How can seasons on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, influence its atmosphere? This is what a recent study published in The Planetary Science Journal hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated how Titan’s atmosphere doesn’t spin at the same rate as the moon’s surface as the seasons change, with each season lasting approximately 7.5 years as it takes about 29.5 for Saturn and its moons to orbit the Sun. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand Titan’s surface-atmosphere interactions and whether this moon has life as we know it.
For the study, the researchers analyzed data obtained from the now-retired Cassini-Huygens mission, which explored Saturn and its many moons, including Titan, for over 13 years from 2004 to 2017. The goal of the study was to use data from Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) to analyze Titan’s stratospheric temperature over the duration of Cassini’s 13-year journey at Titan, or almost half a Titan year. In the end, the researchers found that its atmosphere isn’t centered on its poles as long hypothesized. In contrast, it wobbles like a spinning top as Titan’s seasons change throughout its year.
“Our work shows that there are still remarkable discoveries to be made in Cassini’s archive,” said Dr. Conor Nixon, who is a planetary scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and a co-author on the study. “This instrument, partly built in the UK, journeyed across the Solar System and continues to give us valuable scientific returns. 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.”
This study comes as NASA is preparing to send its Dragonfly quadcopter to Titan, with a potential launch date of mid-2028 and a tentative arrival date at Titan in 2034. The purpose of Dragonfly will be to “hop” around Titan while exploring its surface for potential ingredients of life as we know it, or even as we don’t know it.
What new discoveries about Titan’s atmosphere will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: The Planetary Science Journal, ScienceDaily
Featured Image: Titan's atmosphere obtained by Cassini in 2004. (Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)