications

Science goals and mission concept for the future exploration of Titan and Enceladus

Science goals and mission concept for the future exploration of Titan and Enceladus

Resonant Removal of Exomoons During Planetary Migration

Self-consistent modeling of induced magnetic field in Titan’s atmosphere accounting for the generation of Schumann resonance

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