Saturn’s moon: Saturn’s Moon Titan is drifting away from the planet faster than scientists believed! The moons of all planets are drifting away fr

Saturn’s Moon Titan drifting away 100 times faster than earlier believed! Check details - The Financial Express

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2020-06-09 18:29:19

Saturn’s moon: Saturn’s Moon Titan is drifting away from the planet faster than scientists believed! The moons of all planets are drifting away from their hosts, moving a little bit each year. However, according to a statement by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, scientists thought they knew the rate at which the Moon Titan was drifting away, but it is moving much faster.

While orbiting, the gravity of the moon pulls on the host planet, causing a temporary bulge to occur in the planet as it passes, the statement said. The energy created by this bulging and subsiding eventually transfers from the host planet to the moon, causing it to drift farther and farther away. Earth’s Moon drifts 3.8 centimeters or 1.5 inches away from the planet every year, the statement added.

Recent data received from the Cassini spacecraft of NASA revealed that the Moon Titan is drifting 100 times faster than what the scientists had originally thought, moving 4 inches or 11 centimeters every year. This discovery is significant. It is known that Saturn was formed during the early formation of the solar system nearly 4.6 billion years ago. However, there is uncertainty about when the system of the planet’s rings and over 80 moons started. At present, Moon Titan is 1.2 million kilometers away from Saturn. With the revised rate of the movement of Moon Titan, it seems that the moon started out closer to Saturn than earlier thought, meaning that the entire system of Saturn expanded much faster than believed.