Tag: solar system

The Formation of the Solar System and Our Planet
First, there was a whirling mass of gas and dust. And the Sun came into being first as a result of this, followed by the planets and their satellites. A new star was born in a vast cloud of gas and dust some 4.6 billion years ago. In little time at all, new planets began forming in its vicinity, ushering in the dawn of the solar system. Lucky for us, one of these newly forming planets had an orbit that placed it squarely inside the habitable zone, the same region in which our own Earth resides. But how did this happen, and how did our cosmic home transform into what it is now?
There is still a lot of mystery around the precise events that gave rise to our solar system and, by extension, our planet. Astronomers have to rely on their own understanding of physical principles and on hints gleaned from rock samples, the data collected by space missions, and the study of other solar systems. We can learn a lot from asteroids, too, as they are relics of the solar system’s infancy. All of these clues put us in a position where we can, at the very least, make some educated guesses about what happened, even if many questions still remain unanswered.
The formation of the Sun and its solar system
An early gas and dust cloud in Earth’s history. Hydrogen, helium, water vapor, carbon, and silicon compounds all made up a small fraction of the mass in this massive spinning disk. To some extent, the spinning of this so-called accretion disk resisted the effects of gravity and delayed or even prevented its collapse. However, the situation took a dramatic turn as a star in the vicinity exploded. Scientists calculate the timing of this supernova using measurements of oxygen isotopes in meteorites, which places it around 750,000 years before the birth of our solar system.
Trigger for nuclear fusion
The explosion caused shock waves that momentarily stopped the primordial cloud from rotating. The cloud eventually disintegrated because the centrifugal force was overwhelmed by the weight of the accumulating materials. The cloud’s core was where the majority of the gas and particles settled, becoming more concentrated there. The intense pressure caused the substance to become hotter. Extreme heat and pressure caused atomic nuclei to fuse together. A star, our young Sun, was formed when vast amounts of energy were released via nuclear fusion and radiated outward. Even now, its nuclear fusion continues to power the lights and heat of its environment. Inhibiting further collapse, the Sun’s rays maintain the cloud’s present state.
At 4.568 billion years ago, the still-revolving dust particles began to cluster together into bigger pieces, dubbed planetesimals. The gas cooled and condensed with time as well. As a result, silicon, iron, and nickel, among other volatile elements and compounds, accumulated in the inner area of the protoplanetary disk. The inner planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars progressively developed here by collisions with other pieces and accumulations of dust and smaller particles. But their surface was still hot and glowing, rather than solid. Ice, along with dust and gas, formed protoplanets in the outer region of the disk because heavier components are scarce in this region. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune all descended from these massive planets.
The odd discrepancies in isotope
Though elemental makeups vary from planet to planet, all planets, including the Sun, are thought to have formed from a single primordial cloud. Therefore, in theory, they should all have the same ratios of atomic species, the isotopes, common to the solar system. Nonetheless, two separate studies found that this is not the case.
To do this, they analyzed samples of solar wind that NASA’s Genesis spacecraft had gathered over the course of almost three years and returned to Earth in a capsule. Because the outer solar envelope is thought to have retained essentially the same composition since its origin in the primordial nebula, the material that makes up the solar wind is regarded as an important remnant from the past.
When compared to the nebula the solar system emerged from, the composition of all terrestrial planets, meteorites, and comets in the inner solar system is atypical. There is less of the oxygen isotope O-16 on Earth, the Moon, Martian meteorites, and other asteroid pieces than there is in the Sun. Nitrogen isotope N-14 also varies between the inner planets, the Sun, and Jupiter’s atmosphere.
The ratio of oxygen to nitrogen isotopes in the area of the later inner planets was apparently changed by activities in the primordial nebula in the early days of the solar system. This may imply that the Sun and Earth were not generated from the same primordial nebula material.
From the protoplanets to the fully formed planets
Protoplanets first expanded their orbits around the Sun. Their gravity drew dust and debris into and along their orbits like giant vacuum cleaners. The surrounding protoplanets were also somewhat impacted by gravity, leading each to snuggle into its own orbit. The biggest planet in the embryonic solar system, proto-Jupiter, had a special influence over the other planets.
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The distance between it and Protomars was likely too small for another protoplanet to emerge. Instead, the area today is still home to the asteroid belt, a collection of both tiny and huge rocks.
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A desolate, primordial cloud
The fact that Protojupiter follows an orbit around the Sun that gas giants like it typically avoid, is yet another way in which it deviates from the norm. Thus, today, the planetary clusters developed in specific regions while barren stretches of space appeared in others. Because according to a theory, the gas at a certain distance from a newborn star was evaporated by the Sun’s intense heat and light, leaving behind an empty space where no planets could form.
The Sun’s powerful gravitational attraction kept the closest stuff in place despite the high temperatures it generated. The hot gas dissipated into space farther away, where the force of gravity was lower. At that point, a gap opened up. However, at higher distances, not enough radiation arrived to damage the gas disk, so it again stayed unscathed.
Paradoxically, Jupiter’s orbit is in the exact spot in the solar system where the planetary gap is expected to exist. Exoplanet observations and simulations show that migrations like Jupiter’s are frequent in young planetary systems, thus, it’s plausible that the planet just migrated into its present orbit over time. In the future, astronomers hope to uncover answers to these and other puzzles regarding the early solar system via discoveries made in other solar systems.
Around a million years, after the planetary nebula cooled and planetary formation began, a powerful solar wind began to blow. The gas cloud’s remains were blown out of the system by the onslaught of radiation and charged particles. Inner, smaller protoplanets had insufficient gravity to keep their gas envelopes in place. At best, their initial atmospheres were quite thin, and they transformed into rocky planets similar to Earth. But the huge protoplanets toward the solar system’s periphery kept their gases for the most part.
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Today’s gas giant planets are the result of this event.
The beginnings of Earth
If we flashback 4.5 billion years, Earth was a seething mass of sticky lava, devoid of solid continents, seas, and a vital atmosphere—hardly an ideal place for life. In addition, it was still being attacked by both huge and tiny asteroids and planetoids from the space around it.
In the event of one of these impacts, an object about the size of Mars hit Earth, pulling off a huge piece of material, and this impact nearly destroyed the infant planet. However, Earth’s gravity kept the collision’s aftermath in orbit. The Earth’s Moon, a natural satellite, formed from them between a few hundred to a thousand years.
Perhaps another, smaller satellite also developed at this time, and fell to the Moon a million years later, causing the two to combine. Astronomers used computer simulation to verify this was theoretically conceivable. A possible explanation for the unusually thick crust on the lunar plateaus is that it is composed in part of the debris from a subsequent impact.
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After all this turmoil, the inner solar system’s planet-forming leftovers were still being bombarded. Over and over, the persistent impacts injected vast quantities of energy into the developing Earth. In the meantime, the Earth’s mass was expanding slowly due to the falling debris. The greater the pressure within, the denser the core grew; therefore, the bigger it became, the more pressure it could withstand. This gradually raised the Earth’s temperature until its core reached above 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit (2,000°C).
Compositional differentiation of the magma ball
There was still a fair amount of internal homogeneity before this heating, and the chemical constituents were quite equally dispersed. However, when temperatures increased, the iron and silicate components that made up the Earth’s core began to melt. Because various metals had varying densities, this triggered a process of differentiation in which the heavier iron and a few other metals, nickel in particular, steadily sank into the Earth’s core.
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As time went on, they solidified toward the center of the Earth. Meanwhile, the Earth’s mantle and crust were composed of cooled molten rock made of silicate compounds that were carried to the surface.
Neither the precise composition of Earth before its differentiation nor the mechanisms involved in its formation are fully understood at this time. The issue here is that it is quite challenging to rebuild precisely how it formed into its current condition since we do not know what the mineral composition looked like at the beginning of the whole history. Significant progress was achieved in this direction in 2009 by geoscientists at the University of California, who used a computer model to recreate the distribution of iron isotopes in the Earth’s core prior to the formation of the Earth’s layers.
They did this by simulating changes in the ratio of iron isotopes in two minerals when the parameters of pressure, temperature, and electronic spin were varied. Following a month of computation, the model confirmed that the heavy isotopes, prompted by the high pressure, congregated towards the base of the crystallizing mantle.
From suffocation chamber to incubator
The Earth cooled down a little about 4.2 billion years ago. As a result of the Earth spinning faster than it does now, the average day length was just five hours, making life on the young planet tough. Now that the ozone layer had been depleted, the Sun was shining brightly and continuously, showering the surface of the Earth with potentially lethal ultraviolet radiation. Also, the big bombing wasn’t done yet: Meteorites continued to rain down on Earth, carrying with them carbon compounds and hydrogen, until roughly 3.5 billion years ago.
The valuable metals in meteorites
Even though these impacts were unpleasant for the young, uninhabited Earth, they could be responsible for a significant portion of the planet’s mineral riches today, including gold, platinum, and other precious metals. About 4.5 billion years ago, these metals should have been absorbed by the Earth’s core. But according to the scientists, the valuable metals only made it to Earth after differentiation, the process through which the heavy metals sank into the Earth’s center. Different isotopic patterns have been found in rocks formed before and during the Late Heavy Bombardment, which occurred roughly 4 billion years ago.
The Earth was fortunate enough to receive the majority of the valuable metals humans used and other vital industrial processes when it was struck by approximately 20 trillion tons of asteroid material. The deposits we see now are the result of the metals combining with rocks in the Earth’s crust throughout time.
The formation of the first atmosphere
Huge changes were occurring deep under the Earth, and it was fermenting and boiling below the surface as well. The so-called “first atmosphere” was created when gases and water vapor were ejected from volcanoes. The most recent scientific research indicates that it was mostly made up of the gases that the fire mountains are still bringing to the surface from deep under the Earth: water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and carbon monoxide.
As time went on, water vapor in the air condensed, and rain started to fall on Earth. This rain will last for the next 40,000 years. This first “deluge” gradually covered all lowlands in water, creating the first oceans. Carbon dioxide from the gas envelope dissolved in the nascent seas, accumulating into massive carbonate deposits. At the same time, this triggered still another shift in the atmosphere, one in which nitrogen replaced carbon dioxide as the primary gas and the greenhouse effect was weakened, leading to further cooling of the still-pretty warm Earth.
About 3.4 billion years ago, everything had finally come together, paving the way for the next crucial stage: The beginning of life on Earth. A new layer of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and trace quantities of argon filled Earth’s atmosphere, joining the previously existing land and water. However, it offered little defense against the Sun’s harsh ultraviolet rays or the persistent meteorite strikes.
Despite Earth’s unfavorable conditions, the first signs of life were appearing on the planet. It’s still up for debate what precisely they looked like and where their components originated from—space or the ground.
November 25, 2022
End of the Sun and Its Inevitable Consequences
The Sun is functioning normally and serves as the reliable core of our solar system. But things won’t remain the same for long; a slow but steady shift in our central star has already started, and it is altering our universe in irreversible ways. But what does this portend for Earth, the Sun, and the rest of our solar system? Our Sun, like all stars, is through a life cycle that will profoundly alter both it and its surroundings.
The present yellow dwarf star will eventually become a red giant and then a white dwarf. Astronomers are now able to provide a fairly accurate prediction of when these phases will occur and the effects they will have on the Sun, the solar system, and Earth.
These possibilities, however, are not particularly encouraging for Earth. Because the Earth and its biosphere begin their decline and eventual demise aeons before our home star reaches its last stages.
A Star That’s 4.6 Billion Years Old
It has weathered the storms of its early days; its core is steadily producing energy via the fusion of hydrogen atoms; and the planets that make up its “court” are all cruising along in their orbits with relative calm. In its present state, the Sun is a typical, somewhat unremarkable main-sequence star.
The anatomy of Sun. (Credit: NASA)
But don’t let the calm, apparently constant look fool you. Time passes for our Sun, too, although extremely slowly in comparison to the speed at which we live. Similar to the life cycle of every star, it begins with slow transformations and then experiences dramatic acceleration later on. Some of them can be measured right now. For instance, astronomers have determined that the Sun is around 300 K hotter and 30 percent brighter currently than it was when it created some 4.6 billion years ago. Since then, its circumference has grown by around 6%.
And there’s been plenty of action inside our star as well: at the Sun’s core, where temperatures exceed 15 million degrees and pressures of over 3.80 trillion per square inch combine to fuse atomic nuclei. Hydrogen is used as a fuel in this nuclear fusion process. An estimated 564 million metric tons of hydrogen are converted into helium and energy every second, with most of this heat and radiation being lost to space.
For this reason, the Sun loses around 130 trillion tons of mass per year, or nearly four million tons of mass every second. However, this loss of mass is negligible when compared to its entire mass of 1980 quadrillion tons.
Increase in Nuclear Fusion Activity
Significantly more serious is the fact that the Sun has burned up around half of the hydrogen fuel stored in its core since the start of its nuclear fusion. However, the radiation pressure from the fusion process weakens as the hydrogen density in the core drops. This weakens the Sun’s ability to bear the pressure of the solar matter around it, leading to a slow, steady process of compression in the Sun’s core.
Because of a rise in pressure and temperature inside the Sun’s core as a result of this steady constriction, the rate at which hydrogen fusion occurs steadily increases, leading to a brighter and hotter Sun over time. As a result, the solar furnace becomes hotter and hotter over time. Because of this, our star’s brilliance rises linearly at a rate of around 1% every 110,000,000 years. Therefore, after nearly a billion years, the Sun will be generating 10 percent more radiation than it does now.
The Earth as a whole is affected by this…
Start of Earth’s Last Days
Our Sun is currently radiating several percent more forcefully than it does now, and the UV and heat radiation reaching the earth is accordingly severe; in only a few hundred million years, life on Earth will be uncomfortably hot and humid. It also alters the Earth’s atmosphere and material cycles, leading to a global warming that is significantly more severe than the current human climate change.
CO2 and the Weathering
It is well established that increases in both radiation and temperature have a significant impact on the chemical weathering of rocks, a process that has driven severe climatic shifts several times throughout Earth’s history. For instance, the Appalachians’ development about 450 million years ago may have triggered a glacial period. When silica-rich volcanic rock first rose from the ocean and made contact with air, chemical processes occurred that bonded vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This caused a worldwide decrease in this climate-warming gas, and thus, the planet cooled.
In a few hundred million years, a comparable event will take place, but without the cooling. According to Jack O’Malley-James of the University of St Andrews and coworkers, “rising temperatures promote silicate weathering, increase CO2 sequestration, and hence lower the CO2 concentration of the atmosphere.” Even if this has a negative impact on the greenhouse effect, rising solar radiation more than makes up for it. That’s why, despite declining CO2 levels, the planet is growing hotter and drier.
Reduced Vegetation
Plants are particularly vulnerable to this change: Their productivity is dwindling because they need a steady stream of carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, and this supply is dwindling. The first of them will reach its limit in around 500 million years. O’Malley-James says that in around 500 million years, the atmosphere will have 150 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide, which is too high for plants that employ the C3 metabolic pathway for carbon fixation.
However, this implies that many of the dominant green plants we see now would perish, including deciduous forests, herbaceous blooming plants, and the majority of the food crops we rely on. Coniferous forests and evergreens will also die out as a result of rising temperatures and falling CO2 levels.
About 600 million years from now, the once verdant tropics and temperate latitudes will be covered with arid steppes and deserts. Only drought-resistant plants with very efficient CO2 metabolic pathways survive in these conditions. In addition to the more well-known C4 plants like grasses and cereals, other examples would include CAM plants like bromeliads, cacti, and lilies. They may survive for tens of millions of years, much beyond the lifespan of trees and bushes.
The decline, however, is irreversible, as O’Malley-James reports: “Plant biodiversity is decreasing until only those that can best survive drought, nutrient deficiency, and heat survive.”
Like a Reverse Evolution
A deep-sea hydrothermal vent. (Credit: Oregon State University / CC BY-SA 2.0)
Assuming Earth survives another 600,000,000 years, it will no longer be a verdant world. Dry steppes and deserts will replace much of the land, and vegetation will be almost extinct. This will have an effect on our planet’s atmosphere, as British scientist Jack O’Malley-James puts it: “The disappearance of plants will cause oxygen and ozone in the atmosphere to sink further and further.”
It’ll Start With the Big Animals
The rest of life on Earth is likewise affected by this. The expert argues that as the plants at the base of these food chains vanish, so do the creatures that rely on them for survival. As a result, huge herbivorous animals are the first targets. For the next few million years, other prey species, including smaller mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and bigger fish, will gradually replace them.
According to O’Malley-James, “big to tiny, vertebrates to invertebrates,” extinctions occur in a certain order. In general, the most sophisticated and advanced forms of life are now the ones to go extinct, while the simplest and smallest ones tend to stick around for longer.
Infertility and abnormalities are two more problems plaguing the terrestrial biosphere alongside food scarcity and climate change. The depletion of oxygen means that the protective layer above Earth’s surface is deteriorating. And as the Sun becomes brighter, so does its ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Tumors and genetic harm are on the increase because of this.
Earth Is Teeming With Microscopic Organisms
Animals and plants that once flourished on Earth are now only found in a handful of safe havens. Polar regions increase the chances of survival for organisms that are active during the polar night and enter a dormant state during the polar summer. It’s possible that the subterranean environment extends the lives of some invertebrates. When oxygen levels in the oceans begin to drop, microalgae are the last organisms to photosynthesize and restore some of that oxygen.
However, this will not be sufficient, as the extinction of all intelligent life on Earth is possible within the next billion years. Earth’s biological systems have reverted to their primordial state. According to O’Malley-James and company, “life on Earth is becoming microbial again,” with productivity returning to levels seen before photosynthesis evolved. The last eukaryotic cells may perish in another 1.3 billion years, leaving only bacteria and archaea.
However, not even the most primitive of living forms can survive for very long. After 1.85 billion years, it’s possible that not even the last safe havens for microbes will be livable. The Earth is a lifeless rock today.
Earth Is a Desert Planet
Oceans evaporate as the Sun’s temperature rises. (Credit: Tim Bryan, Fine Art America)
After a billion years, the Sun will be ten percent larger and emit twenty times as much energy as it does now. Average global temperatures now hover around 47 degrees. This indicates that our world has entered a phase in which seas are rapidly depleting. Due to expansion, the habitable zone of the solar system is currently outside the orbit of Earth.
The oceans are evaporating
Since then, Earth’s climate has changed in ways that make liquid water unsustainable over the long run. Now that the atmosphere has thinned, water vapor is ascending fast from the seas and reaching high into the stratosphere. In such environment, the Sun’s UV rays decompose water molecules. The resultant hydrogen and oxygen molecules are swept into space by a solar wind that is becoming stronger by the second.
This leads to the slow but steady depletion of our planet’s water supply, as rivers dry up and seas evaporate. The planet’s surface is rapidly transitioning into a scorching desert. In their place are massive sand dunes and rocky wastelands covering the previous land regions. Large salt lakes take the place of the oceans, and the previous seas’ beautiful crystal crust, glittering in the harsh sunshine, becomes thicker and dryer with time.
Earth Is Turning Into Venus
A rapid greenhouse effect, like that seen on early Venus, might occur on Earth. (Credit: ESA/AOES)
While part of the water vapor is lost to space, the remainder contributes to a self-sustaining greenhouse effect by having a warming influence on the climate. Planet Earth will likely be around 150 degrees by the time it is 2.8 billion years old. All the liquid water has long since evaporated due to the high temperature.
What we see happening on Earth right now is similar to what happened on Venus, Earth’s inner sister planet. It had oceans and a pleasant environment for the first two or three billion years after it formed. But when the young Sun heated up, the environment changed in an unexpected direction. Over millions of years, the planet warmed to roughly 480 degrees and developed a thick, suffocating gas layer as a result of the greenhouse effect.
Sadly, the Earth will probably meet the same destiny. Our planet is receding from the solar system’s habitable zone as the Sun becomes stronger. Over the last three billion years, the Sun’s radiance has risen by approximately a third of what it is now. Because of this, and the greenhouse effect of Earth’s overly humid atmosphere, global temperatures continue to rise.
Our planet has evolved into a hostile, blazing-hot environment in just about 3.5 billion years. There is no longer any liquid water, and atmospheric water vapor is also steadily evaporating. Due to the extreme dehydration of the Earth’s crustal rock, plate tectonics may soon fail.
Monstrous Eater That Consumes Everything
The Sun will be around 1.5 times as huge and 80 percent brighter as it is now after five billion years have passed. The solar system’s habitable zone has expanded dramatically. Its current position is between 1.29 and 1.86 AU, which puts it about on par with Mars. The Mars could now experience a second spring now.
Changing the Fuel of the Core
It’s just temporary, however, since a major shift is on the horizon: Hydrogen is no longer present in the Sun’s core, which is now nearly completely composed of helium. Within this most central part of the star, nuclear fusion has ceased to occur. Since of this, the inside of the Sun is crushed even farther because there is no counterpressure to the inward gravitational attraction.
The next stage of nuclear fusion has begun, with pressures high enough to cause fusing of hydrogen in the shell that surrounds the core. The Sun’s brightness is doubled when its hydrogen shell burns, and its expanding outer layers are pushed farther outward by radiation pressure. Over time, our star has evolved into a yellow subgiant, but its expansion has not slowed.
The Sun Becomes a Red Giant
Various red giants. Credit: Chris Smith / NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
The Sun’s surface temperature has plummeted to about 3,000 degrees in little under seven billion years, while its age has increased to around 11.6 billion years. This causes it to seem red rather than yellow. Concurrently, its size and pace of expansion are both on the rise. We now see a crimson enormous Sun. Slow evolution for around 12 billion years is followed by rapid change along the red giant branch.
The Sun continues to expand, and as it does so, it generates a more powerful solar wind, via which it sheds even more of its outer layers. There is a 30% reduction in mass as a consequence. The Earth’s surface is now covered by a worldwide ocean of lava, and its atmosphere has been almost entirely blasted away by the powerful solar wind, bringing the temperature to nearly 2,000 degrees. Above the horizon, the Sun is a massive crimson orb that takes up about a third of the sky.
Are the Planets Going to Make It?
For the planets Mercury, Venus, and Earth, the struggle for survival has officially begun. With the Sun’s continued expansion, they are propelled outward by the powerful solar wind and the decreasing solar mass, and their orbits move further from the red giant. Their only hope of making it through the Sun’s red giant phase is if their orbital change happens quicker than the star’s continuous expansion.
Both Mercury and Venus, however, are destroyed when the Sun’s growth rate increases rapidly leading up to the red-giant phase’s apex. In under five million years, the solar radius will have traversed the inner solar system, Smith explains. The red giant will swallow Mercury and Venus in the process.
Isn’t Earth a concern, too?
Will Earth Be Able to Keep Going?
The Sun is around twelve billion years old, the age at which red giant stars typically reach their maximum size. To an observer on Earth, it now seems to take up more than half of the sky. More than 2,700 times brighter and almost 250 times bigger than before the change started. Now that we’ve moved beyond Pluto, the habitable zone of the solar system extends much further out into the galaxy. Both Mercury and Venus are completely submerged in the Sun at this point.
The Earth is up next, right? Our planet’s chances of outrunning the red giant were determined by Robert Smith of the University of Sussex and Klaus-Peter Schröder of the University of Guanajuato a number of years ago. Scientists discovered two things that work together to delay Earth’s “escape” from its current orbit.
To begin, there are gravitational interactions between the Sun and Earth that grow as the distance between them decreases, slowing down Earth’s velocity. Due to this, its orbit becomes more condensed and its velocity slows down. As solar outer shells approach Earth, a second braking force, friction, becomes increasingly significant.
Earth is presently passing through the initial gas spurs of the red giant rather than the vacuum of space. This not only slows it down, but also cancels out the orbital acceleration that was causing it to go further out into space.
As the Moon Cracks
The Moon is similarly losing speed and altitude, and coming closer and closer to Earth, as a result of the gravitational pull exerted by Earth and its satellite. When its distance from the Earth drops below a certain point, the so-called Roche limit of roughly 18,500 kilometers, it will be ripped apart by the Earth’s tidal forces. The Moon’s gravitational pull weakens to the point where tidal forces may pull it apart, as Iowa State University’s Lee Anne Willson explains. This is known as the Roche limit.
Because of this, Earth is currently considered a ring planet, with a thick ring system of lunar debris stretching about 37,000 kilometers from its equator. Not even this can continue forever.
Larger fragments initially, then smaller ones as well, fall to Earth’s blazing, lifeless surface due to the tidal forces and friction of an increasingly hotter and denser space environment.
Inconceivable Destruction
But even while all is taking place, the Sun is drawing ever closer. At 12.17 billion years when the Sun reaches the height of the red giant phase, the Earth’s orbit will have grown by no more than 1.5 astronomical units. That, however, is a ridiculously inadequate value to escape the Sun. Therefore, Earth cannot possibly catch up to the red giant.
In 7.59 billion years, the rocky mantle of Earth will be torn apart and burned up by the Sun’s intense heat and huge gravity, and then, a few hundred years later, the gigantic iron core will be destroyed as well. Before the Sun reaches the end of the red giant branch, the researchers predict that “the Earth will be consumed and annihilated.” It will continue to expand for another 0.25 astronomical units, or another 500,000 years from now.
That leaves Earth as the Sun’s most probable last planetary casualty.
Complete Destruction of the Solar System and the Sun
The inner planets are being obliterated by the expanding red giant. (Credit: ESO/ L. Calçada)
After the destruction of Earth, the Sun likewise enters a new phase, with an internal temperature of roughly 100 million degrees due to its advanced age of 12.33 billion years. The core’s temperature and pressure have increased to the point where helium atoms are beginning to fuse together. Carbon is created when helium is fused. Furthermore, our star is currently shedding even more of its outer shell and becoming much smaller and lighter once again.
However, the helium fire won’t keep going forever: After a little over a hundred million years, the helium inside the Sun has also run out. Since the Sun is now too small to perform carbon fusion, its final stages of death have begun. Its core is collapsing due to a decrease in nuclear fusion, and its only loosly bound gas shells are being blown away by an increasingly powerful stellar wind.
About half of our star’s mass has been gone, and it is currently pulsating and dying. Radiation bursts and the sudden ejection of ever-greater quantities of envelope material result from this “age tremor,” revealing the star’s bare core at its center. Extreme compression reduces its mass from 0.55 solar masses to the size of Earth.
Do White Dwarfs Have Planetary Nebulas?
The Sun so degenerated that it is now a white dwarf, the last stellar remnant. Even though nuclear fusion has stopped, this star remnant is 3,500 times brighter than the Sun is now. Now what? For a long time, it was unknown whether this solar white dwarf would form a planetary nebula or just radiate alone until it eventually died. Excited by the white dwarf’s high-energy radiation, the surrounding gases flash in a rainbow of colors.
It had been unclear to astronomers whether or not our Sun would provide such a colorful legacy. Models predicted that a star with a mass of less than twice that of the Sun would produce a planetary nebula that was too weak to be seen, as explained by Albert Zijlstra of the University of Manchester. But a few years ago, he and his colleagues discovered that, right before a white dwarf arises, the cores of stars heat up more than previously believed.
All That Is Left
The evolution of Sun. None of the Sun’s remains are likely to be as dazzling as other planetary nebulas. (Credit: Space.com)
In other words, “it will be just hot enough when it finishes to ionize its ejected material,” as the researchers put it about our Sun. The Sun has a low enough mass to yet create a planetary nebula. If it had even a little percentage less mass when it died, it would just fizzle away. Instead, our Sun will leave a planetary nebula, although a very dim one.
The fate of the outer planets when the Sun dies remains unknown. The red giant won’t be able to engulf them, but its gravitational turbulence and eruptions might be deadly. Numerous white dwarfs have been seen with a thick dust ring of planetary debris around them. Some of these material disks contain even bigger relics of once-stable planet cores. Whether Mars, Jupiter, and the others will experience the same thing is unknown.
In around eight billion years, a little white dwarf will be there, getting colder and darker, where the solar system with its eight planets and innumerable dwarf planets and asteroids previously rested. A colorful gas nebula shines softly around it, revealing the decaying remains of this once-prolific system.
References
Asplund, M.; Grevesse, N.; Sauval, A.J. (2006). “The new solar abundances – Part I: the observations”. doi:10.1553/cia147s76.
“Eclipse 99: Frequently Asked Questions”. NASA.
“First Ever STEREO Images of the Entire Sun”. NASA. 2011.
Hansen, C.J.; Kawaler, S.A.; Trimble, V. (2004). Stellar Interiors: Physical Principles, Structure, and Evolution. ISBN 978-0-387-20089-7.
“The End Of The Sun”. Northwestern.edu.
November 18, 2022
Planet X: Does Planet Nine Really Exist?
Picture this: On the solar system’s rim, a ninth planet is slowly but surely taking shape. This scenario being close to reality is the opinion of several researchers. A planet further distant from the Sun than Neptune, Planet X has the potential to be one of the century’s most significant astronomical discoveries. While its existence has yet to be verified, the ninth planet of the solar system has been a topic of conversation for decades. The concept of a possible ninth planet, variously known as “Planet 9,” “Planet X,” and “Nibiru,” dates back to the 19th century.
Do we actually live in a solar system with nine planets, or is Planet X just a myth? Astronomers have spent decades on the hunt for a hypothetical ninth planet. What do we know about this phantom planet that could evolve at the edge of the solar system?
Although some in the scientific community have voiced their doubts about this proposal, believing that the data used to support it may be explained in other ways, the prospect of discovering a ninth planet in our solar system has sparked enormous excitement among other academics. The search for Planet Nine is aided by the development of new technologies and the appearance of new observatories, both of which have the potential to either identify an unseen planet or note its absence and close this file for good.
Exactly What Is This Mysterious Planet X?
The main part of the Kuiper Belt begins at Neptune’s orbit. Credit: NASA.
Theoretical planets beyond Neptune’s orbit are collectively referred to as “Planet X” by astronomers. Planet X is the name astronomers have given to the planet we have yet to discover and, hence, have not given a name to. In mathematics, the letter “X” denotes the unknown. When its existence was first hypothesized via calculations, Pluto was given the designation “Planet X.”
Modern discussions about Planet X often center on a hypothetical planet 9 that forms near the solar system’s rim. It would be situated in the Kuiper Belt, which is the region of the solar system beyond the planet Neptune. If its existence is verified, it will likely be a gas giant planet like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, according to the most current speculations.
From Whence Did the Idea That There Could Be a Ninth Planet Emerge?
In the 19th century, in 1846, this idea emerged when scientists noticed quirks in Uranus’s orbit. Some scientists believe that the existence of a ninth planet, whose gravity would disrupt Uranus’s orbit, is the only possible explanation for these anomalies. Ultimately, it was Clyde Tombaugh’s 1930 discovery of Pluto that prompted the hunt for Planet X. However, Pluto’s mass is essentially inadequate to be responsible for the anomalies found in the velocity of Uranus. There are still many who believe the existence of a Planet 9 is an open mystery.
Is Nibiru Perhaps the Solar System’s Ninth Planet?
The idea that Nibiru is the name of a planet has no validity in science and is instead based on a mythological figure from Babylonian literature. The proponents of this idea argue that Nibiru is a star whose orbit is too eccentric for astronomers to have identified it yet and, hence, is a planet. Once every 3,600 years, this planet would get close enough to Earth to trigger natural calamities like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. According to this idea, species extinctions throughout Earth’s history could have been triggered by these major catastrophes.
It was predicted that the world would end in December 2012, when the planet Nibiru would cross Earth’s path and collide with it. In the most recent instance, a fresh collision was reported on September 23, 2017, showing how often this forecast gets revived. Since this ridiculous hypothesis has been spread so extensively, NASA has issued a denial to put a stop to it once and for all. So, if some scientists believe in the existence of Planet X (the ninth planet), then Nibiru is only a myth.
Planet 9, Planet X, the Planet Goes by So Many Names
Since the 19th century, several explanations for the existence of a ninth planet have been proposed. Clyde Tombaugh, an astronomer, went on the hunt for Planet X in 1930, but he found Pluto instead. Around 2003, the fictitious planet Nibiru was proposed as an explanation for the existence of a ninth planet in our solar system. Planets beyond Neptune’s orbit are collectively referred to as “Planet X.
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According to the hypothesis, the Sun would form a binary system with a hypothetical star named Nemesis. That is, they would share a single center of gravity with one another. The scientific community has generally disregarded this notion since they feel that if such a star existed, it would have been discovered by now.
Planet X: Myth or Reality?
The possibility that a ninth, undiscovered planet is developing near the solar system’s rim is a concept that continues to enchant many scientists today. The likes of Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin stand out among them. These two scientists, together with their colleagues, are diligently following the progress of this obscure star. In 2016, researchers concluded that an invisible planet nearly 10 times heavier than the Earth impacted the unusually elliptical orbits of 6 Kuiper Belt objects.
In 2022, a research added more supporting evidence to this notion, which was published in the scientific journal Nature. In addition to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, the authors postulate the existence of a fifth gaseous planet.
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According to others, a planetary system similar to our own can be achieved by adopting a model of solar system creation that includes five gas planets rather than four.
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Where exactly this planet is situated and whether or not it is still in existence are both open questions.
Even if all we have to go on for Planet X at this point are a few hints as to its existence, the discussion continues. While some researchers believe this to be nothing more than an urban legend and that no planet of this type could pass unnoticed, others believe it has some basis in truth and helps explain the present solar system structure.
November 10, 2022
Europa: Jupiter’s Icy Moon With Underwater Ocean
Because Europa, Jupiter’s moon, is thought to conceal an ocean of liquid water under its icy cover, it may be home to intelligent life from outside our solar system. Europa is perhaps more intriguing than any other moon in the galaxy. The frigid moon may be more habitable than previously believed. Europa, the ice moon, seems frigid and frightening at first view. However, it is misleading. Because there is a massive ocean of liquid water under its crust, providing possible conditions for life. Scientists have been slowly digging into the question of whether or not life exists on Europa in recent years. The outcome of which might be unexpected.
Ocean below Europa’s ice
This might be what it looks like when water vapor and water shoot out from the ice and form springs on Europa. (K. Retherford/SWRI/NASA/ESA)
Jovian satellite Europa is strangely beautiful, with a network of furrows that stretch for miles over its icy surface. These furrows resemble the cracks in a painting. However, this stunning scenery comes at a high cost, since no form of life could survive the -240°F (-150°C) temperatures, solid ice crust, and complete absence of air.
A secret habitat
According to the results, Europa likely has lakes underneath its frozen surface. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
However, at depths of 6 to 9 miles (10 to 15 km), a whole other universe opens up. Here lies a vast ocean of salt water that wraps around Europa and is likely to be at least 60 miles (100 km) deep. This ocean may hold twice as much water as all the seas on Earth combined.
Again, details about this watery supermassive planet were gleaned through Galileo probe magnetic field data. Because it also picked up telltale abnormalities in Jupiter’s magnetic field surrounding Europa, the kind of disturbances usually caused by motions of conductive fluid. A magma ocean is unlikely on Europa since the moon is entirely covered in ice and, unlike Io, has no solid crust to keep the heat in. A subglacial sea of liquid salt water, on the other hand, would be conductive but also allow ice crusts to exist.
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Overwhelming tidal forces by Jupiter
Since Europa is Jupiter’s second-most inner moon, powerful tidal forces are at play there. (NASA)
The key question, though, is: what exactly is it that keeps the water liquid under the ice in Europa? Tidal forces from Jupiter are a likely cause. Europa’s orbit is very elliptical and somewhat eccentric around its host planet. Because of this, the strength of Jupiter’s gravitational attraction varies throughout the orbit. Thus, the interior of Europa varies according to how squeezed it is by Jupiter at a given moment.
There is a little elliptical deformation of the whole moon when Jupiter is near enough to cause the ice, water, and rock on the side facing it to rise. However, when Europa migrates away from Jupiter, its form once again becomes roughly spherical. These continuous motions produce heat through subsurface friction, which may be sufficient to maintain a liquid water layer under the ice of Europa.
Europa’s cracks and their meaning
When did the cracks start taking on such a peculiar form?
This colorized Galileo satellite picture shows that the ice crust is fractured along many directions. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
Europa’s ice crust is so stiff that it cannot adapt to the movement and fissures caused by the subglacial ocean’s continual ups and downs. Images taken by the Galileo spacecraft reveal a fascinating pattern of elongated trenches and furrows formed by these fissures. Water from the ocean rises to the surface at these fissures regularly and solidifies, thus, causing the darker hue of the lines.
Mysterious directional shifts in the fractures
But there’s something off about these lines. It’s unclear why these fractures have changed direction over time. Since Jupiter’s moon rotates in a tidal lock with the planet, the tidal pressures are always exerted in the same direction. Then why are the cracks not constantly forming in the same direction?
There are theoretically three potential causes: To begin, Europa’s icy crust may revolve a little faster than the rest of the moon. As a result, Jupiter’s tidal forces would gradually shift the crust’s orientation relative to the planet over time. Another idea is that, like Earth’s axis of rotation, Europa’s is somewhat inclined relative to its orbital motion. As a result, Europa would wobble more over time, and its crustal areas would alternately begin to draw closer to Jupiter.
A third prospect is that the fractures are scattered at random and that their direction is not related to lunar activities but could be related to local weak points in the ice sheet.
Europa’s wobbling axis
But this crust hypothesis came up on the losing end, with the models based on this scenario consistently failing to reproduce Europa’s usual cracking pattern. However, if the simulations were modified in a way that Europa’s axis swung back and forth by around 1 degree over time, the results would get quite similar to the fracture pattern seen in the ice crust, suggesting that the wobbling axis is more likely the reason for the directional changes in Europa’s fractures and ridges. Even a little axial tilt (or obliquity) accounts for a lot of this current phenomenon on Europa.
Liquid water under Europa’s ice sheet
What maintains the ocean’s fluidity on Europa? Sloshing water, or even subsea volcanoes. It’s from NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The usual breaking pattern of the ice crust may have been caused by Europa’s mild tumbling, which may also have led to the creation of a subglacial ocean. That’s because the heating impact of tidal forces can be amplified even by tiny variations in Europa’s orientation with regard to Jupiter.
Some scientists think that the subglacial ocean in Europa is continually sloshing back and forth under the unyielding crust due to the ice moon’s wobbling. Instead of being relatively motionless, the water would be marked by powerful currents. Also, the energy released by the motion of the water might be enough to keep Europa’s ocean liquid. Thus, the liquid water on Europa could be heated by the ocean itself, not by the surface or the subsurface. But, this is still only a theory at this point.
The possibility of life on Europa
Organisms under the ice
If water exists as a liquid on Europa, then there might be life on this icy moon of Jupiter. But there is more to it when it comes to subglacial lakes or seas. For thriving and reproducing, most organisms need either light or air, or at least certain gases. That’s why, for a long time, it was believed that the subterranean lakes of Antarctica were fairly unfriendly to life. But that didn’t turn out to be true.
Proof of life on Lake Vostok
A perspective image of the ice surface of Lake Vostok. (Michael Studinger / Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory)
Lake Vostok, the biggest subglacial lake in the Antarctic on Earth has always been frozen solid. Having been covered by ice almost 2 miles (3 km) thick for the last 15 million years, its waters have been cut off from the surface. No light can make it through this ice sheet, the air pressure is very high, and food is probably in short supply. It’s undeniable that species on Earth that call Lake Vostok home must thrive under very harsh circumstances.
No samples of the lake’s liquid had been obtained due to concerns about contamination, so it was unclear whether or not there were organisms living in the waters of Vostok. However, in recent years, scientists have drilled just above the water level, collecting the first samples of frozen lake water from the boundary layer. This layer forms when the lake water freezes at the points of contact with the glacier ice and then collects on the underside of that glacier ice.
Incredible variety
The samples at depths of around 11,700 to 11,900 ft (3,550 to 3,600 m) came from the ice formed by the lake water and when the samples were studied, the scientists deciphered the DNA and RNA sequences frozen in the ice to discover the kind of species living in the Lake Vostok.
What they uncovered instead of an area devoid of diversity was the DNA of thousands of species living in impossible conditions. 94% of the species were bacteria, while the remaining 6% were either fungus or archaea, a unique class of single-celled creatures. This finding has forever changed our view of what is and isn’t deemed liveable.
Evidence of higher life
Future autonomous diving robots may help us learn more about the ecosystem of Lake Vostok, and potentially Europa as well. (NASA / JPL-Caltech)
What’s more, the investigations also uncovered the fact that many of the bacterial species detected in the ice are generally found in close connection with multicellular creatures. They are parasites and commensals that inhabit fish and other marine organisms such as crabs and worms. Some of the DNA samples could have even originated from these higher species.
This leads to the conclusion that there may be some complex organisms than single cells living in Lake Vostok which also suggests that life may exist on Europa’s cold surface if terrestrial creatures have colonized such purportedly hostile and severe habitats on Earth.
Europa’s ice crust is vital for possibility of life
Is it blocking life or safeguarding it?
Jupiter’s moon Europa has an ice cover that is 3,300 ft (1 km) thick, and it has a crucial role in the search for life on this icy moon. The ice cover serves as a blanket, protecting the subglacial ocean from the deadly cold of space and the lethal effects of radiation. As an added bonus, the ice crust, together with the rocky core, is likely the primary source of chemical building blocks for life. This is due to the coating of chemical compounds left on the surface of Europa’s ice sheet by meteorite strikes, radiation, and particles from Jupiter and the solar wind.
Does Europa have oxygen?
Those fissures in the ice are a hint that the crust of Europa regularly tears open and becomes permeable. (NASA/JPL)
When this radiation splits the water molecules in the ice, this in theory should release oxygen into Europa’s atmosphere. These gases and liquids can as well reach the ocean below if the ice sheet is thin enough to allow them to escape through its countless fractures. Yet, this thick ice crust can still be detrimental to life. And Europa’s ice crust is not precisely a thin sheet, being at least 6 miles (10 km) in thickness.
Recent models showed that enough oxygen could make its way down to the subglacial water from the glacier surface, and it is simply a matter of how long it would take. This is because tidal pressures on Europa could be causing the ice crust to shift and break apart on a regular basis, sending new, frozen ice to the top while pushing other sections of the surface layer deeper into the underwater ocean.
The upheaval in Europa
Numerous new bulges and seams can be seen all throughout Europa’s surface, proving that similar upheaval processes are still happening right now. In theory, oxygen was once restricted to the atmosphere’s outermost layers in Europa. But the simulations reveal that free oxygen might have been mixed in over the full thickness of the ice crust during the span of around 1 to 2 billion years of irradiation and upheaval.
Meanwhile, similar to the underside of ice floes in our terrestrial (surface) seas, a persistent, quicker interchange of thawing and freezing happens at the boundary layer between water and ice on Europa’s icy crust. In as short as half a million years enough oxygen might have been dissolved in Europa’s ocean water during this exchange at the ice-water interface to provide minimum oxygen saturation for life.
Getting ready for life
This amount of oxygen would support life on Earth for even the smallest crustaceans. In under 12 million years, oxygen levels in Europa’s atmosphere may have risen to match those of our seas, making breathing comfortable for even the biggest aerobic organisms. If Europa had started out without oxygen for 1 or 2 billion years, that may have been the perfect amount of time for life to evolve there since this is similar to the history of Earth.
The chemically hostile oxygen wasn’t there when the original building blocks of life developed on Earth. Circumstances altered and the increasing oxygen content of the atmosphere produced the conditions for the genesis of higher life forms only after the earliest single-celled creatures had existed. The water under Europa to possibly have enough oxygen to allow for the formation of even bigger life forms is, therefore, not inconceivable.
Lakes under Europa’s ice
Chaos Terrain for clues
To what extent the ice on Europa can be penetrated is a key aspect of the survival of any life on Jupiter’s moon. Europa’s icy shell may be more permeable than previously assumed. Images taken by the Galileo probe reveal strange landscapes on Europa such as uneven ridges, cracks, and plains that appear jumbled. This topography is called “Chaos Terrain.” The planets Mars and Mercury, as well as the dwarf planet Pluto, all have Chaos Terrains.
Scientists find the ice sheet mechanisms remarkably similar to those structures. This is because similar processes occur on glaciers and ice shelves that sit above subglacial volcanoes.
Caves under Europa’s ice
It is hypothesized that Europa may have subsurface lakes, like ice-filled caverns that sit about midway between the surface and the ocean. There are many cracks in the rough topography of the Chaos Terrain formations above the lakes, which might enable abundant oxygen and organic substances to infiltrate the waters in these shallow caves in the ice.
However, this may also mean that these subglacial lakes of Europa may support life. As time goes on, these tunnels might eventually burst apart due to massive fractures in the ice, allowing for a passageway to the ocean below. Even though Europa has a strong crust, scientists can now see that it may be home to enormous shallow lakes that facilitate “mixing.” This mechanism of mixing has the potential to improve the habitability of Europa’s ocean.
Connection to the ocean under the ice
Springs of water
Image data from the Hubble Space Telescope revealed that water vapor is coming from Europa’s south pole, sometimes in gigantic springs that reach heights of over 125 miles (200 km), providing more proof of a connection between Europa’s surface and its subglacial ocean.
A blue glow
The map above depicts the area where water vapor was found over the southernmost part of Europa. (Credits: NASA/ESA/L. Roth/SWRI/University of Cologne)
The spectrometer on the Hubble telescope picked up the faint light of excited oxygen and hydrogen atoms near the pole of Europa. In most cases, this is brought on by the disintegration of water molecules in response to a magnetic field. That implies that water vapor is present on Europa but at very low temperatures.
The moon Enceladus of Saturn is reported to experience a similar phenomenon. Geysers that are currently active here also send clouds of steam, ice, and dust hurtling into the void. However, only water vapor was found on Europa; whether the springs also include ice and dust particles is still unknown. Also, the origin of these springs remains unknown.
Connection to a hidden ocean
But do these openings reach the ocean under Europa’s ice crust? Or they might be created in the ice as a result of frictional stress close to the surface. In that case, there would be no need to delve into the subglacial ocean to learn more about its composition.
The water vapor auroras always appear when Jupiter’s moon is at the farthest point in its eccentric orbit. This phenomenon is likely caused by Jupiter’s tremendous gravitational pull and its tidal forces. Scientists believe that the large fractures and fissures on Europa’s ice are stretched farther away from the planet, allowing water vapor to escape. But as Europa returns to its orbit around Jupiter, the planet’s gravity squeezes the moon, causing the fractures to close.
Water vapor escaping near Europa’s south pole reinforces its status as a top contender for life in the Solar System.
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Europa’s subglacial ocean may provide favorable circumstances for the emergence of life, if it were connected to the surface.
Chemical reactions taking place in the ice of Europa
A dynamic surface
There are possibly more than simply an ocean and lakes full of liquid water under Europa’s ice crust: Deep under the ice, the chemical reactions could be occurring at a remarkable rate between the frozen objects. This is thought to be invaluable. For one thing, at -305°F to -225°F (-187°C to -143°C), chemical processes just cannot take place on their own and extra energy would be required for them to happen.
Jupiter as an energy supplier
The areas where chemical substances have altered the ice are highlighted in false color. Acids and salts are seen in red. (NASA/JPL)
In theory, Jupiter provides one such energy supply. There is a steady release of radiation and energetic particles into the atmosphere through its radiation belts. If they were to land on Europa, they would set off chemical reactions. Nonetheless, these particles often only go down a few millimeters into the ice. For this reason, it was widely believed that considerable chemical activity could not have persisted in the depths of Europa’s ice crust.
However, this extra energy is actually still achievable without radiation and particle flow from Jupiter. Scientists conducted experiments in a high-vacuum room cooled to 50 to 100 Kelvin (minus 223° to minus 173°C) by spraying water vapor and sulfur dioxide gas onto mirrors. Instantaneously, the vapors froze into solid ice. Previous satellite observations have confirmed the presence of sulfur in Europa’s ice, most likely from the ice volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io but also from Europa’s subglacial ocean. However, what happened to this sulfur thereafter was a mystery.
The -280°F reaction
Do chemical processes take place on Europe’s ice cap? (NASA/JPL)
The scientists then observed the changes in the reaction chamber using infrared spectroscopy. Despite the subzero temperatures, the sulfur dioxide nevertheless managed to react with the water molecules, resulting in the formation of positive and negative ions. This reaction occurred very instantly at a temperature of -225°F (-143°C). After around half a day to a day at -280°F (-173°C), the reaction reached saturation.
A day may not seem like a little amount of time, but now compare it to the age of Europa, 4.5 billion years. After all, the process in the laboratory surprisingly transformed around 30% of the sulfur dioxide. What’s more, the positive and negative ions formed in this reaction readily combined with other molecules, triggering even other reactions.
What if the crust were more dynamic than we realized?
After this, they added carbon dioxide to the mixture to see whether the process would still occur in carbon dioxide ice, simulating the circumstances on Europa. This also froze up instantly on the mirrors while not halting the continuing reaction. If the frozen carbon dioxide had prevented the reaction this whole theory would have failed.
This, however, implies that Europa’s ice, and maybe the ice of other frozen moons like Ganymede and Callisto, may be chemically active. This means the sulfur dioxide under the surface of Europa is possibly interacting and forming chemical compounds, paving the way for the possibility of life.
October 2, 2022
Jupiter Is Closer and Brighter Since 1963
September 26, 2022
An Explanation for Saturn’s Rings: A Lost Moon, Chrysalis
Saturn’s rings and current wobble in its rotating axis may have their origins in a “lost” moon. The research claims that Saturn’s hypothetical moon Chrysalis was broken apart by Saturn’s gravity when it went out of orbit around the planet 160 million years ago. This altered the planet’s axial tilt, which in turn disrupted Neptune’s resonance and produced sufficient debris to create the rings. It’s possible that this is also the reason Saturn’s rings are not that old.
No other planet in the solar system has such a large and intricate ring system as Saturn. Recent measurements imply that the thick bands of frozen pieces only formed around 100 million years ago, rather than simultaneously with Saturn.
Saturn’s rings are at a different location when it is in opposition to Earth because of the tilt and precession of Saturn’s axis (Credit: Mosesofmason/CC-by-sa 3.0).
It’s a puzzle why the axis is tilted
The rings and axis of rotation of Saturn are inclined 26.7 degrees with respect to the plane of its orbit around the Sun, giving it a somewhat powerful tilt. The known formation mechanisms in the protoplanetary disk or early collisions on the planet are insufficient to account for such a great inclination. Numerous hypotheses have been put forward, but none of them are very compelling.
There’s a suggestion that Saturn’s axial tilt is due to gravitational interactions with Neptune. As a result, Saturn’s axis wobbles nearly in time with Neptune’s orbital period, which may be indicative of a resonance effect.
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Scientists have assumed that Saturn’s rotational axis became as large as it is now due to a gravitational interaction between the planet and one of its moons.
To the limits of resonance
However, the angular momentum of Saturn is a vital quantity in determining whether or not the resonance theory is right. It affects how readily a planet may be knocked off of its orbit by natural or man-made disturbances.
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Neptune may be responsible for Saturn’s asymmetrical rotation if the angular momentum is too high. A decreased angular momentum, however, renders the whole situation implausible, necessitating the search for an alternative theory.
Jack Wisdom, Burkhard Militzer, and coworkers have recalculated Saturn’s angular momentum using a combination of observed data from NASA’s Cassini mission and theoretical considerations. Their finding was unexpected: the two planets do not resonate with one another. Regardless of the model assumptions or rotation period, the system is close to the resonance area but always outside of it. Their findings indicate a variation of about 1%.
Planetary scientists draw the conclusion from this that Saturn and Neptune were in resonance for an extended period of time. Nonetheless, this bond has obviously been compromised during the previous 200 million years.
Why is the moon Chrysalis missing?
But how exactly? The researchers used a model to replicate Saturn’s moon’s and its neighbors’ evolution to find out. Initially, they investigated whether the resonance break may have been caused by a shift in the orbits of Saturn’s moons. Although Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, has migrated further from the planet over time, this was not enough to disrupt the resonance between Saturn and Neptune.
If Saturn had a second moon in the past and subsequently lost it, the system could have been able to break free of resonance.
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It’s possible that this missing moon was swept away by a gravitational storm, or that it approached Saturn too closely and was shattered by the planet’s tidal forces. Each of these factors might disrupt the synchronization of Neptune’s orbit with Saturn’s axis.
Ejected from orbit
Based on their models, Wisdom’s team is able to piece together the following scenario: The new moon, Chrysalis, weighed nearly as much as Saturn’s third biggest moon, Iapetus. In theory, Chrysalis should be around 910 miles (1,470 kilometers) in circumference. Chrysalis’s orbit was predicted to lie between Titan and Iapetus, where it would have remained stable for a considerable amount of time. But then Titan started to move further and farther away from Earth.
The moon Chrysalis got into an unstable orbit due to this event sometime between 100 and 200 million years ago. In some simulation runs, this factor led to the moon being expelled from the system. The moon was ripped apart by Saturn’s tidal forces because it passed too near to the planet on previous orbits. Saturn would have lost resonance in either scenario.
Newly-formed ring explanation
Moreover, the rings were formed as fragments of the moon continued to circle Saturn. Their theory also explains the young age of Saturn’s rings, which has long been a mystery. Those icy rings might be what’s left behind from when Saturn had a huge ice moon. If the mythical moon Chrysalis existed and was eventually destroyed, it would account for a number of anomalies in Saturn’s system.
This explanatory mechanism for both Saturn’s proximity to a precessional resonance with Neptune and for its young rings seems quite plausible. Yet Wisdom and his colleagues acknowledge that further testing of the scenario is now necessary.
September 17, 2022