WASHINGTON: Just like Earth, Saturn’s moon TitanBSE -0.13 % has a polar wind that drives gas from its atmosphere into space, scientists have found.
The team analysed data gathered over seven years by the international Cassini probe, and found that the interactions between Titan’s atmosphere, and the solar magnetic field and radiation, create a wind of hydrocarbons and nitriles being blown away from its polar regions into space.
This is very similar to the wind observed coming from Earth’s polar regions.
Like Earth and Venus, Titan has a rocky surface and a thick atmosphere. It is the only object in the Solar System aside from Earth to have rivers, rainfall and seas.
Titan has been studied more than any moon other than Earth’s, including numerous fly-bys by the Cassini probe.
On board Cassini is an instrument partly designed at University College London, the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS), which was used in this study.
“Data from CAPS proved a few years ago that the top of Titan’s atmosphere is losing about seven tonnes of hydrocarbons and nitriles every day, but didn’t explain why this was happening. Our new study provides evidence for why this is happening,” said Andrew Coates from UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory, who led the study.
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