Chrysalis (hypothetical moon)

In the astronomy of the Solar System, Chrysalis is a hypothetical moon of Saturn, named in 2022 by scientists of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology using data from the Cassini–Huygens mission.[1] The moon would have been torn apart by Saturn's tidal forces, somewhere between 200 and 100 million years ago. Up to 99% of the moon's mass would have been swallowed by Saturn, with the remaining 1% forming the rings of Saturn.[2] The origin of Saturn's rings from the destruction of a satellite has been previously proposed by other authors.[3]

Chrysalis was hypothesized to be similar in size and mass to Iapetus, with a similar water-ice composition, and to have orbited somewhere between Iapetus and Titan. Its orbit around Saturn may have been degraded as a result of Titan's orbit expanding due to interactions of the Saturn system with a resonance with Neptune, resulting in the increasing eccentricity of Chrysalis's orbit until being torn apart during a close encounter with Saturn by its parent planet's gravitational force.[4]

The hypothetical moon was named after the pupa stage of a butterfly, with the rings of Saturn representing its emergence from the chrysalis.[4]

See also

References
  1. "Saturn's rings could have come from a destroyed moon named Chrysalis". New Scientist. 15 September 2022.
  2. Wisdom, Jack; Dbouk, Rola; Militzer, Burkhard; Hubbard, William B.; Nimmo, Francis; Downey, Brynna G.; French, Richard G. (September 16, 2022). "Loss of a satellite could explain Saturn's obliquity and young rings". Science. 377 (6612): 1285–1289. Bibcode:2022Sci...377.1285W. doi:10.1126/science.abn1234. PMID 36107998. S2CID 252310492.
  3. Charnoz, Sébastien; Morbidelli, Alessandro; Dones, Luke; Salmon, Julien (February 2009). "Did Saturn's rings form during the Late Heavy Bombardment?". Icarus. 199 (2): 413–428. arXiv:0809.5073. Bibcode:2009Icar..199..413C. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2008.10.019. ISSN 0019-1035. S2CID 119229648.
  4. Dunham, Will (15 September 2022). "Violent death of moon Chrysalis may have spawned Saturn's rings". Reuters. Retrieved 17 September 2022.


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