A new study has revealed the origins of Titan’s iconic “tiger-print” crack, which sprayed large amounts of mineral-rich water vapor into space. It is thought that the material produced from these cracks on the icy surface of satellites is derived from the subsurface oceans, which could become the host of extraterrestrial life.
Our solar system is home to a wide variety of fascinating satellites with many strange and often visually fascinating features. For example, there are bizarre spongy satellites, flying saucer-shaped satellites, hellish lava satellites, and even Death Star-like satellites.
However, few satellites have done extensive imaging of it, as has the Cassini probe, which has already closed its screen. Cassini reveals a desolate world with huge gaps in it. However, in contrast to its icy, barren appearance, Titan was found to be an active satellite. At least geologically speaking.
Huge geysers were seen gushing out of huge cracks that left the strange satellite’s Antarctic region looking “scarred.” Each of these cracks is named after the city in the famous Middle Eastern folk tale collection “One Thousand and One Nights”.
Scientists have concluded that the source of the “tiger-print” explosion is the vast underground ocean, which may even be suitable for the evolution of extraterrestrial life. There are still many questions about the nature of the “tiger print”. For example, why do these unique structures exist only in Titan’s South Pole? Why are they so evenly distributed, and why are they not simply closed or frozen?
A new study by a team of scientists working in the United States seeks answers to these questions by using computer models to simulate the complex physical processes that control Saturn’s moons.
“Because of these cracks, we are able to sample and study the subsurface oceans of Titan, which astrobiologists love, so we think it is important to understand the power of forming and sustaining them,” said the study’s lead author. Doug Hemingway of the Carnegie Institution for Science said. “Our modelling of the physical effects experienced by the satellite’s icy crust points to potentially unique sequences of events and processes that may allow for the existence of these unique streaks. “
According to the document, the existence of the “tiger pattern” is due to Titan’s eccentric orbit. When the moon periodically approaches and moves away from It, the powerful gravitational pull of the nearby gas giant sputages exert enormous pressure on it. When satellites are in orbit, the polar ice sheets are most exposed to stress. As a result, they are thinner than the ice sheets that cover the equator, and during cooling, some subsurface oceans below the poles begin to freeze and expand, exerting pressure on these relatively weak areas.
The first “tiger print” (now known to scientists as the “Baghdad” crack) is thought to have been created when pressure rises to the location of the broken seams of the Antarctic ice sheet. The material that erupted through the “Baghdad” cracks eased the pressure on the northern ice sheet. According to the authors of the paper, this is likely to happen the opposite, with streaks appearing in the Arctic. Once opened, Saturn’s gravitational influence prevents the crack from closing. But these models predict how they form once the pressure caused by stress bursts, and how do they form?
According to the researchers, a portion of the material ejected from the original crack settles at its edge. Excess weight can cause the ice sheet to deform. Eventually, the pressure caused parallel “tiger patterns” to form about 35 kilometers (21 miles) from the “Baghdad” fissure.
The paper has been published in the journal Nature Astronomy.