moons Archives - usatoday24

a clash of moons 100 million ago wants to solve it

March 9, 2026 by usatoday24

Few planets in the Solar system are as recognizable as Saturn and its characteristic rings. They may not be as visible to the naked eye, but around them there are also an impressive 274 moons. Well, according to a recent study from the SETI Instituterings and moons could be linked by the same event: a colossal collision 100 million years ago that left Saturn’s environment as we know it. Context. The first time we approached Saturn was in 1979 with NASA’s Pioneer 11. A few years later, Voyagers 1 and 2 flew over it. It was the probe cassini on a 13-year mission that shed some light on this planet, its rings and its moons. Cassini discovered three anomalies that did not fit the models proposed by astronomy: The rings are about 100 million years old, much younger than the billions they expected (friendly reminder: The solar system is 4.6 billion years old) Several moons had strange, asymmetrical and unbalanced orbits. Saturn’s internal mass is more concentrated in the center than predicted. The previous hypothesis. In 2022 a team of astronomy professionals established a hypothesis to explain these anomalies: the explanation could be that Saturn had lost a moon about 100 million years ago, precisely the date on which the youngest rings were formed. The discovery. Based on the previous hypothesis and after several simulations, they arrived at the explanation that where Titan orbits today there were two moons: a Proto-Titan and a smaller Proto-Hypérion. At some point they collided and the Proto-Titan absorbed the other. What was not integrated was regrouped forming the current deformed and asymmetrical Hipérion. This process explains why Titan does not have craters on its surface and its eccentric orbit, inherited from the perturbations prior to the impact. Because of this irregular orbit, Titan destabilizes Saturn’s inner moons, throwing them outward and thus causing cascading collisions between them. In short: Saturn’s rings would be the scar of this process, not the original characteristic of the planet, but the result of a chain reaction of destruction caused by the collision between two primitive moons. Diagram of Saturn’s rings from NASA Why it is important. Because Saturn’s rings are no longer seen as an aesthetic curiosity and become what they truly are: fossils of cosmic events. Furthermore, it requires reviewing the models proposed by the scientific community until now to expand knowledge about planetary formation in general. Without going any further, it provides more information about similar systems, such as that of the Earth and the Moon, whose origin is also attributed to a primordial collision. On the other hand, Titan has a strategic importance in humanity’s space plans: it is one of the most interesting candidates in the search for life thanks to characteristics such as its dense atmosphere or its methane oceans. Knowing its origin is not only a historical question: it is understanding what conditions made it possible and whether something similar could be repeated in other worlds. How they did it. Starting with the 2022 hypothesis, they applied computer simulations to check whether an additional moon could get close enough to Saturn to form rings. The goal was to recreate the solar system over thousands of iterations until the results matched the Saturn environment we know. The SETI Institute team, led by Matija Ćuk, got here after introducing an additional unstable moon that always ended the same way: with Hyperion disappearing again and again. It was the sign that a premise was incorrect, so they proposed something new: and what were there were two extra moons? Yes, but. Although this study offers a plausible explanation of the current Saturn environment, it is still based on simulations. There is no direct physical data from Titan. In fact, the team itself recognizes that they need more data. That’s where the mission comes in. NASA Dragonflywhich could provide more essential data to understand why the rings formed. This drone from the North American space agency will land on Titan in 2034 to analyze the chemical composition of its surface, which could reveal traces of the primordial impact and confirm (or not) that Titan is really the result of a merger. In Xataka | We have been deceived by the distances of the Solar System: the closest neighbor to Neptune is Mercury In Xataka | A new “solar system” has just been discovered. There’s just one problem: it shouldn’t exist. Cover | NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, M. Tiscareno (SETI Institute), M. Hedman (University of Idaho), M. El Moutamid (Cornell University), M. Showalter (SETI Institute), L. Fletcher (University of Leicester), H. Hammel (AURA); image processing by J. DePasquale

Galileo Galilei of the 21st century is an unknown man who has discovered more moons than no one is going to discover

July 29, 2025 by usatoday24

If they asked you about an astronomer, you would probably think of Copernicus or Galileo Galilei. Maybe Carl Sagan came to mind. If they add “to be alive,” you might answer Neil Degrasse Tyson or, in the event that you are a fan of Queen, Brian May. The name that would hardly come out in the conversation is Scott S. Sheppard, an astronomer as prolific as unknown. The number 1 in yours. Yeah Cristiano Ronaldo He is the greatest scorer in the history of professional football, Scott S. Sheppard is the CR7 to discover objects in our solar system. In total, he has put his name in more than 200 planetary moons: 78 of Jupiter, 119 of Saturn, three from Uranus and three of Neptune. Practically half of all known planetary moons. A record that, as points out Iflscienceprobably will never be overcome, and he has continued to swell it in recent months. The true king of Jupiter. In April, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) confirmed the discovery of two new moons in Jupiter, raising the official total giant to 97. Their provisional names are S/2017 J 11 and S/2017 J 10. Both are small moons and with retrograde orbits, that is, they revolve in the opposite direction to the rotation of the planet, something common in the outer and smaller satellites of Jupiter. And yes, he has discovered them Scott S. Sheppardthat with these two new findings, he adds almost 80 moons of Jupiter to his credit. To put it in perspective: Galileo discovered the first and largest moons of Jupiter in 1610. Since 2000, Sheppard has overwhelmingly dominated the search for Jovian satellites. What is resisting: Planet 9. He extensive curriculum Sheppard looks more like the index of an astronomical atlas than to the discoveries of a single person. In addition to natural satellites in Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptunethis astronomer of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC has also discovered 23 minor planets, six candidates for dwarf planets, three comets that bear their name (Sheppard – Trujillo, Sheppard – Tholen and Trujillo – Sheppard) and The most distant object ever observed In the Solar System: 2018 Ag37 “Farfarout”, about 130 times the distance between Earth and the Sun. This is where your work becomes even more fascinating. Many of his discoveries are transneptunian objects such as 541132 Leleākūhonua “The Goblin”. And it is no accident. Sheppard and his colleague Chadwick Trujillo found them while looking for something much bigger: The hypothetical planet nine. Themselves proposed in 2014 The existence of a superstraier -type distant planet to explain the strange orbits grouped from objects such as the Minor Sedna planet. Image | Carnegie Science In Xataka | What types of satellites exist: guide not to get lost in a gigantic network of which we are increasingly dependent

Reviewing data almost 30 years ago, scientists believe they have identified a new ocean in one of Jupiter’s moons

February 21, 2025 by usatoday24

On September 21, 2003 the Galileo probe He was immolated in Jupiter’s dense atmosphere, the planet he had been investigating for almost a decade. 30 years after the arrival of the probe to the Jovian orbit and more than 20 years after the end of its mission, the NASA probe continues to offer us new information thanks to the old data that it sent us in its day. A new oceanic world. The study in question has indicated that Calisto is “most likely” an ocean world, a rocky body covered by a layer of water at least in a liquid. The key to the new study has been in a more exhaustive use of the data provided by the Galileo mission, including all its magnetic measurements. Callisto Callisto It is the satellite farther from your planet of Among the so -called four Galilean moons of Jupiter. It is also the second largest moon of Jupiter, with a simular size to that of mercury but with a remarkably smaller mass. One of the most striking details is its surface full of craters which gives Callisto an appearance “similar to a golf ball” The suspicion that this satellite hid an ocean inside It is not newbut the intensity of his ionosphere had been a limit to our ability to study the interior of the Jovian moon from a distance. The reason is that researchers They believed That the satellite ionosphere, an electrically and located conductive region located in the highest layers of Calisto’s atmosphere, could be “imitating” the magnetic footprint that would emit a hypothetical salt and conductive water ocean. That is, astronomers could not know if the magnetism detected proceeded from outside or inside the moon. A new look. New data and analysis tools have allowed to solve this issue. The team responsible for the new study incorporated the set of measurements Magnetic available from the eight occasions in which the Galileo probe survived Callisto. Combining methods. The team combined the analysis of the data obtained by Galileo with a model that simulated Calisto’s ionosphere. They compared the results of the observations with what the suggested in the theoretical model. From the results obtained, the team responsible for the study concludes that the satellite ionosphere cannot by itself explain the magnetism detected, but that the existence of a salt water ocean under the surface of the moon could contribute to the observations. The results therefore suggest the existence of such an ocean. The details of the analysis and its results have been published In an article In the magazine AG ADVANCES. The oceanic worlds of our solar system. Calisto is just one more in The list of candidates To oceanic worlds in our solar system, a list that includes different bodies in which we believe, with greater or lesser degree of certainty, that there are oceans. This list includes other moons such as Europe, Ganymedes, Lord it, Triton, and also a dwarf planet: Pluto. These planets are of great interest to astrobiology since they are the main candidates to house life or the appropriate conditions for the emergence of this in our space neighborhood. That is why a whole new generation of probes is focused on The study of this type of environments. The list includes NASA’s Europe Clipper Mission, and Juice (JUPITER ICY MOONS EXPLORER) of the European Space Agency. The first will be focused on analyzing in depth the moon Europe while the European mission will travel to several of these frozen worlds to collect information about what their layers of ice hide. To these missions, China Tianwen-4 could be added, whose observations could also give us important data about Calisto and his hidden ocean. In Xataka | Juno has just given us an image we had never seen: lava rivers in a Jupiter satellite Image | NASA/JPL/DLR

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