For Titan, the surface “stone” analogue would be water ice. A large enough portion of the moon is thought to have its upper layers be comprised of water ice, enough that scientists believed that a high pressure, dark, and extreme exotic ocean exists hundreds of kilometers below the surface.
Solid bodies in the inner Solar System tend to be mostly rock and ones in the outer Solar System tend to made of a lot of water (as well as other volatiles). The reason is less cooking from the more distant Sun. That’s why the Earth’s moon and the asteroid belt are almost entirely rock, while Saturn’s rings and the Kuiper belt are full of ices.
Titan is about half water ice. It has a lot of methane in liquid form on its surface because it’s so cold, but those temperatures also mean its water is just a solid mineral. (From the Titan perspective, we’re basically lava monsters.)
The, long standing, idea is that the tidal forces in Titan cause enough internal heating to give it a slushy to liquid sub-surface. We know it’s possible, but Titan is also tidally locked. It may not get enough internal heating.
Keep it coming! I love ap’s glimpse into Saturns moons… there are 274?!
“Saturn leads the solar system’s moon inventory with 274. Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is just a little larger than Titan, with a possible underground ocean. Other suspected water worlds include Saturn’s Enceladus and Jupiter’s Europa, both of which are believed to have geysers of water erupting from their frozen crusts.”
I wasn't aware buried ocean was something associated with Titan - I thought that was Methane oceans?
For Titan, the surface “stone” analogue would be water ice. A large enough portion of the moon is thought to have its upper layers be comprised of water ice, enough that scientists believed that a high pressure, dark, and extreme exotic ocean exists hundreds of kilometers below the surface.
"For Titan, the surface “stone” analogue would be water ice. A large enough portion of the moon...."
Sorry, earth's moon or the moon Titan?
Oh sorry, I’m just talking about Titan.
Thanks for the clarification
Solid bodies in the inner Solar System tend to be mostly rock and ones in the outer Solar System tend to made of a lot of water (as well as other volatiles). The reason is less cooking from the more distant Sun. That’s why the Earth’s moon and the asteroid belt are almost entirely rock, while Saturn’s rings and the Kuiper belt are full of ices.
Titan is about half water ice. It has a lot of methane in liquid form on its surface because it’s so cold, but those temperatures also mean its water is just a solid mineral. (From the Titan perspective, we’re basically lava monsters.)
The, long standing, idea is that the tidal forces in Titan cause enough internal heating to give it a slushy to liquid sub-surface. We know it’s possible, but Titan is also tidally locked. It may not get enough internal heating.
Keep it coming! I love ap’s glimpse into Saturns moons… there are 274?!
“Saturn leads the solar system’s moon inventory with 274. Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is just a little larger than Titan, with a possible underground ocean. Other suspected water worlds include Saturn’s Enceladus and Jupiter’s Europa, both of which are believed to have geysers of water erupting from their frozen crusts.”
And the That’s way more than I last heard..
We really should develop different term for gravitationally catched small rocks orbiting gas giants. There may be thousands around them.
Yet, it's hard to find exact criteria for that.
"Dwarf Moons"
We're not too far from that.
Isn't the term moonlet for the dinky ones?
Yeah dude, you're probably the only person that has ever thought about that.
I wouldn't say "long suspected." More like "recently theorized."
Fascinating stuff. Just thinking about those 30ft bulges. It’s insane that kind of stuff is happening so close to us (relatively speaking).
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You should probably educate yourself on what is and isnt clickbait.
I always doubted that theory