{"id":197286,"date":"2025-12-23T01:19:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T01:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/197286\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T01:19:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T01:19:12","slug":"the-solar-system-loses-an-ocean-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/197286\/","title":{"rendered":"The Solar System Loses an Ocean World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturn\u2019s largest moon, Titan, may not have a subsurface ocean after all.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to a re-examination of data captured by NASA\u2019s Cassini spacecraft, which flew by Titan dozens of times starting in 2004. By 2008, all the evidence suggested a subsurface ocean of liquid water lay waiting beneath Titan\u2019s geologically complex crust. But the latest analysis says the interior is more likely to be made of ice and slush, albeit with pockets of warm water that cycle from core to surface.<\/p>\n

This conclusion rewrites the geologic story of one of the Solar System\u2019s most intriguing worlds, and it was reached using only pre-existing data.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis research underscores the power of archival planetary science data. It is important to remember that the data these amazing spacecraft collect lives on so discoveries can be made years, or even decades, later as analysis techniques get more sophisticated,\u201d said Julie Castillo-Rogez of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a press release<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s the gift that keeps giving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in 2008, the evidence for a subsurface ocean came from measurements of tidal flexing. As Titan orbits Saturn, the gas giant tugs on it (the same way our Moon tugs on Earth), stretching and squeezing the planet, distorting its shape and therefore its gravitational field. Cassini was able to \u2018feel\u2019 these perturbations during flybys. The gravitational changes affected the spacecraft\u2019s speed, and scientists could quantify this by measuring the doppler shift of radio signals between Cassini and Earth.<\/p>\n

Back then, the consensus was that the tidal effects were so strong that the heat produced by it must maintain an interior liquid ocean \u2013 and that liquid ocean in turn enabled more flexing than a solid icy interior could.<\/p>\n

\"Mosaic<\/a> *Mosaic image of Titan’s polar methane lakes, from Cassini radar data. NASA \/ JPL-Caltech \/ Italian Space Agency*<\/p>\n

In the new analysis<\/a>, published December 17, 2025, an alternative explanation for Titan\u2019s flexibility comes in the form of a slushy mix of ice and water, rather than just water. In this scenario, researchers would expect to see greater energy dissipation in the moon\u2019s gravitational field, and that is exactly what was found when JPL researchers used a new technique to remove noise from Cassini\u2019s doppler data. The slush would still allow the moon to flex, but it would also remove some of the heat, thus avoiding melting into a fully liquid ocean.<\/p>\n

For scientists interested in finding signs of organic life on Titan, the new result isn\u2019t necessarily a disaster. In fact, it suggests a cycle in which pockets of warm water near the rocky core cycle to the surface, bringing with it vital minerals to the hydrocarbon rich crust. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Titan may not possess a global ocean, that doesn\u2019t preclude its potential for harboring basic life forms, assuming life could form on Titan. In fact, I think it makes Titan more interesting,\u201d said JPL postdoc Flavio Petricca. \u201cOur analysis shows there should be pockets of liquid water, possibly as warm as 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit), cycling nutrients from the moon\u2019s rocky core through slushy layers of high-pressure ice to a solid icy shell at the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n

Titan is likely to remain in the spotlight for the foreseeable future. Its thick atmosphere and vast surface lakes of liquid methane make it one of the most extraordinary bodies in our solar system. An upcoming NASA rotorcraft mission, Dragonfly, is expected to launch to Titan around 2028.<\/p>\n

Read the paper: Flavio Petricca et al. \u201cTitan\u2019s strong tidal dissipation precludes a subsurface ocean.\u201d Nature 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturn\u2019s largest moon, Titan, may not have a subsurface ocean after all. That\u2019s according to a re-examination of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-197286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}