Titan passes in front of Saturn
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
While people are practicing social distancing, it appears that Saturn’s moon Titan has gotten in on the act, moving farther from its parent planet. Though the increased distance is not dramatic, it’s occurring about 100 times faster than previously thought. It’s taken 4.5 billion years since its formation for Titan to move to its current location of 746,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) from Saturn, so the rate at which it is now moving was a surprise—over four inches (10.2 centimeters) per year, as opposed to the previously assumed rate of less than one-half inch (1.3 centimeters). This is occurring because moons exert gravitational affects on the planet they orbit, even one as massive as Saturn. This gravitational pull causes heat in the parent planet, and that heat alters the gravitational field of the planet in more profound ways than one might expect. The study looked at 10 years of data using two different techniques, and showed that the complex dance of attraction forces between Titan, Saturn, and the other 50-plus moons of the planet have caused this surprising result. So when people arrive at Titan in perhaps 20 years, we will have an extra seven feet (2.1 meters) to travel to get there. You’ve been warned.