Call it the case of the missing moon.
Scientists using data obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft and computer simulations said on Thursday the destruction of a large moon that strayed too close to Saturn would account both for the birth of the gas giant planet's magnificent rings and its unusual orbital tilt of about 27 degrees.
"We assume it was mostly composed of water ice," said planetary scientist and study co-author Burkhard Militzer of the University of California, Berkeley. Cassini orbited Saturn 294 times from 2004 to 2017, obtaining vital data including gravity measurements that were key to the new study, before the robotic explorer made a death plunge into the planet.
The drama began when Titan's orbit around Saturn began to drift outward - a process still occurring - destabilizing the orbit of Chrysalis, they said. Titan's outward migration is considered relatively rapid, at about 4 inches per year - which does not sound like much but over time amounts to a lot, especially for such a big moon.
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